Paying for Sex in Norway

The Norwegian 'Justice' Ministry is preparing to ban all forms of advertising of sexual services on websites. The ministry is working on the censorship law with the aim to promote a bill to the Parliament in the autumn.

Police inspector Vegard Munthe Ommdal claimed on TV2:

We primarily want to prevent human trafficking and pimping. And online advertising is a very important part of the business,

Ommdal thinks advertising on the internet must be seen as promoting someone else's prostitution.

The 2009 law criminalizing the purchase of sexual services in Norway has led to prostitutes being more dependent on pimps and encourages human trafficking, according to a new research study.

Prior to the 2009 Sex Purchase Act, Norway had one of Europe's smallest and least organized markets for prostitution. Women came voluntarily, rented apartments and sold sex from there - without the interference from any pimp.

The introduction of the law has made this process more complicated, according to a report in the Stavanger Aftenblad daily.

The women are very vulnerable towards the police and to a greater extent on the network and support that pimps can offer, said Guri Tyldum, a researcher at trades union backed Fafo to Aftenbladet.

Tyldum furthermore believes that the criminalization of prostitution has made it more attractive to traffickers. She said:

The criminalization intended to demonstrate that prostitution is not wanted in Norway. The risk is that the most dangerous and serious form of prostitution that remains.

Norway's Ministry of Justice has announced an evaluation of the sex purchase act.

Norway should rip up a law that criminalizes sex buyers, Oslo's social affairs chief believes, as a new report shows a marked rise in violence against prostitutes working in the city.

Anniken Hauglie (Conservative Party) called for the law to be scrapped after the city's official help centre for prostitutes, Pro Sentret, released a report detailing deteriorating conditions for sex workers in the capital.  Hauglie said:

The reality is that the law has made it more difficult for women in prostitution,

It's our political responsibility to take this feedback seriously. In my view, the sex buyer ban should be repealed, and I think the parliament should at least evaluate the effects of the law.

The 2009 prostitution law prohibits the purchase but not the sale of sexual services. But the Pro Sentret report indicates that the law has in fact made prostitutes much more susceptible to violence at the hands of their clients as the sex trade moves further underground. What's more, prostitutes have become less inclined to seek help since the law came into force, with many now perceiving that they too are viewed as criminals, the report says.

Many of the women also said the new law had scared off many of their more reliable customers, while troublesome and violent clients were relatively undeterred.

According to the study, titled Farlige Forbindelser (Dangerous Liaisons) , 59% of prostitutes in Oslo have fallen victim to some form of violence in the last three years. Often the violence is extreme. Eleven people have faced death threats, many have been threatened with weapons, or have been exposed to robbery, rape, or were threatened into participating in non-consensual sex,

Anniken Hauglie said she was appalled by the report's findings:

It's heartbreaking to see the violence they are subjected too, only to then learn that many of them don't report (the crimes). That means the aggressors walk away and are free to endanger others.

The report is based on interviews carried out from January to March this year with 123 prostitutes working on the streets, out of apartments, and in massage parlours offering sexual services.

The number of foreign prostitutes on Oslo streets is nearly back to what it was before the ban on the purchase of sex services was introduced last year, public broadcaster NRK reports.

Figures compiled by the Oslo Pro Centre shows that the number of prostitutes on Oslo streets is again at the level of two years ago. It is now nearly one year since the ban on the purchase of sexual services was put into effect.

Leader of the Centre, Liv Jessen, says to NRK that she is surprised at the number, and the fact that so many are from Nigeria.

The Pro Centre (Pro Sentret) is a Norwegian national resource centre on all matters related to prostitution and a health and social service centre for women and men in prostitution. Founded in 1983 and financed by the Municipality of Oslo and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the Pro Centre is run by the Municipality of Oslo.

After sweeping the streets of Norway's capital Oslo clear of prostitutes last year, city police were a bit shocked to discover that the girls are back and their numbers are just as high as they were before the removal effort.

Norway passed a ban on the purchase of sex services in 2008. But the Aftenposten newspaper reports that the number of sex workers on the capital's streets is almost back to its pre-ban levels. Local police were surprised by the finding, but promised a quick reaction.

Oslo's Chief Inspector Oeyvind Norgarden told the Aftenposten The number is surprisingly high, and the customers must be caught. The police chief promises to increase the frequency of patrols along the city streets, even throughout the night. One aim is to catch the customers red-handed in the illegal act.

Norgarden also claims his police will check out every prostitute they run across and check if their residence papers are correct. Most of Oslo's streetwalkers come from Eastern Europe and Nigeria, according to the police. If they are found to be living in Norway illegally they can be deported.

A Norwegian law against paying for sex has made a real dent in street prostitution, and for the few sex workers that remain, times are tough.

Since January 1, men caught buying sex face up to six months in jail and in some cases a fine. The impact of the law has been immediate, with most sex workers disappearing from the streets at once.

