End-Demand Strategies

End-demand strategies refer to any approaches seeking to abolish commercial sex by targeting those who seek to purchase sexual services. The most well-known is the so-called "Swedish Model" of legislation, which criminalizes the purchase of sexual services, but not the sale of said services (at least not outright, as other practices related to the sale of sexual services can still be outlawed). Other models include:
* Encouraging police departments to arrest clients of sex workers ("johns") but not sex workers themselves; this includes sting operations which target prospective clients.
* Advertising and other "awareness" efforts, including so-called "john schools" to disseminate information/claims about the harmful effects of purchasing sexual services and/or to shame clients of sex workers.
*Criminalizing any form of advertising by and for sex workers (FOSTA/SESTA).
* Drives to get men to pledge to not purchase sexual services and discourage other men to do so.
Critics of end-demand strategies fault them for a number of reasons:
* They conflate consensual sex work with sex trafficking, arguing that all commercial sex transactions are coerced or violent.
* They ignore the diverse and complex experiences of sex workers, even dismissing sex worker organizations.
* Their campaigns overgeneralize all clients as male and all clients as female, as well as ignoring issues of poverty, race, and trangender identity.
* They offer little or no actual support for either sex trafficking victims or sex workers seeking to transition out of the industry.
* They ignore or gloss over abuses by police and prison personnel, since end-demand advocates rely so heavily on law enforcement to carry out their programs.
*Neither the Swedish Model nor any other end-demand strategy has been shown to reduce the amount of commercial sex; sex worker rights activists have even presented evidence that such approaches actually increase violence, exploitation and other harms against sex workers.
In the Free Spirit series, Bridie Chase and her Abolition Initiative are dedicated to seeing end-demand strategies implemented nationwide, as are the Student Coalition Against Trafficking and other groups and individuals. The Free Spirit Connection has ratified a number of resolutions against the Swedish Model and end-demand strategies, favoring decriminalization and consistently supporting sex worker rights.
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