Two blog posts in a day, say what??? I am getting too used to this. On a more serious note, the subject of this post isn't as much breaking news as it is a very concerning topic for not only me but many people against human trafficking.
Comparing the Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Denmark in terms of its approach to prostitution and human trafficking, this report done by CNN is a very compelling one. In 1995, Sweden decided to crack down on prostitution and passed a bill into law that punished those the "customers" rather than the "producers," with the idea that most of the "producers" were being forced into doing so. Through this law, the Swedes were able to crack down heavily on the prostitution business within their own country. Before hand, Sweden was heavily criticized for this law by its neighboring nations. However, because of their intense reinforcement of this law prostitution and human trafficking in their country has greatly decreased.The same cannot be said for Denmark.
Around the same time Sweden passed their law outlawing the purchase of sex, Denmark went the opposite way by decriminalizing prostitution in an effort, that they thought, would make it easier to catch pimps and human traffickers.However, it seems to have had the opposite effect of what the Danes intended. The amount of women on the streets of Denmark has greatly increased and they are not only Danish, but increasingly more are of African and Eastern European descent.
It is obvious to see that human trafficking has increased in Denmark and greatly decreased in Sweden, so why has Denmark not decided to change its policies regarding prostitution yet? Do you think if more countries implement the Swedish law we could severely limit the practice of human trafficking? Sound off with your comments and concerns over the global issue that is human trafficking.
Here's the link to the news report, if you're too lazy to click the title:
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2011/03/30/shubert.cfp.denmark.brothels.cnn
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3 comments:
Interesting difference of perspectives. I agree with the Swedish when they say that without demand, prostitution/trafficking will decrease--it just isn't profitable anymore. The videos seem to imply that Denmark, which is considering adopting the Swedish laws, has not yet done so because the Swedish system costs more...
But I think that when it comes to reducing prostitution/human trafficking, money needs to be spent to protect the basic safety of individuals.
Wow. Really? I never knew catching the consumers would be the key to ending prostitution. But as seen through Sweden and Denmark, I guess it's true. I really agree with Peter in that cutting off demand does make the producers produce less (a bit like economics--without demand there will be a smaller amount of supply). With regard to Denmark, maybe the law enforcement there is bad in the sense that the police are either corrupt are not looking hard enough / doing as much to try to stop this problem. Or, maybe they're searching in the wrong neighborhood. Possibly, I believe Denmark has not changed maybe because they're stubborn and don't want to admit that their policies are wrong, and their neighboring countries are "smarter" than themselves. Or, maybe the law enforcement there isn't big enough, or the people there are extremely secretive about the human trafficking they do. Either way, as seen through Sweden's success, I believe they should implement Sweden's laws, seeing how they are so successful.
I think of countries do enact Sweden's laws, human trafficking will decrease because if there's no demand, there will be no supply. Although the law enforcement group may have have to increase and work harder to stop these corrupt individuals, sooner or later we can help solve this problem.
Human Trafficking is a pandemic that not occurs internationally, but domestically, in the US, as well. I personally believe that it is imperative that we do as much as we can to reduce human trafficking/ prostitution, regardless of the price.
In the case of Denmark, I think they should either implement more stringent policies regarding human trafficking/ prostitution or try a trial version of Sweden's policy first, to see whether or not it would have an effect on the rate of trafficking/ prostitution. Either way, more should be done about Denmark's policy if their policies are actually causing more bad than good.
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