Swedish Prostitution Model Moves to Illinois

Residents of the greater Chicago area are about to have more in common with Sweden than just a local Ikea and winters that can freeze important body parts off. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart (yes, the same guy who sued Craigslist for promoting the prostitution of minors) is revising his approach to prostitution, and implementing a state-wide version of "the Swedish model," as demand-focused criminalized prostitution policy has come to be called. Ambassador Lagon from Polaris Project has a great op-ed on this topic; he's optimistic, and I'm a little more cautiously anticipatory.

If you're not familiar with Swedish prostitution law, here's a quick summary. The change in policy Dart is bringing to Illinois is slightly different from what happened in Sweden in 1999, in that no legislation will actually be changed. Instead, police resources which have previously been directed towards arresting (and releasing and rearresting and re-releasing) women and girls for prostitution will now be directed at arresting the men who buy them. Women caught in the act of prostitution, which remains illegal, will instead be diverted to social services designed to give them a way out of prostitution and other viable economic options. No word on what will happen to women who refuse to participate in the social service programs, but I guess a revolving door of social services is at least an improvement over a revolving door of jail and a criminal record.

Lagon points out the success this model of law has seen in reducing prostitution in Sweden, as well as some of the criticisms its received, including blame for an increased rate of STDs in the shrinking pool of women in prostitution. And while I strongly support the idea of focusing law enforcement resources on the buyers of commercial sex instead of the sellers, I have some concerns about implementing "the Swedish model" in Illinois or anywhere else in the U.S. The U.S. isn't Sweden, and here's why:

1. Sweden has a broader and more inclusive social welfare system. One of the reasons Sweden has been successfully able to provide social services to women in prostitution is that they have social services to provide. They have a well-funded and advanced social welfare state which can support both the long-term and short-term needs of women coming out of prostitution. Illinois may be able provide immediate counseling and shelter, but what about job training? Higher education? Health care? Child care? Housing support? Addiction recovery? This model of addressing prostitution needs a strong welfare system supporting it. Does Cook County have the resources it needs?

2. Sweden is smaller and more centralized. Sweden has a significantly smaller and more culturally homogeneous population than the U.S. Their prostitution law is part of national legislation. In the U.S., prostitution is regulated by both states and municipalities, making uniform policy across all jurisdictions nearly impossible. The U.S., and even Chicago alone, has a great diversity of cultures, including large immigrant communities with their own views on gender, sexuality, and prostitution. The social zeitgeist around prostitution in the U.S. is far different than Sweden, and policy changes will be received differently by the public here.

3. The U.S. has a history of doing whatever the heck we want. Americans love to do whatever they want and really, really hate it when the government tells them they shouldn't do something. They tell us not to smoke and ban it in bars and restaurants, we light up outside. They tell us not to eat trans-fats, we keep Kentucky Fried Chicken in business. They tells us not to pay for sex and that prostitution is immoral, demeaning to women, and promotes human trafficking and other abuses, we tell them to go regulate themselves. American men are not going to want to hear that they can get arrested for buying sex now, when before, it was just the woman who got arrested.

These concerns shouldn't prevent Sheriff Dart or any other creative public servants from taking a hard look at their prostitution policies and reinventing them to better protect women and girls in prostitution. But they should be an reminder that the U.S. isn't Sweden, and thus we shouldn't implement the exact same policies nor expect the exact same results. But with a little massage on the Swedish model, the Chicago area could soon be cookin' in their fight against human trafficking.