4 Pages Posted: 2 Dec 2012 Last revised: 21 Sep 2018

Date Written: December 2, 2012

Abstract

This short paper deals with current plans to introduce the 'Swedish Model' of criminalizing the payment for sex in Northern Ireland as a means of preventing human trafficking. The paper suggests debates about the sex trade have reached moral panic proportions in Northern Ireland. The proposed legislation is critiqued on the following grounds: that the police already have enough powers to deal with human trafficking in Northern Ireland; that the Bill conflates and confuses two entirely different activities (prostitution and trafficking); is premised on a narrow abolitionist perspective that in Northern Ireland draws upon strands of far right religious fundamentalism; and that it is out of line with policy developments occurring elsewhere in the UK.