Sex purchases – so widespread is sex trade in Sweden
After 453 pages, it is a relief to put Simon Häggström’s new fact book « Dark track: a scout’s fight against prostitution » (Lind & Co) aside and get distance to the nasty.
But that is exactly what Simon Häggström does not want.
For almost 18 years he has worked as a police officer with a focus on prostitution, always with Stockholm as a starting point. Now he wants to shake the readers and make them understand that the sex trade is a constant flow of abuse and humiliation where both buyers and sellers can be the one that the surroundings least expects.
The unaware parents
« I live in a large red house. Tap on the door I open. » Most young people who sell sex want to be seen at home with the buyer, in a car or hotel, but this girl invites the buyer to the villa in a prosperous middle class area in a medium -sized Swedish city. It will cost SEK 3,000. The police who pretend to be a buyer, in attempts to save young girls, are puzzled.
When Simon Häggström and his colleague explain why they are there, she asks them to go to her room. She says that her mother and little sister are upstairs and will be very rally if they discover that police are in place.
She is 19 years old and attends high school. Since she is of age, the police cannot contact her parents. They can only hope that the conversation will give her insights.
– I have met many shocked parents over the years, but when the children are 18 we must not inform the parents. The girls still go to high school and live at home, but the parents have no idea what is happening, says Simon Häggström.
Parents’ cluelessness sometimes depends on prejudice. Such things happen in broken and dysfunctional families, they believe, but being surrounded by middle -class markers and having a well -organized existence is no safe protection, emphasizes Simon Häggström.
« I’m not a whore »
A whore is an amphetamine -like woman who sells sex on Malmskillnadsgatan in Stockholm or a trafficking victim in a room where men are replacing each other. It is the usual picture, but it is just part of the sex trade.
« I don’t sell sex, I’m sugar dating ». Those words have Simon Häggström heard many times:
– Based on what we police see, the sugar dating pages are the most common way for young people to make their prostitution debut.
The image of a « sugardaddy » is romanticized; A man, a « sugar dad », who spends money on a young woman in exchange for her company and gives her a little gold edge on life. This skewed and hugely beautified view has partly removed stigma around prostitution, says Simon Häggström.
– Some young people have told themselves that sugar dating is like going on a very ordinary date, the only difference is that they get paid for it. But this is sex trafficking.
Simon Häggström has far too many examples of this, one he remembers a lot. The fifteen -year -old girl had followed a hotel room. After sex, she went and stood in the shower, and cried. The man entered the bathroom.
– When he saw her stand there, he got horny again, and committed a new abuse. Afterwards, he drove her to a pharmacy to arrange an emergency pill for her. When he told us all this in the interview after we seized him, it was difficult for me to hold back my feelings.
The trawl
It can come as a DM, direct message, on Instagram, or on Snapchat. Sometimes it is only compliments, but it can also be a direct question: « Do you want to go on a sugar dating? ».
– So men can trawl for young girls. We should not underestimate these perpetrators, they are extremely capable manipulators, says Simon Häggström.
A first step may be to offer a few hundred kronor for her to send a photo on her feet. The money attracts and the picture feels harmless, but the desires change; A photo of the stomach, for a higher amount, and then even more money to show even more.
– The step into the world of sex trading is so short today. It is enough to have snapchat and swish.
Surface and the pursuit of « goodness »
A teenager that the police had caught on a sugar dating site and a meeting with was waiting for his buyer. As Simon Häggström approached, he saw how she stood and scrolled on a famous influence’s account. He was not surprised, the filtered worlds are a allure.
– It is such a look press on especially young girls. Their value is measured in what they look like, what six appeal they have, how they are confirmed by men. Everything is surface, as it is the only thing they do. Fortunately, many young people are looking through this, but more good role models are needed among influencers.
This is also why we see an increase in the autumn as the school starts approach, then money is needed to buy « right » clothes
With a worried boiler, he mentions a high school girl who sold pornographic material on himself. She showed Simon Häggström a list on her mobile. The money she received would, among other things, be used for French extension, tooth whitening, fillers and breast enlargement.
-A 15-year-old told her that she sucked by men in their cars to be able to buy the clothes required to be accepted by the friends. She explained that she wanted to fit in. This is also why we see an increase in the autumn as the school starts approach, then money is needed to buy « right » clothes and status things, says Simon Häggström.
However, the desirable money does not bring happiness, it is a meaning that Simon Häggström repeats during the interview. Sometimes young girls have lit a fire and burn up the money they have received, in attempts to remove the memory of what happened.
Wives that nothing knows
At a scouting, Simon Häggström and his colleague followed a prostitute, a refugee from the War Ukraine, to a villa in Stockholm. Through the window they saw how the woman was on her knees in front of a man and performed oral sex. They immediately intervened. The crying man asked the police to speak quieter. It turned out that his three -year -old daughter was asleep behind a shed in the hall. When the police explained that they would connect the social services, whose staff were outside, the man was frightened and did not want to state where his wife was. In the end, he told me she was at BB. A few hours earlier, she had given birth to their second daughter, says Simon Häggström.
– It is quite common for us to encounter toddler parents or future or new fathers. They do not have an existing cohabitation and then feel the right to get sex elsewhere.
When the police arrive, they usually become desperate.
– They can say that they love their wives above all else and that their lives are crashing if it emerges that they have bought sex, says Simon Häggström.
The buyers
There is no typical sex buyer, says Simon Häggström. Most people he has met have been ordinary men, from all classes of society.
– Some are so -called supplement buyers. They are in a relationship but in it they dare not, or do not, live out their fantasies.
They may claim that they become a better partner or parent if they buy sex. They do not see it as infidelity because it is not an emotional betrayal.
– It’s just mechanical sex, with a woman they don’t even know the name of, they can say. Another explanation is that they do the woman a « service » because she needs money, but then I think « it’s not your cock she needs without food on the table ».
Simon Häggström sees sex purchases as a crime that is governed by values. The person believes that consent can be negotiated with money. A safe man who respects his fellow human beings would never be able to buy sex, he is convinced.
McKnull
In recent years, Simon Häggström has noted a change among sex buyers, he believes it depends on today’s consumer society where all needs and desires can be quickly satisfied, with just a few clicks.
– You can order a Big Mac that a food bid leaves in a quarter, or have a woman delivered home to your door within half an hour and that you can fuck for 20 minutes.
He wonders if it is due to a kind of laziness.
– It’s like some young men are unable to date or hang out at the pub and pick up. They want to be guaranteed a lie with the kind of sex they want, and they want to be able to plan it into the calendar. Our society today is so much of me, myself, mine.
Onlyfans and porn
Over the years, Simon Häggström has been heard in the public debate. His argument against porn has sometimes been met by accusations that he is sexual. His sharp words against the platform Onlyfans have been seen by some criticism of female empowerment. Talking about it makes him sigh abandoned.
– Today, porn can be things that would be classified as rape and it looks at young guys, they tell me when I’m out lecturing in schools.
Women who sell sex tell how porn injured customers can be. She should be an object that satisfies the man when he performs disgusts and exposes her to humiliation.
Simon Häggström regrets when articles about people who sell pornographic content on Onlyfans give the impression that it is easy to make a lot of money.
– More critical information is needed about this. Instead, write about everyone who hardly earns anything and who is then plagued by knowing that the material on them remains forever and can show up at any time. It is never, never, worth selling in any way. So far, I have not met a single person who has felt good to have done so.
In a few hours he will go on a night pass, the first of sex in a sweep. The job has made him refined, but not abandoned.
– The most dangerous thing is to become cynical and lose faith in humanity. If that happens, it’s time for me to stop.
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