Sex buying occurs because there is a demand for it.
The demand is a male problem. In Sweden, 99.9% of all sex buying involves a man who pays to exploit a woman’s body. Why men want to buy sex is a topic of debate, and many try to find the answer in various explanatory models. The influence of culture and skewed masculinity norms are the explanation according to some, while others point to a need for power and objectification—or even disgust toward women. What we at Talita see is the influence of pornography on men. It causes some men to demand sex purchases.

Many women in prostitution have told us that pornography consumption is a major problem. It not only creates a high demand for paid sex but also leads men to demand things from women that no one really wants to agree to. Porn today is extreme and often violent, which is why few partners are willing to engage in the kind of sexual acts (abuse) that pornography depicts. The man then seeks out a woman in prostitution whom he can persuade by offering her money to go along with what he wants to do. In this way, he gets his way, either by bribing her or because she is controlled and cannot influence what happens to her body.

From the woman’s perspective, it is mostly about money. It is a transactional act where consent is bought. It is therefore not an act that takes place on equal terms, where both parties want to have sex with each other. One person does not really want to have sex, while the other does. To get the person who does not want to have sex to agree, money is offered as compensation. If the woman is in financial distress, there is a greater risk that she will agree to worse things and take on more sex buyers than she can actually handle. Often, however, pimps take the lion’s share of the earnings, and the woman is only allowed to keep a smaller portion.

Below is a quote from Kajsa Ekis Ekman:

“And here we reach the core of prostitution: the buyer’s paradox. He wants prostitution to be work and yet not to be work. He wants to be able to buy sex, but he doesn’t want the woman to act as if she’s being paid to perform the act. The buyer wants prostitution to exist, but he doesn’t want it to resemble prostitution. The more it resembles a routine task—the more the woman behaves like a cashier in a grocery store—the more dissatisfied he becomes. No matter how much he desires her, he knows she is doing it for the money. That is why he constantly demands something more, something genuine, something real. He wants to possess her entire body, her entire person, her entire ‘self.’ The buyer finds himself in a constant state of self-deception, which ceaselessly leads him to long for ownership of that which cannot be bought.”
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— Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Being and the Commodity: Prostitution, Surrogacy, and the Divided Human

Between 1859 and 1918, prostitution was legal, but the police registered and monitored women who charged for sexual services. It was not until the mid-19th century that the term "prostitute" began to be used by authorities and the medical profession to refer to women who sold sex. Before that, terms like "immoral" or "lewd women" were used. The general view during the 19th century was that women in prostitution were considered "bad," "morally corrupt," "shameful," and were the ones to blame for luring respectable men into buying sex.
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From 1970 onward, various types of studies were conducted aimed at understanding and mapping the prevalence of prostitution in Sweden. One important such study was the Prostitution Inquiry of 1977–1980, featuring research by Stig Larsson and Sven-Axel Månsson. That study helped redefine prostitution, shifting the focus from “prostituted women” to “transactions between two parties,” and in-depth interviews allowed sex workers themselves to describe their experiences with prostitution and its psychological impact.
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On January 1, 1999, the Sex Purchase Act made it illegal to purchase sexual services in Sweden. However, it is not illegal to sell sex. As a country, we have thus chosen to place the burden of guilt where it belongs—namely, on the sex buyer. Those who sell sex are therefore considered victims of crime who deserve protection and assistance in leaving prostitution.

