Sårbarhet och/eller autonomi till (av)kriminaliseringens försvar – Om sårbarhetens roll i Sveriges rättsliga hantering av prostitution
(2023) JURM02 20231Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- The crime of purchase of sexual services has been criminalized in Sweden
since 1999. The introduction of the ban was part of the work against men's
violence against women. The law has subsequently undergone a series of
changes, most recently a toughening of the penalty in August 2022. In
December 2022, the Norwegian government published a public inquiry in
which a proposal for the decriminalization of the purchase of sex was
presented. In Norway, where, inspired by the Swedish model, the
purchasing of sex has been criminalized since 2009, the issue of
decriminalization is now being raised in order to protect the individual's
autonomy.
The purpose of my essay is to investigate what role vulnerability plays in
the legal handling... (More) - The crime of purchase of sexual services has been criminalized in Sweden
since 1999. The introduction of the ban was part of the work against men's
violence against women. The law has subsequently undergone a series of
changes, most recently a toughening of the penalty in August 2022. In
December 2022, the Norwegian government published a public inquiry in
which a proposal for the decriminalization of the purchase of sex was
presented. In Norway, where, inspired by the Swedish model, the
purchasing of sex has been criminalized since 2009, the issue of
decriminalization is now being raised in order to protect the individual's
autonomy.
The purpose of my essay is to investigate what role vulnerability plays in
the legal handling of prostitution. The liberal idea of the autonomous
individual is widely accepted as one of the fundamental concepts of
criminal law. As an alternative to autonomy, vulnerability theories have
been presented. Through a vulnerability perspective, attention is drawn to
people's different conditions, hierarchies and power structures, which
could lead to inequality and oppression. This requires a form of
contextualizing where surrounding circumstances are taken into account,
which can make people more or less vulnerable, for example due to gender
structures. State intervention should therefore be organized with a focus on
vulnerability, as opposed to the exclusive liberal perspective of the
individual’s autonomy and protection from external influence.
The vulnerability theories thus form the essay's tool of analysis. Using
discourse analysis, I examine the role of vulnerability in relation to
criminalization under criminal law as a concept, and on the other hand on
an application level in relation to the legal subject. With a comparative
analysis, I also examine the differences between Swedish and Norwegian
law in the legal handling of prostitution, in order to more clearly show how
vulnerability is significant in Swedish law.
One result of my analysis is that the identified discourses can be
categorized into vulnerability and autonomy perspectives. The result of the
analysis is further that vulnerability and autonomy constitute two different
starting points for when and how criminalization should be used. I note
that a consideration of vulnerability is in line with the radical feminist idea
of prostitution as an expression of men's violence against women. As an
effect, vulnerability is noticed in several places in policy documents in
Swedish law. However, there are examples of how vulnerability is
overlooked even in Swedish law. Through my comparison with Norwegian
law, I find that vulnerability has a significantly smaller, almost
non-existent role in Norwegian law regarding prostitution. Instead, in
accordance with classical-liberal theory, autonomy is the starting point in
the discussion of the legal handling of prostitution, which is a cornerstone
of the 2022 decriminalization proposal. The autonomous perspective thus
represents a more skeptical approach to criminalization, while the
vulnerability perspective is more in line with the justification of
criminalization based on a contextualizing approach. One risk of
overlooking the vulnerability is that prostitution is regarded to a greater
extent as a business transaction between equal parties, and that
exploitation is not noticed. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Köp av sexuell tjänst har i Sverige varit förbjudet sedan 1999. Införandet av förbudet var en del i arbetet mot mäns våld mot kvinnor. Lagen har
därefter genomgått en rad ändringar, senast en straffskärpning 2022. I december 2022 publicerade Norges regering en offentlig utredning där ett
förslag på avkriminalisering av sexköp presenterades. I Norge inspirerades man 2009 av den svenska modellen och kriminaliserade sexköp. Nu lyfts
frågan om avkriminalisering i syfte att skydda individens autonomi.
Syftet med min uppsats är att undersöka vilken roll sårbarhet spelar i den rättsliga hanteringen av prostitution. Den liberala tanken om den autonoma
individen är allmänt vedertagen som ett av straffrättens grundläggande koncept. Som... (More) - Köp av sexuell tjänst har i Sverige varit förbjudet sedan 1999. Införandet av förbudet var en del i arbetet mot mäns våld mot kvinnor. Lagen har
därefter genomgått en rad ändringar, senast en straffskärpning 2022. I december 2022 publicerade Norges regering en offentlig utredning där ett
förslag på avkriminalisering av sexköp presenterades. I Norge inspirerades man 2009 av den svenska modellen och kriminaliserade sexköp. Nu lyfts
frågan om avkriminalisering i syfte att skydda individens autonomi.
Syftet med min uppsats är att undersöka vilken roll sårbarhet spelar i den rättsliga hanteringen av prostitution. Den liberala tanken om den autonoma
individen är allmänt vedertagen som ett av straffrättens grundläggande koncept. Som alternativ till autonomin som utgångspunkt har sårbarhetsteorier presenterats. Ur ett sårbarhetsperspektiv uppmärksammas människors skilda förutsättningar, hierarkier och maktstrukturer, vilka leder till ojämlikheter och förtryck. Det innebär en kontextualisering där omkringliggande omständigheter beaktas, vilka kan göra människan mer eller mindre sårbar, exempelvis könsstrukturer. En utgångspunkt är att
statligt ingripande ska organiseras med sårbarheten i fokus. Detta skiljer sig från den liberala idén om den autonoma individen, vars primära
utgångspunkt är att individen ska fredas från all yttre påverkan.
