It isn’t just me who thinks that the criminalisation of clients makes sex workers more vulnerable to violence.

Sweden and Norway have implemented this law, and a Norwegian government report states: “the law on the purchase of sex has made working as a prostitute harder and more dangerous”. The Swedish head of anti-trafficking policy commented, “of course the law has negative consequences for women in prostitution: that’s some of the effect that we want to achieve with the law”.

A Norwegian official told Amnesty International, “it comes back to the question of ‘is it a problem that people in prostitution are in trouble?’ No one has said … that we want prostitutes to have a good time while we try to stamp out prostitution.” I’m not asking you to love the sex industry: just to see that policies which further harm people who sell sex is no ‘solution’.

“Criminalising purchase would only serve to make sex workers more vulnerable to violence”