4. What is decriminalization?

MO Ho Justice advocates for the full decriminalization of sex work, as opposed to legalization or the Swedish/Nordic model (which are sometimes included under the umbrella of decriminalization):

• Legalization refers to regulation of both the buying and selling of sex acts. Legalization still means that portions of sex work, as defined in law, are illegal. This method does not help to distinguish sex work from sex trafficking. If sex work is ‘legalized’, it still results in the criminalization of certain aspects of the job, enabling law enforcement to continue to conflate sex with illegality and in some places, trafficking.

• The Swedish (or Nordic) model—a method that purports to criminalize only “part of the transaction”—does not address sex workers’ underlying need for safety. It is nearly impossible to have someone selling, someone buying, and then to only criminalize part of the overall transaction. What actually happens is the person selling is triangulated by police and their client, and they are still often charged with trafficking.

  • Additionally, if a friend is working alongside them, the friend is then situated as a “partner” in what police can and often do simply cite as a trafficking case.

  • This also means that anyone who lives with, works with, or provides services to sex workers (including drivers, landlords, friends, roommates, children, partners, and other sex workers) is vulnerable to criminalization.

• Full decriminalization completely removes all criminal codes targeting sex work.
  This method ultimately keeps sex workers safest.