This report provides social and economic arguments for introducing the Nordic Model approach to prostitution policy and legislation in the UK and for other interventions to end the impunity of third parties who promote and profit from the sexploitation of women, children, and other marginalised individuals.

The UK spends vast sums of public money attempting – and failing – to address massive social problems that threaten the very fabric of our society. Problems like serious and organised crime (SOC), rising numbers of children in care, rapidly rising rates of male violence against women and girls (MVAWG), the increasing phenomenon of incels, of men who, in the words of Keir Starmer are “retreating into parallel lives”. Starmer said this in his speech after the sentencing of Axel Rudakubana for murdering three little girls and maiming several others and their female teacher. Starmer went on to talk of a growing sense that the unwritten rules that hold us all together have recently been ripped apart.

In this paper, we argue that a major aspect behind all of these issues and more is the rise and rise of pornography, webcamming, OnlyFans, brothels and massage parlours, lap dancing clubs, of websites that present catalogues of women, each one apparently willing, desperate even, for men to order her up as if she were a pizza. ‘Sex work’ in other words. A colossal and powerful industry that serves women and girls up to men and boys as objects to leer at, to masturbate into, to vent one’s frustrations on.

This paper argues for a radical new approach; an end to unhelpful euphemisms, like ‘sex work’; an end to treating women as second-class citizens; an end to being in the pockets of lobbyists for the sexploitation industry; and above all an end to the omertà, the code of silence and extreme loyalty to men’s systematic advantaging at the expense of women and girls, that leads to our cultural refusal to see what is staring us in the face.

Outline

• Introduction
  • About Nordic Model Now!
• Part 1: The costs to women directly involved
  • The risks and harms of sexploitation
    • Entry into prostitution
    • Inherent dangers
    • Physical health risks
    • Mental health risks
    • Putting a price on the harms
  • The case studies
    • Sarah
    • Arlene
    • Kelly
• Part 2: Costs to society
  • Background
  • Male violence against women and girls (MVAWG)
    • Costs
    • Causes
    • Prevention
  • Sex trafficking
    • Costs
    • Why tackling men’s demand for prostitution is key
  • A note about terminology
  • Serious and organised crime (SOC)
    • Costs
  • Impact on relationships
    • Costs
  • Impact on the birth rate
  • Impact on children’s welfare
    • Costs
  • Pornography, prostitution, and child sexual abuse as a continuum
  • “Grooming gangs”
    • Costs
  • Inequality
  • Conclusion
• Part 3: Recommendations
  • Non-legislative measures
    • Police culture and practice
    • Services for women involved in sexploitation
    • Sex education
    • Youth services
    • Universities and research
    • Sexual entertainment venues
    • Gender mainstreaming
    • Services for problematic porn users
  • Legislative measures
    • Terminology and definitions
    • Age of consent
    • Modern Slavery Act 2015
    • The Nordic Model
    • CEDAW
    • Pornography
• Appendix
  • Response to House of Lords Committee on the Modern Slavery Act 2015’s inquiry