Sårbarhetsteorierna utgör således uppsatsens analysverktyg. Med hjälp av diskursanalys kartlägger jag en rad diskurser som jag identifierar i
policydokument, vilka jag analyserar med sårbarheten i fokus. Dels undersöker jag dess roll i förhållande till straffrättslig kriminalisering som
koncept, dels på en tillämpningsnivå i relation till det rättsliga subjektet. Med en komparativ analys undersöker jag skillnaderna mellan svensk och
norsk rätt.
Ett av analysens resultat är att de identifierade diskurserna kan kategoriseras i sårbarhets- respektive autonomiperspektiv. Resultatet av analysen är vidare att sårbarhet och autonomi utgör två skilda utgångspunkter för om, när och hur kriminalisering bör användas. Jag konstaterar att ett hänsynstagande till sårbarhet ligger i linje med den radikalfeministiska tanken om prostitutionen som ett uttryck för mäns våld mot kvinnor i en könsmaktsordning. Som en effekt härav uppmärksammas sårbarhet på flera ställen i policydokument i svensk rätt. Det finns emellertid exempel på hur sårbarheten förbises även i svensk rätt. Vid min
jämförelse med norsk rätt konstaterar jag att sårbarheten har en betydligt mindre, nästan obefintlig roll i norsk rätt avseende prostitutionen. Istället
utgör, i enlighet med den klassisk-liberala teorin, autonomin utgångspunkt vilket i sin tur även utgör en grundsten i 2022 års
avkriminaliseringsförslag. Det autonoma perspektivet representerar således ett mer skeptiskt förhållningssätt till kriminalisering, medan det sårbara
ligger i linje med att kriminalisering med utgångspunkt i ett kontextualiserande synsätt är befogat. Emellertid konstateras även hur
autonomin används både i förespråkande för och emot kriminalisering, och att autonomin kan tillgodoses även med ett förhållningssätt som utgår från
sårbarhet. Riskerna med att förbise sårbarheten är att prostitutionen i större grad betraktas som en affärsmässig transaktion mellan jämställda parter,
och att utnyttjande ej uppmärksammas. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9115853
- author
- Carlsson, Clara LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- Vulnerability and/or autonomy in defense of (de)criminalization - On the role of vulnerability in Sweden's legal handling of prostitution
- course
- JURM02 20231
- year
- 2023
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- Straffrätt, Prostitution, Köp av sexuell tjänst, Kriminalisering, Sårbarhet, Autonomi
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9115853
- date added to LUP
- 2023-06-15 11:23:33
- date last changed
- 2023-06-15 11:23:33
@misc{9115853,
abstract = {{The crime of purchase of sexual services has been criminalized in Sweden
since 1999. The introduction of the ban was part of the work against men's
violence against women. The law has subsequently undergone a series of
changes, most recently a toughening of the penalty in August 2022. In
December 2022, the Norwegian government published a public inquiry in
which a proposal for the decriminalization of the purchase of sex was
presented. In Norway, where, inspired by the Swedish model, the
purchasing of sex has been criminalized since 2009, the issue of
decriminalization is now being raised in order to protect the individual's
autonomy.
The purpose of my essay is to investigate what role vulnerability plays in
the legal handling of prostitution. The liberal idea of the autonomous
individual is widely accepted as one of the fundamental concepts of
criminal law. As an alternative to autonomy, vulnerability theories have
been presented. Through a vulnerability perspective, attention is drawn to
people's different conditions, hierarchies and power structures, which
could lead to inequality and oppression. This requires a form of
contextualizing where surrounding circumstances are taken into account,
which can make people more or less vulnerable, for example due to gender
structures. State intervention should therefore be organized with a focus on
vulnerability, as opposed to the exclusive liberal perspective of the
individual’s autonomy and protection from external influence.
The vulnerability theories thus form the essay's tool of analysis. Using
discourse analysis, I examine the role of vulnerability in relation to
criminalization under criminal law as a concept, and on the other hand on
an application level in relation to the legal subject. With a comparative
analysis, I also examine the differences between Swedish and Norwegian
law in the legal handling of prostitution, in order to more clearly show how
vulnerability is significant in Swedish law.
One result of my analysis is that the identified discourses can be
categorized into vulnerability and autonomy perspectives. The result of the
analysis is further that vulnerability and autonomy constitute two different
starting points for when and how criminalization should be used. I note
that a consideration of vulnerability is in line with the radical feminist idea
of prostitution as an expression of men's violence against women. As an
effect, vulnerability is noticed in several places in policy documents in
Swedish law. However, there are examples of how vulnerability is
overlooked even in Swedish law. Through my comparison with Norwegian
law, I find that vulnerability has a significantly smaller, almost
non-existent role in Norwegian law regarding prostitution. Instead, in
accordance with classical-liberal theory, autonomy is the starting point in
the discussion of the legal handling of prostitution, which is a cornerstone
of the 2022 decriminalization proposal. The autonomous perspective thus
represents a more skeptical approach to criminalization, while the
vulnerability perspective is more in line with the justification of
criminalization based on a contextualizing approach. One risk of
overlooking the vulnerability is that prostitution is regarded to a greater
extent as a business transaction between equal parties, and that
exploitation is not noticed.}},
author = {{Carlsson, Clara}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Sårbarhet och/eller autonomi till (av)kriminaliseringens försvar – Om sårbarhetens roll i Sveriges rättsliga hantering av prostitution}},
year = {{2023}},
}