Tackling Trafficking by Targeting Sex Buyers: Can It Work?

The European legal instruments on human trafficking encourage states to tackle the demand for services of trafficked persons, for example, by making the use of services of a trafficked person a criminal offense. In Finland, buying sex from a trafficked person is a criminal offense. This article reports the results of an evaluation of the Finnish law and shows that the implementation has been inefficient. The authors argue that with an amendment of the law, the implementation could be improved but a truly efficient policy would require a total ban of sex purchase along the lines of the Swedish model.