It is extremely difficult to obtain exact figures; the number of unreported cases is high because the activity takes place behind closed doors. Neither sex buyers nor those who organize the sex trade want to be seen. According to the Swedish Police Authority’s 2019 status report, the sale of sexual services occurs primarily online; the phenomenon of sugar dating is on the rise, while street prostitution continues to decline. No more recent survey is currently available. Talita has conducted outreach work in street prostitution through 2025 and has observed there as well that street prostitution remained constant through 2024 before declining again. The vast majority of the women and transgender people we have met in outreach work in street prostitution are from countries other than Sweden.
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In the Public Health Agency of Sweden’s 2017 population study, 1.5 percent of women and 1 percent of men, aged 16–84, reported that they had at some point received payment for sex. It was also significantly more common for gay, bisexual, and queer individuals to have received payment (7 percent) compared to heterosexuals (Public Health Agency of Sweden, 2017). In the recurring study “Young People, Sex, and the Internet,” similar questions are posed to students in their third year of high school. In the latest study from 2021, 1.4 percent of girls and 0.8 percent of boys reported that they had sold sexual services at some point (Svedin et al. 2021). In particularly vulnerable groups, the proportion is significantly higher than in the general population. Previous screening attempts have shown that 24 percent of female inmates in the Swedish Prison and Probation Service had received payment for sex. 11 percent also reported that they had been subjected to human trafficking. Among adult LVM clients (the Act on Care for Substance Abusers) who were treated by the National Board of Institutional Care in 2018, one in three women and 7 percent of men reported that they had at some point performed a sexual act for compensation. In youth services (LVU clients), 13 percent of girls and 5 percent of boys reported having had sex in exchange for payment. Of these children and young people, 70 percent reported that it had happened more than once (da Cabo, A. & Hall, A. 2021). Another large proportion of those involved in prostitution in Sweden consists of migrants. These are groups not reached by population studies.
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However, both population studies and interviews with authorities and organizations working with the target group indicate that the number of people selling sex has remained relatively constant over time. There also appears to have been a relatively small increase in the number of ads and profiles on websites explicitly offering sexual services in 2020 compared to 2014. The survey identified 12,474 unique ads and profiles on 32 different websites. However, this does not indicate the number of individuals, as the same person may be behind multiple profiles or ads. The number of websites, on the other hand, has increased significantly since the 2014 survey, when only ten websites were identified. Sexual services are offered throughout Sweden. In total, ads are found from nearly 200 locations across the country, with a concentration in metropolitan areas. An increase in the number of people selling sex is reported to have occurred in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. There are also indications that an increasing number of young people are coming into contact with, or being contacted by, adults for sexual purposes on the internet.

Human trafficking for sexual exploitation is a highly lucrative market where the risk of severe punishment is low, while there is an enormous amount of money to be made. What drives this market is the very essence of capitalism—supply and demand. As long as there is a demand for sexual services, there is big money to be made. Cynical (and often seriously criminal) people ensure that there are enough women available to satisfy the needs of sex buyers.
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What the men who buy sex are looking for are primarily young women, most between the ages of 18 and 25, but Talita has also met girls who were trafficked to Sweden when they were only 14 years old.
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So where do human traffickers find these women whom they can turn into commodities? Most often, this happens in impoverished parts of the world where women and girls face a high risk of ending up in vulnerable situations. Many of the women we have met speak of the absence of fathers and how this has removed the natural safety net that would otherwise have been there.
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In countries that lack the rule of law—where all residents are not granted equal protection regardless of background, where police and authorities can be bribed, and corruption is widespread—and where the desperation for money and the means to support oneself and one’s family is intense—there exists a perfect breeding ground for luring or pushing young women into the sex industry.
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When women are lured into human trafficking, it often happens because they are promised work in, for example, Europe, or they are coerced through various threats against themselves or someone they love. In some cases, the woman is aware that what awaits her is sexual exploitation, but she sees no other way out. Often, the woman who ends up in the sex industry feels a great responsibility to provide for someone other than herself. She consciously sacrifices her own life to help those she loves.

In recent years, the women Talita has helped escape human trafficking and prostitution have mainly been from Colombia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Ukraine, Romania, Uganda, and Kenya.

Work to instill healthy values in young boys and men, so they don’t grow up with a distorted view of women.
Examine the issues surrounding pornography and understand its harmful effects. The same women who are involved in prostitution are often the ones who are also exploited in pornography production, even though they suffer from much more severe PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) as a result of pornography.

Overall, we are very positive about our law against the purchase of sexual services—which we were the first in the world to adopt. However, it needs to be constantly updated and reviewed in order to keep pace with societal trends and changing patterns surrounding the purchase of sexual services. For example, more and more sex purchases are taking place digitally via webcam and on platforms such as OnlyFans, where our Swedish law against the purchase of sexual services lacks comprehensive tools to protect women from sexual abuse and exploitation. We believe that our Swedish law against the purchase of sexual services also needs to include pornography production and establish an even stronger law capable of combating the highly lucrative industry that has emerged within the pornography sector.
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Prostitution is regulated in Sweden in a way that is quite unique. Under our laws, it is the person who pays to exploit a woman’s body who commits a crime, while the woman being exploited is not doing anything illegal. Sweden adopted this legislation after 30 years of research, which concluded that the purchase of sex is a form of men’s violence against women, where the only reasonable course of action is for the perpetrator to be punished and the victim to go free. Today, the penalty for purchasing sexual services is imprisonment for up to one year.

