Twice as many sex buyers get caught compared to five years ago.
The reasons are several – one of them could be about Onlyfans and the changed view on sex purchases, says deputy chief prosecutor Eva Johnsson.
– No shadow should fall on Linda Skugge, but the discussion normalizes selling sex, she says.
A sex purchase is just a click away. In just five years, the number of suspected sex buyers has doubled according to statistics from the Crime Prevention Council.
Deputy Chief Prosecutor Eva Johnsson, who has special national responsibility for sexual crimes, believes that one of the main reasons is that the police are working more intensively on the issue.
– It is necessary to have resources that work actively with this. If you have it, there will be more people who can be suspected, and more people who can be prosecuted, she says.
Simon Häggström, preliminary investigation leader at the Norrmalm police’s prostitution group, also says that it is important that the police invest more actively in catching sex buyers.
He does not want to go into exactly how they work, but that the police are constantly developing their working methods and refining their detective work.
– Today, it is not risk-free to buy sex in Sweden. If you have committed this crime, we can show up when you least expect it.
Onlyfans discussion malicious
But Eva Johnsson also believes that there are currents in society that affect the view of whether it is okay to buy sex or not, and that there has been a change in attitude in recent years.
On the one hand, she sees a current where more people want to prevent young people from getting stuck in prostitution, that women from other countries should not be exploited.
But on the other hand, she also thinks she sees a trend where men think it’s okay to buy sex.
– There are men, who on the surface seem completely normal, functioning in society, who think it’s okay to buy sex. They have an image that it is women and girls who do this voluntarily. That they do it to make money.
An underlying reason for that, she says, is discussions about free sexuality.
– Linda Skugge was out here the other week regarding OnlyFans as well, about selling films and pictures there. No shadow over Linda’s Shadow, but it is at the same time a way to normalize this, to sell oneself in different ways.
Free sexuality has a downside
The open, free sexuality is good and positive in many ways, says Eva Johnsson.
– But it also has a downside. That you think you have the right to have sex, and if you don’t get it, you have the right to buy sex as a commodity.
How often do you encounter cases where a woman wants to sell sex voluntarily?
– I have never in my career so far met any woman who voluntarily does this. Women end up in this because of addiction, mental illness and because of trauma. Then you get stuck.
FAKTABrå’s statistics on the purchase of sexual services
2018:
Purchase of sexual acts by children under the age of 18: 47
Purchase of sexual service: 492
Total: 539
2019:
Purchase of sexual acts by children under the age of 18: 71
Purchase of sexual service: 501
Total: 572
2020:
Exploitation of children under the age of 18 through the purchase of sexual acts 84
Purchase of sexual service: 644
Total: 728
2021:
Exploitation of children under the age of 18 through the purchase of sexual acts 59 pcs
Purchase of sexual service 1,183
Total: 1242
2022:
Exploitation of children under the age of 18 through the purchase of sexual acts 42 pcs
Purchase of sexual service 1040
Total: 1082
A total of 4,163 people have been suspected of purchasing sexual services, of which 4,154 are men and 9 are women.
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