The Nordic Model

Even with the normal stigma surrounding sex trafficking that it does not affect the United States, it is a large issue that affects 87% of the worlds countries despite being illegal in all of them. With these high rates, it is hard to find a solution that benefits the victims of the trade and helps to get them out of it. There are many theories on ways to fix the trade such as different organizations that work to help the women in the trade get back to their old lives. However, there is one that is debated more than the others, which is the Nordic model. This model instead of the current United States court system that criminalizes the victims of sex trafficking, recognizes all the women as victims no matter which area of the sex trade they

According to the owner of a group named Scarlet Hope that helps to bring women out of prostitution, Rachelle Starr, says that all of the women that she works with are from bad circumstances where they are told that they can go to their local strip club to make easy money to support their families. A lot of the women are trying to make ends meet and come from horrible backgrounds of abuse both sexually and mentally. The same thing occurs with those who are in the sex trafficking industry. Many are abducted individuals from broken backgrounds such as sexual abuse or foster care who are in need of someone to love and care for them. Their abductors take this chance to lure the women in by pretending to be a significant other that cares for them and will buy and supply them with goods and a place to stay. After they have created a trustworthy relationship with these women and children, they slowly start to make the women and children “repay” them for all that they did by selling themselves for sex and the abductor will not let the women come back to them unless they have earned a certain amount of money for them. If they resist their wishes, there is mental and physical abuse that helps to force them into the industry. and then they slowly

Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Canada, France, and Ireland are all examples of countries that have adopted the Nordic model as their approach to helping those within the sex trafficking industry, according to nordicmodelnow.org. These countries have all seen a decrease in criminal offenses after adopting the Nordic model (Africa News Service). In particular, Sweden, which has adopted the Nordic model as law in their country has not had any documented murders since they passed the law in their country. Countries have also reported to have a lower amount of street prostitution occurring (women selling themselves for sex in the open) and less cases found of sex trafficking on a whole (Dempsey). Even supposing that the Nordic model only helps for street prostitution in these countries, it is still a huge help in the realm of prostitution as it helps to make prostitution harder to come by and more risky to participate