ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the variability within Sweden, that there is some substantive heterogeneity in terms of discourse and policy surrounding prostitution in the form of a divergent 'Malmo model' on service provision, so undermining the concept of an entirely homogeneous interpretation and influence of the sexkopslagen. Sweden's contemporary aim to abolish prostitution through the criminalisation of the purchase of sex should be seen in the context of Swedish control and social exclusion of problematised facets of society through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The sexkopslagen's discursive backdrops have come to inform service provision, with harm reduction seen to endorse, encourage and facilitate sex work by many key stakeholders. Harms associated with sex work have been shown to be increased through repression and criminalisation. This is the case internationally, and it is specifically true for Swedish abolitionism. To all of these escalated harms exacerbated by Swedish legislation, policy and discourse must be added the sexkopslagen's failure to diminish levels of prostitution.
