Thank you for this. The same myth - "legalized prostitution solves the problem of exploitation in the sex industry" - is also commonly heard where I live, which is coincidentally a major hub of both sex work and human trafficking (i.e. Amsterdam).

I used to be a huge HUGE supporter of the legalization of prostitution, and I still support the right of people to choose a profession in the sex industry and think that sex workers should have the same labor rights and benefits as other professionals. However, research seems to suggest that the former (legalization or decriminalization) does not - as is so often claimed - lead to the latter (better working conditions, less trafficking or other forms of exploitation).

I wish the theory checked out, because it would make the solution to sex trafficking easy and obvious. But given the outcome of recent studies it would seem that combating sex trafficking is far more complicated than it seems. Women are often moved around between locations, so that well-intentioned Johns don't get the chance to notice that something is off. Prostitutes are threatened with physical punishment or being outed to their families if they let on that they are working against their will. Entire groups of trafficked sex workers (men, especially) are entirely invisible and un(der)researched, so we don't even know they exist, let alone what to do for them when they ask for help. Etc. etc.

The entire industry is so shady and so full of unimaginably cruel people that I am starting to think the Swedish are onto something. If I understood correctly, in Sweden it is illegal to pay for sex under any circumstances. And it's the person who procures the services (the john) who is punishable, mot the one who offers them (i.e. The sex worker). Extreme? Yes. Very. Especially to a Dutch person's ears. But the argument that it "pushes the sex industry to move underground" doesn't hold up, because a huge part of it is already underground, even in places where prostitution is legal and a visible part of public life, because people are awful and apparently refuse to pay sex workers a decent wage or acknowledge their dignity as humans. As long as that is the case then perhaps the only option that is left is to shut the whole thing down...