Swedish Greens Want to Prosecute Sex Purchase as Rape

When presenting the proposal aimed to “get to grips with the norms and culture that make women exposed to harassment, abuse and rape”, Gender Equality Minister Märta Stenevi ventured that consent is something that cannot be bought. Earlier, Sweden revolutionised sexual laws by criminalising the procurement of sex, but not the selling.

The Swedish Green Party, the junior sidekick of the Social Democrat-led government, wants to investigate whether sex purchases could be classified as rape, after a decision at the party's congress.

According to the left-wing feminist party, all consent should cease when compensation for a sexual service has occurred.

“We believe it is a serious crime against the person exposed. Do you have the right to buy consent? We mean that you shouldn't be able to,” Gender Equality Minister and Greens co-speaker Märta Stenevi said, as quoted by the newspaper Aftonbladet. “Consent legislation must last all the way through, you must not be able to buy the right to abuse, but sex must be voluntary."

According to Stenevi, the problem is that men overtake the right to women's bodies by paying.

“Then we have a hard time getting to grips with the norms and culture that make women exposed to harassment, abuse, rape, bullying and various types of abuse every day,” Stenevi said.

In related issues, the Greens also want to investigate sites for escort services and so-called sugar dating for pimping and introduce liability regarding age and consent for those who publish and produce pornographic material.

In 2018, Sweden became the first Nordic nation to introduce a so-called “consent clause”, which, controversially, opened the possibility of convicting people for “negligent rape” or “careless rape” due to failure to obtain specific consent.

While an increase in rape convictions was reported following the legal change, it was not unchallenged as numerous legal professionals warned it would unnecessarily complicate legal proceedings and jeopardise justice by risking innocent people getting jailed. Nevertheless, since then, Finland and Denmark have followed in Sweden's footsteps.

However, since then, the Swedish government has voiced its readiness for further measures what it sees as human trafficking. Last year, the Swedish government voiced plans to fully criminalise the purchase of sex and slap the buyers with prison sentences rather than simple fines.

Sweden's current laws on prostitution make it illegal to procure sex, but not to sell it. The punishment of the buyer, but not the seller was a novel concept at that time when first enacted in 1999. Since then, the Nordic model has spread to other Western nations, including Canada and Ireland.