What we talk about when we talk about buying sex.

This article explores the discourse on prostitution, trafficking, and buying sex. Buying sex or the purchase of sexual services, as the law says, has been a criminal act in Sweden since 1999. In the summer of 2006 Finland followed the lead, making it a crime to purchase sex from a person who has been subjected to trafficking or procuring. These reforms give a signal that the customers are responsible for increasing the international sex trade, but as the author argues, the commercial language used by the law makers may be a double-edged sword.