Talking about carceral feminism: Swedish Ministers of Justice and Migration and Gender Equality want sex purchase to lead to imprisonment and increase resources for police in the name of protecting women #paoloroberto aftonbladet.se/a/0n1mw0 @aftonbladet
Some evidence-based information based on over 2 yrs of fieldwork and 210 interviews with sex workers, survivors and social workers in Sweden, Norway and Finland: 1. Sex Purchase Act has not been a success. It has lead to a very repressive environment to sws and survivors
2. Police efforts increase both interpersonal and state violence against sex workers
3. Police visits/client arrests lead to sex workers evicted from their apartments. They lose their homes and place where they can work.
4. Selling of sex is not decriminalized in Sweden. It is a ground for deportation. Police deport sex workers which is violence in itself. Majority 70-80% of sex workers in Sweden are migrants.
5. Sex Purchase Act increases stigma sex workers experience and weaker their safety measures = increases violence towards sex workers
6. Majority of sex workers are not trafficked or forced according to studies: For example, in research made in London, where researchers interviewed a hundred migrants who sell sex, only 6% experienced that they had been forced to sell sex (Mai 2009).
7. In survey of 126 sex workers in Austria and the Netherlands, 10% felt that they were forced to sell sex or otherwise working in unacceptable conditions (Wagenaar, Altink, and Amesberger 2013).
8. In India, a survey of 3000 sex workers found out that 16 % felt initially forced or cheated to sell sex (Sahni and Shankar 2013).
9. Stop victimizing women who migrate to provide a better life for themselves and often their families. It is patronizing to state that these people are "tricked" and don't know what is the best solution in their situation.
10. Victimizing trafficking discourse draws attention away from state violence (deportation, evictions, harassment) that the police do in the name of trafficking prevention. People need rights, not rescue!
11. It is also a very privileged view to think that police are there for protection. It might be for white citizens, but rarely for Nigerian, Romanian and Latin American migrant sex workers I met during my fieldwork.
12. Like one Nigerian sex worker told me "You only call the police if it is about life"
13. Sweden's support services are a disgrace: There is no low-threshold STI testing, healthcare and legal aid. Meaning migrants, majority of sex workers and survivors, have no access to these services.
14. If Sweden wants to combat violence against sex workers and survivors: Focus on non-judgemental harm-reduction services, decriminalize the sale of sex from migrants, decriminalize working together & regular landlords providing housing for sex workers
15. Hunting down "evil clients and traffickers" individualizes the problem of exploitation in sex work and deviates from the root causes such as lack of rights, protection, access to other forms of sufficient income and legal ways of migrating.
16. Police harassment, deportations and evictions under the smokescreen of sex buyer arrests IS violence against women.
17. I hope Swedish journalists @aftonbladet @Expressen @dagensnyheter @GoteborgsPosten @sydsvenskan take their role seriously and report evidence-based research and listen to a variety of sex workers and survivors instead of state "truths"
18. The "Swedish model" has become a Swedish export product that is part of the Swedish country brand, lot of money invested in it. This should ring some alert bells in journalists. Happy to talk more, share resources and my research findings! Good day y'all.
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