ABSTRACT

Historically, prostitution in Finland was conceived of as a moral and health problem related to poverty and vagrancy. Various church, venereal, vagrancy, and penal codes have regulated prostitution in Finland since the eighteenth century. The Vagrancy Act was the main law that regulated prostitution in Finland during the twentieth century. In this Act, prostitution was approached as a social problem and women engaged in prostitution were perceived of as a threat to public order, security, and respectability. In addition, the economic recession in the 1990s and rise in unemployment rates in Finland increased the number of national sex workers. In general, the field of commercial sex became more visible. In Finland, commercial sex is mostly sold indoors in apartments and hotel rooms and contacts are made on the internet. The demand for paid sex in Finland has mainly been addressed in the FINSEX-surveys conducted by the Family Federation of Finland.