ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the absence from the debate of attention to the wider social, geopolitical and economic changes further illuminates the discursive landscape within which the governance of sexuality and debates about prostitution in the Scandinavian countries is located. The law criminalizes people who buy sexual services, and the criminalization is valid for both those who pay for sexual services and those who use sexual services that someone else pays for. The criminalization of the purchase of sex in Norway is described as the result of coalitions between women's organizations, state feminists and politicians. In 2012, the Danish government commissioned an investigation that analysed the outcomes of the sex purchase acts in Norway and Sweden. On different occasions and in various ways, interviewees and members of the organizations emphasized the advantages of the Sex Purchase Act, a stance echoed in the published material and activities of the organizations.
