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However, Sweden DID NOT legalize prostitution.

What Sweden did was criminalize buying and pimping, rather than selling. And it works. Because unlike the prostitutes, the clients are generally people with things to lose. So prostitution is still a crime in Sweden, the only difference is that the Johns and Pimps are considered the guilty party and the prostitutes are classified as victims. Other countries that have gone for legalization/decriminalization instead, have seen a huge rise in the rates of human trafficking. Sweden already has a reputation among organized crime as a bad country operate in.
Because no legal system has ever focused on the Johns before. In fact, when it was first proposed in the European Parliament in the 90’s, it was met with ridicule-at a time when legalization/decriminalization was fashionable.

And no. I don’t think you can make that kinds of assertion with a serial killer. The reality of these characters is that they are often extremely intelligent and because they don’t follow patterns (ei usual motive scenarios), that make other killers easier to catch. Their motivation system is different from that of the rest of us. Ted Bundy actually used to look into young women’s faces and said he could tell who would make an easy victim. They all have their MO on how to find victims and there are many, many ways to do that. Whether they are looking into their faces, watching how certain children interact with their peers, being an inconspicuous presence in social settings, figuring out who lives alone, having a job where you can learn about people’s daily habits, involvement in community/political groups, and so much more.

I’ve heard arguments long ago that in a case where the serial killers targeting prostitutes was involved that “the stress couldn’t have helped” or something to that effect-with regards to the illegality. As well as a few months ago suggesting that a man who went on a shooting spree might not have done what he did if he understood feminist theory. I’m less than confident that you are understanding these monsters. They aren’t victims of society. They are monsters. The victims of Ridgeway and Sowell, along with Bundy, Dahmer, Gacy, the Zodiac, Jack the Ripper, and others were the victims of their monstrosity. To suggest that social policy or flaws in policing are anything but dwarfed by comparison, is to fail to acknowledge the crime and the nature of these serial killers. Or shooting spree murderers. Therefore, I would consider it a specious argument that just because some serial killers target prostitutes, means that legalizing prostitution can stop serial killers. It’s almost like saying George Bush only did what he did because he wasn’t in Vietnam: lacking in common sense about those who lack any normal humanity.

Also you can play the Ridgeway case the other way when it comes to prostitution laws. Since Ridgeway was caught soliciting prostitutes a number of times between the point in the 80’s when he became suspect and his arrest. Including once just a few weeks before he was finally arrested and charged with the Green River murders. So you could just as easily argue that if the police had taken coordination between the prostitution stings and other departments more seriously, that they might have caught Ridgeway years earlier. So in that framework you could just as well say, they weren’t taking prostitution seriously enough as a crime.

[Gee, or maybe just “Because unlike the prostitutes, the clients are generally people?” Yes. It would have been great if the murder task force and the vice squads coordinated their information. Just like it would have been nice in Cleveland and countless other places where, I guess, “low rent” non-celebrity, “low intelligence” serial killers are able to operate without getting caught. But gee, I wonder why they didn’t bother? How about because so many opponents of prostitution have exactly the same attitude towards prostitutes their predators do? Have I mentioned that little convergence, rather than any fondness for prostitution itself, that’s the primary reason I started paying attention to the issue of sex work at all? —fl]

Speculating on the attitudes of “opponents of prostitution” is once again rather specious. Seeing how opponents include feminists who consider it exploitative, I say that most do not. (That argument is on par with saying that Hitler was pro-environment.) But trying to figure out how “most opponents of prostitution” see things, is not in itself and argument. The reason that hitting the Johns works is because it attacks demand for the whole sick industry. Plain and simple. Many Johns are guys who care about their reputations, and probably still would even if it were totally legal. To suggest otherwise ignores the nature of the beast. As for speculating on why it was hard to catch these guys. Blaming the laws for it is specious. The police are not superhuman and heavily rely on things like motive to point them in the right direction. Serial killers are by their nature very hard to catch because they don’t attack those in their immediate circle and they don’t have a clear money motive. Also most of their crimes with a Cool Rationality, that most human being simply aren’t capable of when it comes to killing, unless they are trained killers. The truth is that these persons are basically a very, very nasty part of the human condition and they’ve always been difficult to deal with. And most people no matter their politics simply don’t look at other human beings the way that serial killers look at their victims-otherwise there wouldn’t be any people left. To suggest that even Pat Robertson is capable of looking upon prostitute the way ALL serial killers look at their victims, is to trivialize what a serial killer actually is. Also the idea of “asking prostitutes what they think is best” is a specious argument. Because different prostitutes and ex-prostitutes are going to have different opinions. The Swedish law has NOT failed, but has done better than the legalization schemes in other parts of Europe. Other European countries are looking at it. Not meant to prevent violence against prostitutes? Baloney. How in the world can that be the case, when it has cut human trafficking down by such a large margin-at the same time when it skyrocketed in countries where decriminalization/legalization was the norm? Or when prostitutes who do come to the attention of the law are directed to social services that will help them get out of it? The only job of the cops is policing violence? That’s news to me, when most of the statutes on the books involve property crimes, misdemeanors, and traffic tickets. And even if it were true, it ignores the fact that prostitution is a violent “industry”, even in places like the Netherlands, Germany, or Australia.

@Red –
In the 1900s coal mining was an extremely dangerous profession. It had immediate and long lasting effects on peoples health, and also ended up killing a great deal of workers every time something went badly.
These miners didn’t need the police to arrest people who bought coal, or social services to put them through the system to find a job as a hair dressers or manicurist. They needed better working conditions, better representation and unions.

It’s the same with sex workers. Listen to the workers and they will tell you what’s best for them. Disregarding the entire worker position because there are oppositional views by current and former sex workers is laughable. So I suppose it is you, the non pro, who will best answer for them.

Sure the cops have other jobs than policing violence. But policing men and womens morality is not one of them. The role the cops have is to ensure that sex workers receive the same protection as other people against abuse, rape, robbery and violence (and receive parking tickets when they park in the wrong zone). That does not include going into your work space and deterring your clients.

-lush

I don’t think you can compare coal to prostitution. At that time alternative energy wasn’t really on the map (although it could have been utilized more than it was), but there is no reason why prostitution provides any remotely comparable need to energy. (Please don’t say that people lived without coal in the past, because they did use wood and other sources.) Whatever you can say about coal mining and other items on the “there are other shitty jobs” argument, show me an example of another job where the workers have a higher PTSD rate than combat vets.