On July 1, 2025, Sweden’s law against the purchase of sexual services was expanded to include the purchase of sexual acts and pimping that take place remotely. It could be said that Sweden is thereby criminalizing a certain type of pornography production, but for a person who pays for pornographic images and films to be convicted of a crime, there must be a causal link.

The perpetrator must have induced the other person to—in exchange for payment—perform or tolerate a sexual act. Unfortunately, this expanded legislation does not apply to “ordinary” pornography, since the purpose of such production is not to be shown only to the person paying, but rather to disseminate it to as many people as possible, including those who did not dictate the content.  

Police practices vary depending on where you are in Sweden. In Stockholm, some police officers conduct outreach work in collaboration with social workers. This work targets women who appear in online prostitution ads. As part of this outreach work, the women are offered help while many sex buyers are arrested. Unfortunately, this highly successful approach has not spread to the rest of the country.
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Every year, the police receive directives based on how the government chooses to prioritize resources—and this naturally affects how they handle these issues. A few years ago, there were specialized units working to combat prostitution and the purchase of sex in many parts of the country, but those units have had to shift their focus to prioritize issues considered more urgent, such as gang shootings.
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Currently, we can see that the government’s stricter immigration policies are also affecting police work. It is no longer a given that all police officers view women exploited in prostitution as victims of crime and thus provide them with protection. Some instead view them as a migration problem and choose to place them in detention to ensure they are deported. Talita’s view is that the police should act in accordance with current legislation (the Sex Purchase Act), which clearly states that women in prostitution should be regarded as victims of crime, and not as potential accomplices to serious criminals, thereby forcing them to leave the country. The risk with this latter approach is that the woman will be re-trafficked and end up back in the same situation as before, only in a different country.

Since Sweden enacted its law against the purchase of sexual services in 1999, there has been a steady increase in the number of women from countries outside Sweden coming here to work in prostitution. There are many reasons for this, including globalization and increased migration flows. Since the 1990s, Europe has also changed significantly, with greater labor migration and large economic disparities between different countries, which makes it easier for women from poor countries to end up in vulnerable situations and face exploitation in wealthier countries like Sweden.

The internet has also drastically transformed prostitution, shifting it from something that took place on a specific street or in a particular neighborhood to being almost entirely digitized, with landing pages hosted in countries far beyond Sweden’s borders. This digitization makes it much easier for recruiters to reach women in other countries and persuade or groom them into prostitution in Sweden.

How things turn out for women involved in prostitution in Sweden depends partly on whether they are willing to accept help, and partly on which country they come from. For us, the time factor is very important because we know that the longer the women can participate in our program, the better the results we see.

If the woman is a citizen of an EU member state, she has the right to stay in Sweden for three months without meeting any specific requirements. Once that period has expired, she must have a right of residence, which can be obtained through work, studies, or by demonstrating that she has sufficient funds to support herself.

Women who come from other parts of the world (so-called third-country nationals) have a harder time staying in Sweden for longer than the 90 days allowed on a tourist visa. If the lead investigator wants her to remain in the country after this time, they must apply for a temporary residence permit.

Reflection period (30-day cooling-off period): The person does not need to cooperate with the judicial system to receive this; rather, the purpose is to give the person time to get to safety, recover, and receive support and accurate information so they can decide whether or not they want to cooperate with the police or prosecutor—without pressure or stress.

Temporary residence permit valid for up to six months (TUT): This type of permit is usually granted to enable participation in a criminal investigation or trial. The lead investigator applying for this type of permit generally wants the woman to be essential to the investigation and willing to cooperate with the police so that the criminals can be prosecuted.

No matter which country you come from, being forced into prostitution in Sweden is a nightmare, despite our Swedish law against the purchase of sexual services. The protection afforded by our law mainly means that the police do not view them as criminals, but as victims of crime; unfortunately, however, it does not automatically lead to rehabilitation.
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It is almost always women from poor countries who end up in the sex trade, but that is very rarely the only reason. Often, early sexual abuse is also a factor, and it is not at all uncommon for her to have people in her immediate circle who cannot support themselves. She tries for a while to find other ways to make a living, but when that doesn’t work out, she is persuaded or pushed into prostitution. It is not uncommon for both coercion and manipulation to be involved, perpetrated by someone who can ultimately make a great deal of money from her prostitution.
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Sometimes it is individual perpetrators, but often there is some form of criminal network behind her exploitation. Since these individuals want to maximize their profits, they focus on establishing their operations in wealthy countries where they earn more money per sex purchase, such as in Sweden. Sweden, however, has fewer problems with prostitution than many other European countries; this is likely due to our law against the purchase of sexual services and the fact that Swedish men generally have a more positive attitude toward women and gender equality. They are also often more knowledgeable about these issues than their counterparts in Central, Eastern, or Southern European countries.

