Att sälja sin kropp och förlora sitt hem - En redogörelse för hur bristande vandel kan tolkas i den samtida rättskulturen

Sammanfattning: The foreign prostitute has, over a period of more than 100 years, transitioned from being deported due to her antisocial behavior to being regarded as a victim today. This development has taken place over an extended period, where the perspectives of legislators and society have alternately influenced each other. A clear stance was taken by the state when the criminalization of sex purchase was introduced in 1999. Prostitution was acknowledged as a serious societal issue, but punishing the vulnerable was deemed by the legislator as unjust. This viewpoint persists today among both authorities and human rights advocates. The question is how the Tidö Agreement's proposal regarding lack of moral conduct aligns with this perspective. The essay aims to elucidate how the concept of lacking moral conduct fits into today's legal culture. Expelling someone on the grounds of prostitution has not been possible in Sweden since 1989. At the time the first deportation law was introduced, the foreign prostitute was viewed as mentally ill, disorderly, and a societal danger who should be deported. This perception persisted within the legislator until the early 1980s, after a strong feminist spirit had permeated the previous decade in both legislation and society at large. The blame was thus shifted away from the prostitute and instead placed on troubled upbringings and insufficient societal efforts. As attitudes towards her changed, immigration legislation followed suit. The legislator expressed the inconsistency of treating Swedish and foreign prostitutes differently, leading to the abolition of prostitution as a deportation ground. In 1999, the Sex Purchase Act came into effect as a result of a changed perspective on prostitution and its participants, with a focus on the buyer. Despite the harmful effects of prostitution on society, the legislator considered it more important to protect the exploited woman than to possibly address the problem through the criminalization of the seller. Since then, prostitutes have been deemed worthy of protection by both legislators and society, and foreign women have been considered among the most vulnerable.