The clients are extremely nervous. Most of them don't dare come here, said Nadia, a 22-year-old from Oslo. On a recent nighttime visit to the centre of the Norwegian capital, only three prostitutes walked the snowy streets, in an area where there previously would have been women at every corner.

Before, you would work until you made 4,000-5,000 kroner (600 to 750 dollars, 450 to 560 euros). Now you have to work all night and you earn only about 1,000-1,500 kroner, Nadia told AFP as police patrols cruise by every few minutes.

The men are afraid to drive by, so they walk up to us, tell us 'my car is parked around the corner, meet me there', said Michelle, 25, also from Oslo: Before we would go down to the harbour and be back in 15 minutes. Now they drive us out of town, where there is no one, and we're back one hour later .

At least 23 men have been arrested since the law came into force. Of these, 20 accepted an on-the-spot fine of between 8,000 kroner (1,195 dollars, 898 euros) and 9,000 kroner. Three have refused to pay and will go to court.

The law also affects Norwegians who buy sex abroad, but as yet no one has been arrested for the crime.

There is as yet no official figure showing whether the law has had a real impact on demand or whether street prostitutes have shifted to the indoor scene.

Norway's Parliament voted for changes in the legislation on prostitution, in effect criminalizing the purchase of sexual activity or a sexual act, the Ministry of Injustice and Police have announced.

Under the revised General Civil Penal Code 202a unanimously approved in November, any person (who) engages in or aids and abets another person to engage in sexual activity or commit a sexual act on making or agreeing payment shall be liable to fines or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both.

At the same time, any person (who) engages in sexual activity or a sexual act on such payment being agreed or made by another person, or in the manner previously described causes someone to carry out with herself or himself acts corresponding to sexual activity is also meted the same penalty.

If the sexual activity or sexual act is carried out in a particularly offensive manner and no penalty may be imposed pursuant to other provisions, the penalty shall be imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year.

Section 202a is expected to be implemented on January 1, 2009 and will be also applicable to acts committed abroad by any Norwegian national. The provision applies to any person, regardless of citizenship, living in Norway.

Last night the Norwegian Parliament voted in favour of making payment for sexual acts a criminal offence supposedly in order to protect vulnerable women and children. The law passed with 44 votes in favour and 28 against and will come into effect on 1 January 2009.

The legislation – inspired by neighbouring Sweden which criminalised the purchasing of sex in 1999 – is actually rather more robust than that of its next door neighbour, setting a new pace for prostitution law reform.

The minister of injustice in Norway has proposed criminalizing the purchase of sexual services both at home and abroad.

The law proposes imposing fines and up to six months in jail for anyone convicted of paying a prostitute for sex. The law is in line with a “Sex Purchase Law” passed by neighboring Sweden in 1999, which has been the subject of intense interest in Europe and elsewhere.

Injustice Minister Knut Storberget said in presenting the proposed law: People are not a commodity and criminalizing the purchase of sex would make it less attractive for human traffickers to look to Norway.

I am not sure I like the law. I don’t really know how smart it is to criminalize people for buying sex. But at least that part of the law I respect. The part I have strong objections to, is the part that says that the law should apply to Norwegians visiting other countries as well. This is strange as a legal principle.

I mean, if a Norwegian drive a car at 160 km/hour on a German highway, this is legal in Germany but illegal in Norway. But people do not get punished for it when they return home to Norway. Same for smoking cannabis in Amsterdam. And so on. But now the government proposes that when a Norwegian does something in a foreign country that is legal in that country, he is to be punished when he returns home?

And, in addition to the very strange legal principle involved, there is also the almost impossible situation with respect to implementation. Are Dutch policemen supposed to look out for Norwegians buying sex, when that purchase is legal in the Netherlands?

The mean minded Norwegian government proposed on Friday to fine or jail clients of prostitutes for up to six months supposedly in a bid to stamp out human trafficking, and said the law would also apply to its citizens abroad.

Norway signalled in mid-2007 that it would make it a criminal offence to buy services from prostitutes, following the example of Scandinavian neighbour Sweden which introduced a similar ban in 1999.

The amendment will now be put to parliament for approval and if passed will take effect in January 2008, officials said.

Prostitution is currently allowed in Norway although procuring, or "pimping," is illegal. A rise in street prostitution in the capital, Oslo, in recent years has triggered calls for a ban.

Proponents of the measure say it makes sense to try to stop prostitution by punishing those who use the service rather than the women themselves, who are often poor, young immigrants.

Opponents of the ban say it will jeopardise women in the trade by driving prostitution underground where they will be even more vulnerable.

The justice ministry said the punishment could be fines on rising scale according to the offender's financial means or a jail term of up to six months, or both.

Jail sentences of a year could be imposed in aggravated cases involving adult prostitution and of up to three years where child prostitutes are involved, the ministry said.