Just a Bridge to What a Difference!
There’s the famous bridge between Denmark and Sweden called Øresund that brings people a completely different world from Denmark to Sweden in terms of sex-tourism, so it’s highly advisable for sex-clients to be aware of the differences between the two country’s laws and regulations on prostitution. It’s just a bridge that links the countries each other but the regulation on sex-business, how they regard prostitution, completely vary from one another.
The bridge itself is nearly 8 km long, the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe which makes it easy and fast to travel between the two countries. As they are signatories to the Schengen Agreement, there is no border check, so tourists can quickly go over the bridge to pay a visit, though the migrant crisis has brought back temporary and partial passport control. In any case, legal tourists still don’t have to worry about hopping over quickly to Denmark, especially if they want to avoid the harsh legal consequences of being interested in hookers in Sweden. This is the reason why I’m talking about the legal sanctions that threaten sex-tourists. The country may be close to each other, but they have starkly different views as well as laws on prostitution.
Denmark is called the brothel of Scandinavia, while in Sweden, it is difficult as well as risky to use sex-services since punters can find themselves in trouble very quickly and easily. First of all, let’s see why punters have to be very cautious in Sweden, if they have been got used too much to visiting prostitutes in Copenhagen. What sex-buyers have to know very well is that in Sweden it is sex-purchasing that is sanctioned by the law. The laws on prostitution in Sweden make it illegal to buy sex, but not to sell the use of one’s own body for such services. Procuring and operating a brothel remain illegal, which is why it’s rare to see prostitutes walking along streets. The criminalisation of the purchase of sex, but not the selling of one’s own body for sex, was unique when first enacted in Sweden in 1999. However, the law still allows sex-workers and escort prostitutes to carry out their business undisturbed. In other words, selling sęx is legal, however, paying a prostitute for it comes with heavy repercussions such as jail term or heavy fine.1
As a consequence, prostitution is Sweden has gone almost completely underground. Soliciting in streets has become impossible so sex-workers have to manage to receive their guests at their tenement to avoid the police. Yes, but it is also in the law regulating prostitution that landlords letting their houses, flats for sex-workers are criminally accountable if they receive money made by prostitution, and in this case, they are guilty of pimping. As a result, land lords usually make tenancy agreement in which the tenant agrees to get evicted if they sell sex in the tenement. Another disadvantage of a tenement running as a brothel, that is, when a house in a residential area is used for the adult industry, landlords can be easily victim to financial loss due to rental voids surrounding the reputation a house has established.2
In addition, although sex workers are not punished for selling sex, they are sometimes harassed by the police, which doesn’t make any good to sex-business and sex-buyers’ comfort. Prostitutes or escorts in Sweden are still subject of surveillance and police interest, that is, officially sex-workers are not considered criminals, but in practice they are often regarded so by the authorities.3 So an under-informed sex-buyer from Denmark can quickly get into trouble when he feels he’s safe in the escort’s house, believing no one can see them or hear them at all, as a police raid can take place any time if the prostitute has been observed by the police. Well, it doesn’t matter that the sex-worker’s house is situated in a quiet suburban place where sex-clients can discreetly approach the venue since they can never know when they are being observed and followed by police agent.
While in Denmark punters are in heaven where prostitution among adults has not been criminalized neither as buyer nor seller of sex. It is, however, illegal to act as a pimp, making a profit of selling sex. There have been many debates of the possibility of making prostitution illegal, but according to researches, it would not improve conditions for prostitutes, and would even risk a deterioration of the conditions the prostitutes are working and living under. Instead, the current government views prostitution as a social problem and therefore one to be tackled with social measures, and furthermore intend to intensify the efforts to find and punish those making a profit of procuring prostitutes.4
What is important to know about sex-work in Denmark is that prostitution has been legal in Denmark since 1999. However, it still remains a criminal offence to purchase sex from a minor under the age of 18, to own a brothel or to procure sex (pimping). So don’t try to find a brothel in Copenhagen or listen to pimps even if you happen to see them. Besides, the rules in Denmark are much more relaxed than in the other Nordic countries, which like Sweden have made the decision to criminalise all aspects involved in buying sex and to categorise prostitution as violence against women. Over-18s have since 1999 been legally allowed to buy and sell sex in Denmark, although the actual industry of prostitution is considered illegal.
Prostitutes in Denmark work in a legal grey area: they have to pay taxes but are not covered by Danish labour laws, including provisions on retirement, working conditions and unemployment. The law of 1999 allows individuals to legally work as prostitutes, but pimping and brothels are illegal. The law aims to prevent the exploitation of women who are forced into the business. It is also illegal to create or promote contact between a prostitute and a customer and to rent out a hotel room if you know that it is meant for prostitution.5
Since Norway passed a law prohibiting the purchase of sex in 2008, Denmark has become known as ‘the Nordic Brothel’, so Sweden is lucky to have a bridge to the brothel of Scandinavia, which is really popular among sex-buyers.
