With regulations I don’t see the issue

[u/Left-Twix420]

[u/Milkshake__Mayhem]

Studies have shown that it actually increases human trafficking

[u/Whatsapokemon → u/Milkshake__Mayhem]

This is true. Sweden is a good case study for this, as they made prostitution illegal in 1999, and they saw a decrease in human trafficking in the following years. This can be compared to Denmark and Germany, which have more permissive laws around prostitution, which didn't see similar declines.

[u/OpenShut → u/Whatsapokemon]

edit: I fell into a bit of a rabbit hole looking into this but I hope this is interesting. My generally conclusion is that Sweden is not a good case study at all.

I have been looking into this claim and I can not find any reliable data on this but I found these comments in a few papers:

To summarise the effects of the two legal regimes on the extent of prostitution,

numbers are only available for parts of the whole phenomenon of prostitution

or, as in the case of Sweden, are not measured before the enactment of the

legislation which invalidates claims concerning developments. This makes it

impossible to draw conclusions concerning the mentioned effects.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martina-Althoff-2/publication/283790613_Regulating_Human_Trafficking_by_Prostitution_Policy/links/5a8d9eca458515eb85aba2ce/Regulating-Human-Trafficking-by-Prostitution-Policy.pdf

The number trafficked to Sweden is estimated at 400-600 persons per year (National Swedish Police Board 2004), though such statistics should be treated cautiously as they are dependent on the priorities of the government and police authorities (National Swedish Police Board 2010).

To understand the contemporary, official, Swedish position towards trafficking it is essential to understand Sweden’s view of prostitution since trafficking and prostitution are regarded as an inseparable entity

^This from a feminist paper: https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/feministsatlaw/article/view/58.

​

We have sufficient data for Germany to compare the number of trafficking victims in

the pre- and post-legalization period. For Sweden and Denmark, we lack such data. We

therefore compare the available data for Sweden after the prohibition of prostitution with data

for Denmark, where prostitution was legalized. Sweden and Denmark have similar levels of

economic and institutional development, and a similar geographic position, which, as our

quantitative analysis shows, are important determinants of human trafficking.

https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/45198/1/Neumayer_Legalized_Prostitution_Increase_2012.pdf (highly cited paper)

^This paper does conclude that on average trafficking is increased with decriminalisation but it does not have the data or causal link.

​

In 1993 when the investigations that led tothe reform of the Swedish prostitution policy took place, 20-30% of theprostitutes were foreign nationals (SOU 2010:49;Jämställdhetsmyndigheten2021:23). In 1999, this group made up more than half of all individuals, thelatest numbers from 2021 indicate that almost all street prostitutes in Swedenare migrants (ibid). Moreover, one could see that most women come fromEastern Europe (SOU 2010:49).

https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1627580/FULLTEXT01.pdf

This would imply an increase in trafficking but again the data is not great. Normally statisticians are suspect of police reports.

​

With respect to Sweden, the quantifiable evidence is equally scant and contentious.

^Another feminist paper

The definition of "trafficked" is not what most people think it is and is different country to country, though UN tried to change this.

It is impossible to say that Sweden have a decline in sex trafficking since the policy was introduced but appears that trafficking is now increasing in Sweden dramatically (5.4x increase from '07 to '11) but this maybe due to immigrant crisis.

There may still be a positive correlation between decriminalization and increased sex trafficking.