Criminalization:
‍Advantages: It has a certain positive impact on demand. Both sex buyers and criminal networks are forced to keep a low profile and risk legal consequences. This makes it less profitable to operate in countries where prostitution is criminalized.

Disadvantages: The “visible” part of prostitution is the sex worker (who is often a young woman), and she is the one who becomes the target of the police and the justice system—while sex buyers and pimps often escape justice entirely. In other words, women in prostitution are doubly vulnerable; they are exposed to exploitation by the sex trade but also to legal consequences such as prison sentences or fines.

Legalization & decriminalization:
‍Wesee no advantages whatsoever in this model. People from the sex worker lobby sometimes justify legalization by arguing that it would bring the sex trade into the open and out of the shadows of society. In theory, the women could form unions and receive wages for their “work,” which would include pensions, health insurance, and so on. Reality has shown that things do not work quite as these people hope. To meet the increased demand that legalization brings, these legal brothels have many women “employed” who come from human trafficking and therefore lack legal protection. This also means that exit programs are not available as an option, since they do not need help to leave a job.

The Nordic Model:
‍The advantageis that the blame is placed where it belongs, on the sex buyer. The sex buyer is the exploiter, and the sex worker is the one being exploited—that is, a victim of crime. Having this type of legislation has proven to have a normative impact on society. The majority of Swedish citizens believe that the purchase of sex is something very negative that should be combated and remain prohibited. This leads to a decrease in demand and makes Sweden a less attractive “market” for the sex trade. It also means that society can, to some extent, offer protection and assistance to women who are exploited in prostitution through exit programs.

One drawback of the Sex Purchase Act may be that it is sometimes difficult to prosecute sex buyers because the burden of proof is high and it is often one person’s word against another’s. The law states that a person who engages in a temporary sexual relationship in exchange for payment is guilty of purchasing sexual services and is subject to a fine or imprisonment for up to one year. Unfortunately, it is very rare for a sex buyer to be sentenced to prison; in the vast majority of cases, the penalty is a suspended sentence. In many cases where a person has actually been sentenced to prison, the purchase of sex has not been the primary offense, but rather has been combined with other more serious crimes.

Unlike in countries where prostitution is completely criminalized, these women do not need to fear the justice system or the police. They know they do not risk imprisonment or fines because they have not committed any crime. Since they know they haven’t done anything illegal, they can testify against pimps, sex buyers, or human traffickers without risking legal consequences. One consequence of this is that criminal networks view countries with laws against the purchase of sex as less lucrative markets than those where buying sex is legal.
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If, instead, we compare women in prostitution in Sweden with women in countries where prostitution is viewed as a job, the advantage in Sweden is that women can receive help to leave prostitution through exit programs. Such programs do not exist in countries where prostitution is viewed as a job, since one does not need help to leave a profession. One quits a job, but an exit program exists to help someone escape a situation of vulnerability.

Almost every country in the world has some form of legislation prohibiting human trafficking for sexual purposes; in any case, no country officially permits it. However, the strength, definition, and enforcement of these laws vary greatly from country to country, and in some countries, the ban is poorly enforced in practice. According to the U.S. Department of State’s TIP report, the countries with the weakest protections against human trafficking are the following: Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Sudan, Syria, and Turkmenistan.

There is a very simple answer to this complex question: demand must be combated. The equation is very simple: no demand, no sex purchases. The problem is rather how to go about this. One important aspect is that many men tend to listen more to other men than to women, which is why it is unfortunate that it is usually women who are driving this issue. We wish that men would become better at talking to other men about why it is wrong to exploit women in prostitution and become better at discussing men’s attitudes toward girls and women, championing gender equality, and respecting women’s dignity.

It is also important that young people are educated about prostitution, consent, power, and objectification, as this affects how they themselves understand relationships, sex, boundaries, and human dignity—and, by extension, will shape the society of the future. Education about pornography is also an important part of this, as young people need information about the harmful effects and consequences of pornography.  Above all for the women who are subjected to abuse, but also for those who consume pornography.
Looking beyond Sweden’s borders, more needs to be done to ensure that young women (sometimes children) in economically vulnerable situations receive better help and support so they are not groomed, persuaded, or tricked into prostitution.