Increased exposure when sex is ordered to addresses

Sex buyers who order prostitutes to addresses are difficult to detect and more resources are needed to tackle the crime, according to the police. The method also means greater vulnerability for those who sell sex.

– The sex buyers take more than one, says Maria, who sold sex for several years.

The phenomenon that the police call “outcalls”, where the person selling sex is driven out to an address that the sex buyer decides against payment, is a well-established method of prostitution throughout the country.

For those who sell sex, it is associated with several risks and an increased vulnerability, according to police officers who work with prostitution and human trafficking.

– In connection with an “outcall”, it is not certain that you know where you are going. The man in question sends a taxi, you get into the taxi and go to an unknown address, says police inspector Tobias Norelius at the city police in Gothenburg.

– If something happens at that address, it is difficult to alert the police, you are in a greater position of dependence to get out of there and if things go badly, you can get stuck there.

“Terrible”

For several years, Maria sold sex and dates through so-called sugar dating. For her, “outcalls” were a common work method to bring in money. A financial vulnerability was what made her feel that she had no other choice but to sell her body in different ways.

Through websites, she got in touch with sex buyers around Scania and then went out to different addresses that they decided. It could be anything from private parties to summer residences and caravans.

– I was very scared and thought, “I wonder if this is the last thing I do”, yet they did it.

Maria’s experiences are that the method is a dangerous and normalized part of prostitution, which means that you have to be alone with the sex buyer in more closed environments.

– My experience is that they like to be more physically aggressive. The sex buyers deal with more than one, it can be an unexpected stranglehold or that they have put handcuffs under the bed, she says.

Developed strategies

Even though Maria knew it wasn’t safe, she continued to go out to collect money. To increase safety, she instead developed strategies in case the situation did not turn out as she and the sex buyer had agreed.

– I checked which way the front door opened, if there were windows, a balcony and how high up the apartment was.

One day, Maria had a panic attack at the home of a man to whom she had sold sex, and then decided to quit. Today, two years later, she is still undergoing trauma treatment.

– I probably have injuries for life, both psychologically and physically.

Resource-intensive for police

For the police, the phenomenon is difficult to detect and counter, as it requires extensive and resource-intensive intelligence work.

– You have to shadow, we also don’t know where the man who ordered the woman lives, we have to find out and build up a suspicion to be able to move on, says Tobias Norelius.

The police’s national operational department, Noa, is aware of the phenomenon but believes that more resources are needed outside the country to access the form of crime and carry out more targeted efforts.

– It is not something that a local police area can do today, because they have to do so much else, says Christian Frödén, business developer at Noa at the unit for the development of crime fighting.

FACTSProstitution method “outcalls”

Read more