Abolitionists, activists against sexual exploitation

To understand the abolitionist view in fighting sex trafficking, it is important to understand the Nordic Model.

What is the Nordic Model?

The Nordic Model (sometimes known as the Sex Buyer Law, or the Swedish, Abolitionist, or Equality Model) is an approach to prostitution that has been adopted in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Canada, France, Ireland and Israel. It has several elements:

1. Decriminalisation of those who are prostituted
Prostitution is inherently violent. Women should not be criminalised for the exploitation and abuse they endure.
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2. Buying sex becomes a criminal offence:
Buying human beings for sex is harmful, exploitative and can never be safe. We need to reduce the demand that drives sex trafficking.
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3. Support and exit services:
High quality, non-judgemental services to support those in prostitution and help them build a new life outside it, including: access to safe affordable housing; training and further education; child care; legal, debt and benefit advice; emotional and psychological support.
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4. A holistic approach
A public information campaign; training for police and CPS; tackling the inequality and poverty that drive people into prostitution; effective laws against pimping and sex trafficking, with penalties that reflect the enormous damage they cause
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Exodus Cry explains the reality of prostitution as not being a choice, but an abuse of people’s needs that forces them into prostitution. “Prostitution preys on the most vulnerable in our society, coercing individuals through life circumstances to trade sex for the hope of a better life. Or to simply survive. “

Does full decriminalization or legalization of prostitution makes it safer and decrees the numbers of sex trafficking? According to Exodus Cry, countries that implemented full decriminalization or legalization witnessed increase in sex trafficking numbers as it “fuels the demand for men to buy sex, but there are never enough women to meet that demand.”