However, sex-buyers do not necessarily have to fall into despair about the risky sex-market in Sweden as adult-entertainers have found the way how to satisfy sex-customers’ demand by going underground, which makes it difficult to really see how many are employed in prostitution. Also, as prostitution is stigmatized, it makes it impossible to put accurate figures on the number of people in the sex trade. Of course, it is obvious by walking on the streets not seeing hookers in major cities as sex-sellers try to avoid discovery since they are oppressed in Sweden. And since it’s very easy to have steady clients, some popular prostitutes may have no real need to advertise their services at all. These sex-workers are usually local escort prostitutes that have built a good professional reputation for a longer period of time. Sex-clients normally pass information to each other so local escorts can be found quickly without looking for advertisement. As advertising sexual services is risky, local escort do not take it, as it is not necessary for them. However, touring escorts in Sweden are not in the same comfortable situation as their local sex-working colleagues. Being not residents, they are not known in the given area so they are obliged to advertise their sexual services very carefully on some escort site since open sexual advertisement is illegal. They take the risk of getting watched and raided by the police, evicted by landlords. They are usually not that secretive than their local sex work mates, which is understandable as they come to Sweden to make money within a short period of time, so they just can’t afford to wait until a careful clientele develops.
In Swedish law, sex work is seen as a form of violence against women in and of itself. Sex workers’ clients are seen to be exclusively men and sex workers exclusively victimised women.6 From this official point of view, it is not difficult to see why people tend to stigmatize prostitution in Sweden and contributes to thinking that sex-workers live an unhappy life – which is just a myth and create prejudice, as most unhappiness is caused by stigma, prejudice, lacking rights, isolation and poor working conditions, not by the job itself. Especially isolation and poor working conditions in Sweden are the most conspicuous. While in Denmark prostitutes and escorts can work undisturbed, sometimes even in brothels. In Denmark sex work is a much more normalised industry where sex-workers or escorts pay taxes and contribute to the national economy, and advertise in the newspapers in the space that lonely hearts ads occupy elsewhere.7 They are not forced to use tricks to attract prospective sex-buyers like their colleagues have to do in Sweden where advertisement selling sex is prohibited, so they usually advertise their services as recreational activities such as massage experience or leisure time partnership.
As I have mentioned, sex-buyers in Sweden are obliged to think thank to the state indoctrination that they are violators, which puts on more stress on them when looking for sex-services. As a highly liberal state, they should know that sex does not necessarily work perfectly between couples so it is natural that partners sometimes try to satisfy their sexual need by receiving help from professional sex-workers. As the Swedish law see prostitution as violence against women, they cannot be aware of the fact that there are so many female and other gendered sex-buyers as well, not talking about sex-workers who are not necessarily just females. This is why, for instance, the number of transgender sex-sellers has significantly increased lately as well as their turnover. Lots of Scandinavian men seem to be beginning to prefer transgender sex-suppliers, so does the law intend to protect only females from sexual exploitation, discriminating transgender sex-sellers? Moreover, what about male prostitutes exploited by women or gay prostitutes abused? What law will protect them from prostitution?
Anyway, the Swedish abolitionist law has no chance to reach underground sex-workers in Sweden where it runs so successfully that, unfortunately, it appears that even minors in growing number get involved in illegal sexual activity.8 Over a third of children in Sweden have been sexually approached over the internet by someone they suspect to be an adult, a new study has suggested.9 However, sticking to online prostitution in Sweden, is has to be said that due to the strict laws, almost the entire sex-market has moved in the world of the Internet. Another reason why internet prostitution is flourishing in Sweden is that sex-workers can make a good profit in this wealthy country, where salaries and prices are equally high. Therefore, there are lots of sex-entrepreneurs who come to Sweden just to do sex-work. Besides, Sweden is a very open country, allowing scores of immigrants to influx the country, many of them trying to do the easiest job. Even Swedish women themselves prefer online sex 10 ( the survey also found that 29 percent of young women have used the internet to establish romantic or sexual relationships, with a further 13 percent willing to give it a try) so it’s not surprising why there are so many dating and escort sites for hookers in Sweden. This may be a better idea to get some sex than looking for sex-workers on the street. Even the government has been promoting nowadays online sex. People have been encouraged to practice safe sex, including telephone sex and masturbation, during the coronavirus pandemic in the new campaign.11
At this point it has to be mentioned that there is difference between online sex and websites selling sexual services. The latter one is, of course, is banned in Sweden, but sexual services therefore are offered covert sexual experiences for sex-buyers. All what prostitutes and escort have to be cautious and pay attention to is that no explicit words are allowed to refer to sexual services in their advertisement. Online sex is a different thing, which is growing quite popular with newer and newer websites selling online sex-workers’ live sexual content to sex-buyers all over the world. This is the safest way of getting sexual experience but of course, it cannot be compared to real life experience.
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