PARIS, December 9, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a move by President François Hollande’s government toward curbing prostitution, France’s National Assembly passed a bill December 4th that criminalizes the purchase of sexual services, along the lines of the Swedish law that has almost totally eliminated prostitution and sex-trade trafficking in the Scandinavian country.
In the National Assembly, 268 deputies voted for the bill, and 138 against it.
If the Senate approves the bill, those convicted of buying sex services will be subject to a fine ranging up to 1,500 euros (about $2000). Repeat offenders could face fines of up to 3,750 euros (about $5,000). Convicted “johns” would also be required to attend workshops on the harmful effects of prostitution on the women whose services they were trying to buy.
The bill also provides for social and professional support for those seeking to leave prostitution, including counseling and short-term residence permits for foreign prostitutes, and education programs to help former prostitutes obtain new jobs.
“It is excellent news. We are thrilled,” said Anne-Cécile Mailfert, a spokeswoman for Osez le Féminisme (Dare to Be Feminist), an organization that views prostitution as a form of violence against women, in an interview with the New York Times. “Not only does it protect prostitutes, but it shows how brave we are in the face of inequalities and sexual freedom.”
While many countries have attempted to regulate prostitution by legalizing it, a study by the Scottish government in 2003 on the consequences of prostitution policies in several countries found that those that had legalized and/or regulated prostitution had a dramatic increase in all facets of the sex industry, saw an increase in the involvement of organized crime in the sex industry, and revealed a dismaying increase in child prostitution, trafficking of women and girls, and violence against women.
In Sweden prostitution is regarded as an aspect of male violence against women and children.
“It is officially acknowledged as a form of exploitation of women and children and constitutes a significant social problem… gender equality will remain unattainable so long as men buy, sell and exploit women and children by prostituting them,” the Swedish government’s literature on their legislation states.
Jonas Trolle, an inspector with the Stockholm police unit assigned to combating prostitution, said in a report in Spiegel, “The goal is to criminalize the demand side of the equation, the johns, rather than putting emotionally and physically imperiled women behind bars.”
The Swedish law provides for up to six years in prison for pimps and up to 10 years for traffickers of prostitutes. The john could face up to six months in prison if caught in the act.
The results of this strategy are striking. “We have significantly less prostitution than our neighboring countries, even if we take into account the fact that some of it happens underground,” said Trolle. “We only have between 105 and 130 women – both on the Internet and on the street – active [in prostitution] in Stockholm today. In Oslo, it’s 5,000.”
A significant aspect of the Swedish law is the reduction of the number of foreign women now being trafficked into Sweden for sex.
The Swedish government estimates that in the last few years only 200 to 400 women and girls have been annually trafficked into Sweden for prostitution, while in neighboring Finland the number is 15,000 to 17,000.