By Bosse Parbring
NIKK has engaged eleven researchers from all of the Nordic countries in a oneyear research project which will compare knowledge about and attitudes to prostitution in the Nordic countries. The initiative comes from the Nordic Council of Ministers and is part of the Nordic Gender Equality Co-operation Programme 2006–2010. The project is lead by Doctor in Politics May-Len Skilbrei from the Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research in Norway and Doctor in Philosophy Charlotta Holmström from Malmö University in Sweden. Both conduct research on prostitution and together with colleagues from all of the Nordic countries, they will map the situation in the countries.
“Prostitution is an important social theme. It’s continually on the political agenda. Hardly a week passes without it being discussed”, says May-Len Skilbrei. “In the last few years an understanding of the need for knowledge has emerged in the debate”, she continues. “This research project is part of this development. Much of the conflict is about what we actually know. In the Norwegian debate on a possible criminalisation of prostitution it has been pointed out that we don’t know what has happened in Sweden as a result of the criminalisation of the buying of sex.”
“Prostitution has been a point of disagreement in the equality debate in the Nordic countries.”
The aims of the project are to:
• produce new knowledge on prostitution and prostitution-driven human trafficking in the Nordic countries, with particular focus on gender equality perspectives;
• conduct a survey and analysis of means concerning men’s and women’s attitudes to, and the extent of prostitution in the Nordic countries and autonomous territories;
• collect and utilise reports on prostitution and trafficking produced in the individual countries and autonomous territories;
• contribute to the creation of a basis of common knowledge, which will increase the opportunity for good Nordic co-operation to combat prostitution and trafficking.
The project will collect existing knowledge on the extent of prostitution and prostitution-driven trafficking (including information on ethnic backgrounds) from the police, social services and other authorities involved. The project will critically evaluate the various means that are used today to calculate the extent, but it does not have the resources to develop new and better means for this.
The project aims at collecting updated knowledge on how prostitution and prostitution-driven human trafficking is handled legally and by social measures in the Nordic countries, and on what consequences these measures might have on the extent and contents of prostitution and prostitution-driven trafficking.
The project will map and discuss women’s and men’s attitudes to the buying of sexual services. Data from existing, recent quantitative opinion polls and surveys on the buying of sex will be put together. In addition, smaller pilot surveys will be considered. Otherwise, this part of the project will be based on qualitative methods.
Although only Sweden has criminalised the buying of sex, there is in many respects a shared view on prostitution as such in the Nordic countries, according to the researchers. They therefore hope that the knowledge produced by this project will not be linked to political positions.
“We hope that the knowledge basis generated by the project will lead to a further development of the political discussion on the issue”, says Charlotta Holmström.
The project will be closed in the autumn of 2008 with a Nordic conference and its results will be disseminated on the websites of NIKK and of the Nordic Council of Ministers and in NIKK magasin.
Researchers from all the Nordic Countries
Charlotta Holmström, Dr.Phil, Faculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, Sweden (Head of Project)
Jari Kuosmanen, Dr.Phil, Lecturer and Researcher, Department of Social Work, Göteborg University, Sweden
Annelie Siring, PhD Student, Department of Social Work, Göteborg University, Sweden
May-Len Skilbrei, Dr.Pol, Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research, Norway (Head of Project)
Marianne Tveit, Researcher, Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research, Norway
Ingrid Smette, PhD Student, Norwegian Social Research Institute (Nova), Norway
Synnøve Jahnsen, cand.polit., University of Bergen, Norway
Jeanett Bjønness, PhD Student, Institute of Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Marlene Spanger, Graduate Research Fellow, Department of Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University, Denmark
Anne-Maria Marttila, PhD Student, Department of Social Science History, University of Helsinki, Finland
