Less Money, More Problems: The Cruelty of the “End Demand” Model of Policing
In a complex world, simple stories win. Combined with fear and ignorance, simple stories can be powerful vehicles for propaganda used to justify state oppression. A simple story based ever so loosely on market theory is justifying a form of policing called “End Demand”, which is targeted at people in the sex trade. End Demand has many names; The Nordic Model, the Swedish Model, the Equality Model…but it may as well be called the Entrapment Model.
The story of End Demand goes as such: Fewer sex trade clients means less prostitution. Less prostitution means less exploitation. This simple story is not only incorrect, but has dangerous consequences for labor in the sex trade.
As the raid-and-rescue method of policing in the sex trade has lost public favor, anti-prostitutionists have had to adapt a new model of criminalization. Unwilling to have challenging conversations about harms linked to generational poverty, racism, homelessness, hunger, immigration, and substance dependence…carceral feminists have pointed the finger of blame at the buyer. Sex trade abolitionists assert that arresting more clients is the key to ending the sex trade, which they claim is inherently exploitative (another simple story).
End Demand suggests that cutting off cashflow to the sex trade economy will discourage profiteering exploiters and force sex workers to find “real” jobs. However, abusive management and sex workers — regardless of market situations — don’t respond to a reduction of business by simply deciding to “quit the industry” and go get full time corporate jobs with a company car and a full benefits package. The notion that people who sell sex and face hard times will simply move on to greener pastures is absurd, privileged, and fails completely to comprehend the reasons why people become sex trade involved in the first place.
End Demand is a form of economics siege that’s had catastrophic consequences on sex worker welfare. Ham-fisted and reckless, End Demand tactics have increased instability and scarcity in the sex trade, fostering circumstances ripe for exploitation. It’s time to move beyond the simple math of sensationalism and examine the actual impacts and outcomes of the End Demand model of policing.
Supply-Side Ramifications of End Demand
In economics, the theory of supply/demand is used to illustrate interactions between suppliers and consumers in a given market. Supply and demand curves determine the price and quantity of goods and services. Any changes in supply and demand will have an effect on the price and quantity of the goods sold, as well as incentives for producers and consumers alike.
The supply/demand theory is often used within the anti-sex work industry to suggest that if demand dries up, supply will simply wither away. This line of thinking objectifies sex workers as commodities, which they are not. Regardless of their level of autonomy, people who supply sexual services are laborers who bear the brunt of human suffering that accompanies market fallout. Victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sex workers alike feel the squeeze then there is less money to be made.
Intentionally causing an imbalance of demand for services in the sex trade leads to disadvantages for people who supply sexual services, such as:
Lost Bargaining Power — Fewer clients in the sex trade economy means there’s less money to be made. Providers of services must work harder to earn and keep clients. End Demand fosters a “buyers market”, where clients have increased leverage to determine the terms of service. Lost bargaining power for sex workers can result in decreased ability to negotiate prices, condom use, as well as what types of services are rendered and under what conditions.
Dangerous Encounters — It would be impossible to arrest and detain all sex trade clientele. End Demand relies on the fear of legal and social consequence to discourage potential buyers. These types of risks are unlikely to deter predators who already participate in crimes such as rape, assault, kidnaping, theft, blackmail, and murder. By discouraging benign clients from the economy, sex workers are statistically more likely to encounter a predator.
Class Stratification — Clients who are adverse to increased risk are unlikely to visit with multiple providers. Under the threat of arrest, clients favor well known sex workers who are verified as “definitely not cops”. This trend negatively impacts new sex workers who have less of an established reputation, and can particularly disfavor sex workers who are young, non-white, trans, or operating outdoors. The end result is that privileged sex workers end up getting steady clientele while their less privileged peers hustle harder to make ends meet with more clandestine clientele.
Client Skittishness — Vice stings are the bread and butter of the End Demand model of policing. Vice stings are intended to be broadcasted in the media, sending a warning signal to potential clients. This creates anxiety and paranoia amongst clients, who become less likely to yield personal information that sex workers use to assess safety. Client skittishness can reduce the time a sex worker has to negotiations terms of service. This is particularly true of transactions being negotiated in public or on the street. Paranoid clients are more likely to act irrationally and unpredictably. Psychologically, clients who experience stress under End Demand can end up blaming sex workers as the source of their suffering, leading to violence.
Scarcity Mentality — When people are in need, their stress and risk taking is likely to increase. The psychological impact of doing sex work out of desperation can have deeply negative impacts on a person’s mental health. When a sex worker is in need, the logistical and emotional power imbalances between them and their client are increased. If society doesn’t want people to have terrible experiences in the sex trade, then we should be fortifying sex workers against scarcity mentality.
Displaced Advertising — A common End Demand tactics is to shutdown websites where sex workers advertise their services. Shutting these sites down doesn’t cause the supply or demand for prostitution to go away, it simply displaces it. When websites get shut down, sex workers and clients alike migrate to different places (social media, dating sites, bars, hotel lobbies, the streets) in an attempt to find each other. Operating outside of sex trade advertising venues can expose sex workers to harassment, doxxing, blackmail, and violence from the general public, and increase odds of discrimination and arrest.
Miscommunication — Surveillance culture and the looming fear of sting operations discourage clients and sex workers from discussing terms of service. The inability to communicate terms increases the odds that a client will be dissatisfied with services, and that sex workers will have to make hard decisions about boundaries that will impact their bottom line.
Competition Amongst Workers — Due to criminalization and stigma, sex workers have historically had to rely on each other for collective safety and prosperity. Dwindling financial resources in the sex trade economy creates friction amongst peers in the sex trade. If sex workers view each other as competition for scare resources, they will be less likely to share safety information, clients, tools of the trade, or tips for success. When sex workers can’t rely on each other, they are often left fending for themselves in a vulnerable state of physical and emotional isolation.
End Demand is a Form of Class Warfare
The End Demand movement has created a hotbed for exploitation. When workers have less bargaining power they are more likely to be exploited due to their compromised circumstances. Consciously or not, the End Demand movement callously revels in the plight of the working class.
End Demand fails completely to acknowledged the lack of resources and social safety net that drive people to become sex trade involved. If poverty is a festering laceration suffered by society, End Demand is salt in the wound. Frantic efforts to “end sex trafficking” have resulted in a juggernaut of expensive law enforcement initiatives and media campaigns that do everything except adhere to the demands for decriminalization and social services that sex workers have been making for decades.
In order to effectively address exploitation in the sex trade, society must get off it’s high horse of saviorism and listen to sex workers. In listening, society would learn that increased access to housing, healthcare, education and basic income would be the best remedies to combat abuse in the commercial sex industry. This is not a simple solution, but the sex trade is not a simple economy. Simple stories may capture our hearts and our minds, but they further aggravate complex problems.
Originally published on the SWOP-Behind Bars blog.
