Law & Policy:
Legal Models for Sex Work
Sex work legislation can be divided into four categories: full criminalisation, partial criminalisation, legalisation, and decriminalisation.
One form of partial criminalisation is known as the Nordic Model. Under this approach, the purchase of sex is illegal, while the selling of sex is not. Most associated activities are still penalised however, making it almost impossible to work safely and legally. This legal model was adopted in the North of Ireland in 2015 and in the Republic of Ireland in 2017.
Red Umbrella Éireann advocates for decriminalisation (decrim), a legal model under which sex work is recognised as work (and not as a crime or non-crime) and therefore legislated under labour law, not criminal law.
We believe sex work is work. It is work that is often a means of survival for marginalised people who have fewer choices in how to provide for themselves and their families because of poverty, racism, and transphobia. We also believe sex workers have a right to safety and self-determination, to be treated with dignity, to live and work like anyone else. Our bodies are not crime sites.
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The full criminalisation of sex work is when all aspects of sex work are criminalised including the selling and buying of sex, as well as third parties (such as managers, drivers or security people). China, Russia, South Africa and the United States, (except for some counties of Nevada, where it is legalised) have this model.
In 2018 FOSTA-SESTA was introduced in the US, a set of laws targeting online advertising platforms effectively rendering all sex work trafficking by definition due to wide legal interpretations in US law, with detrimental consequences for sex workers’ safety and ability to screen clients. This conflation of sex trafficking with sex work is not only extremely dangerous – for both sex workers and victims of trafficking – but also fails to recognise sex work as labour, and further infantilises sex workers by implying it is impossible to choose to sell sex for a living, turning us into helpless ‘prostituted women’ with no agency or decision-making capacity of our own.
Under the full criminalisation model in the US, sex workers experience continuous harassment and violence by police. With the risk of police violence and a criminal record, sex workers are less likely to report abuse, leaving us more vulnerable to assault as attackers believe they can act with impunity.
Heavy policing leads to some sex workers not wanting to carry condoms because they can be used as evidence against you. This has obvious health implications for sex workers, including the risk of unwanted pregnancy, STIs and HIV.
For sex workers who want to leave, having a criminal record is a barrier to getting other work. Criminalisation often traps people in sex work by limiting options to do anything else.
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In Ireland, we live and work under the Nordic model, introduced in the North in 2015 and the Republic in 2017. This model is sometimes referred to as client criminalisation, as it bans the buying – but not the selling – of sex. The Nordic model was first implemented in Sweden in 1999, followed by Norway, Iceland, Canada, and France.
There is no evidence the Nordic model leads to a decline in prostitution, as is claimed by its proponents. The State reviews in both jurisdictions here confirmed this. The number of sex workers has actually increased, which makes sense to anyone who understands that the sex industry is fuelled by the poverty of people, mainly women, with limited options to earn a living. It is driven by need rather than demand, and with cost of living and housing crises, more people will turn to sex work to support themselves and their families.
It is worth noting that while its advocates (a motley alliance of politicians, religious fundamentalists, and radical feminists) often present this model under a pretext of women’s rights and protection of sex workers, there are no viable exit strategies being offered to those who do wish to leave the industry.
Research has shown the Nordic model does not improve the lives of sex workers; its introduction has in fact created far more dangerous conditions under which sex workers are now forced to work.
A reduced client pool means sex workers will agree to see clients that a worker would have previously turned down. A sex worker may start to offer more risky services, such as sex without a condom, to try and make the money they need.
If clients are afraid of being arrested, this forces sex workers to be more concerned about the clients safety, rather than their own. It means clients will be more reluctant to screen, and will prefer to see sex workers working alone, especially if working together (known as brothel keeping) is illegal.
In Ireland, the Nordic model is linked to other laws that set out the specifics of what constitutes ‘legal’ working – for example, you cannot by law work together in an apartment with another person (brothel keeping); you are not allowed to rent to a sex worker; you cannot have security (or a driver, cleaner, someone who answers the phone for you); online advertising sites are also illegal. These restrictions, although not criminalising the act of selling sex, make it difficult, nearly impossible, to work safely.
While we have strategies in place to protect ourselves and our fellow workers, those who are already struggling – migrant workers, street workers, trans workers, and sex workers of colour – inevitably suffer the damaging consequences of these laws most severely. Nordic model advocates claim it targets clients and was introduced to protect sex workers; in reality, sex workers are those being targeted, our working conditions further deteriorating and now more dangerous than before.
There are other systems of partial criminalisation, different to the Nordic Model, such as the laws in place in England, Scotland, and Wales. Read more here:
SWARM Collective: “Nordic Model In Northern Ireland A Total Failure” -
Under legalisation models, sex work is controlled by the government and legal only under certain state-specified conditions. The Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland all have models of legalisation.
On the surface legalisation can seem like a decent model: sex workers have rights, can carry out their work without fear of being prosecuted, their business is regulated by the state and tax office. In reality, legalisation creates a situation where workers have less agency and less of a say in how, where, and when they work: it takes away from their self-determination and ability to work independently. Window workers in Amsterdam need to provide documentation (passport, work permit) at the beginning of every work day: this makes it impossible for undocumented migrant sex workers to work safely, pushing them to the streets and thus into more dangerous working conditions. Like under models of criminalisation, the most vulnerable among us are hit the hardest with state regulations and restrictions. It creates a two tier system, where some sex workers are able to work legally and some are not.
Legalisation, while ostensibly a potentially decent model (‘sex workers are allowed to work’), reproduces the same framing of sex work as models of criminalisation: legislated under criminal law, sex work is either a crime (illegal) and criminalised; or not a crime (legal) and therefore legalised. This still insinuates that sex work has the potential to be a crime, thus turning our bodies and workplaces into risks deserving of increased scrutiny, stigma, police harassment, and discrimination.
*If the Amsterdam municipality has its way, workers will soon have their windows closed and be moved to an ‘erotic centre’ outside the city, where they’ll not be able to work unless included in a database of registered sex workers. Germany already has a similar database (in order to work in most places, you need to get a ‘prostitution license’); when it was introduced, all sex workers who refused to register suddenly became ‘illegal’ workers.
Read more about legalisation in the Netherlands here
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Decriminalisation is a legal model under which sex work is, literally, ‘decriminalised’, i.e. taken out of criminal law and grouped under labour law. Under models of decriminalisation, sex workers have access to the same rights as other workers: think of healthcare, a pension, unemployment. New Zealand became the first country where sex work was decriminalised (2003); Belgium followed in 2022, making it the first country in Europe where sex workers are legally recognised as workers.
Research has shown that decriminalisation reduces stigma, promotes health and allows sex workers to work more safely without the risk of getting a criminal record. In Belgium sex workers now have access to sick leave, maternity pay and pensions.
Under decriminalisation, sex workers have the right to decline to provide any sexual services or refuse to see any client they do not wish to see without having to give a reason. Sex workers can set the terms of how they will work, and can choose to work in brothels, on the street or at home as it suits them.
Trafficking and coercion remain illegal, as does facilitating anyone under the age of 18 in sex work.