History of Feminism

It isn't that hard to get from Sweden to Finland, for example.

If you want to help the women who are being forced into prostitution, you have to find them. It's much harder to find them as long as either side of the transaction is illegal.

Know what would work better? Make it legal on both sides, and require the brothel to send the prostitutes for regular psychological care with independent mental health providers. That allows government to confirm their ages, ensure they are not being coerced, regulate limits such as to the number of "clients" they can see in a day, as well as pointing prostitutes to "we can help you get out of the business" programs. And make it easy for a prostitute to be her own licensed brothel, but tighter restrictions to employ other prostitutes.

There's also the definitional problem: What is sex trafficking? Most people have images of girls being shipped off to foreign lands against their will. But the definition that gets the big number in headlines is any person who travels to another country to be a prostitute, whether or not it is against their will. Because that number can be reasonably guessed at, and the "against their will" number is very hard to figure out.

Around 2002 the UK decided they had a massive sex trafficking problem, due to using the "all foreigners" definition. So they launched a large program that interviewed tens of thousands of prostitutes. The UK offered to help prostitutes get out of the business, including free travel back to their home country. Less than 20 took them up on the offer. The vast majority considered prostitution a "least bad" option. They weren't thrilled with the job, but their other options were worse.

We aren't going to fix that last sentence by throwing anyone in jail......at least anyone who isn't at the top of the income distribution. Prostitutes need better job options, but taking away the prostitution option does not make those better options appear.