Criminalising the Client: Institutional Change, Gendered Ideas and Feminist Strategies by Josefina Erikson

Author:Josefina Erikson [Erikson, Josefina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Women in Politics, Social Science, Political Science, Gender Studies
ISBN: 9781786600073
Google: O-PaDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 35091245
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2017-06-09T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 3.3 The Criminalisation Frame in the Swedish Debate. A general criminalisation frame which in the Swedish case contains two different criminal justice framings.

Karin Starrin’s (Centre Party) et al. framing of prostitution in the Committee on Justice was clearly based upon a hierarchical analysis of the gender relationship between buyer and seller:

The notion that women can be bought is an expression of contempt for women as human beings. She is inferior and can thus be treated as a commodity to be exploited, for a fee, as needed. (Motion 1991/92:Ju607)

Elisabeth Persson (Left Party), Ingegerd Sahlström (Social Democratic Party) and Karin Pilsäter (Liberal People’s Party) also proceeded from a hierarchical analysis of the relationship between the parties involved in prostitution, arguing in the committee:

Legislation that makes the client liable would also imply that the incidence of prostitution is based on men’s exercise of power over women, not on women’s free will. (Motion 1992/93:Ju622)

There was no discussion in the Committee on Justice in respect to these motions concerning whether men who buy sex were aware of the consequences of their actions, even though this framing squarely placed the responsibility upon the client (identified as a man) and the causal narrative it used justified client criminalisation. While the relation of prostitution can also be evaluated as unequal in character without a gender analysis, it appeared in practice that all proponents of client criminalisation directly or indirectly used a gender analysis that described the relationship between the sexes as hierarchical in character.

The framing of dual criminalisation proposals expressed a different view concerning the question of liability insofar as although they regarded both parties as liable for prostitution, they did not describe the relationship between buyers and sellers, men and women, as hierarchical in nature. For example, Charlotte Cederschiöld’s (Moderate Party) motion in the Committee on Justice, which advocated dual criminalisation (Motion 1991/92:Ju610), was based upon the need to control the spread of HIV/AIDS.

As with many other sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS frequently emanates from prostitution. Those affected are often entirely innocent people who have in no way lived a promiscuous life, and the more this epidemic spreads, the greater the risk that totally innocent people will be affected. Even those who lead wholesome lives risk being affected by this deadly disease. (Motion 1991/92:Ju610)

Furthermore, Cederschiöld framed prostitution both as a moral problem – promiscuous living – and as a health problem – the spread of HIV/AIDS – and insofar as she laid the blame on individuals who either buy or sell sex, her proposed solution was to criminalise both parties. Cederschiöld did convey a gender perspective when she mentioned ‘the men who pay to exploit women and children’, but her focus was upon protecting the innocent people who had nothing to do with prostitution and ‘in no way lived a promiscuous life’, such as the relatives of the parties who were directly involved in such activities. Unlike, for example, Ulla Pettersson’s (Social Democratic Party) rationale for criminalising prostitution, Cederschiöld based her position neither on the women in

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