International Trends in the Control of Sexual Services

States vary in the ways they have attempted to control prostitution, ranging from total prohibition to decriminalization and legal regulation. Some nations prohibit the purchase but not sale of sex (Sweden, Norway, and Iceland) or prohibit the conditions necessary for commercial transaction such as “soliciting,” “loitering,” or “communication” related to a sexual transaction. This chapter identifies two major trends in how governments recently have dealt with sex work: (1) intensifiedcriminalizationdesigned to eradicate it; and (2)liberalizationbased on principles of harm reduction, labor rights, and civil regulation of commerce. We suggest that such policies are shaped by the