Sex trade in Helsinki no longer in hands of large criminal organisations

Ban on buying sex services unlikely to affect work, says one Helsinki prostitute

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The availability of paid sex services in Helsinki has largely moved off the city streets into dark night clubs and onto the Internet. Police say that it is more difficult than before to react to prostitution.
      If Parliament passes pending legislation, the purchase of sex services will become illegal. Now there is only a ban on procurement, and buying the services of prostitutes in public places.
      According to researcher Anna Kontula, vice president of SALLI - United Sex Professionals of Finland, between 100 and 500 prostitutes sell sex services in Helsinki on a daily basis.
      The total number of prostitutes is believed to be much larger, because most of them engage in the trade only occasionally - perhaps twice a month or so.
      "According to customers, it is more difficult than before to find prostitutes in Helsinki. This results either from the reduction of their numbers, or because they take fewer customers than before", Kontula says.
      Most of those selling sex services are Finns. Second in line are Russians and Estonians.
     
There is less procurement in Helsinki than before, with some of the pimping activities moving to cities such as Tampere and Turku. Kontula’s assessment is confirmed by Seppo Sillanpää of the Helsinki Police.
      A number of large procurement rings have been broken up in Helsinki, which is believed to have led to a reduction of pimps in Helsinki.
      "According to information that we have, there are no large procurement organisations operating in Helsinki any more, but there is still some small-scale pimping", Sillanpää says.
      Police have begun informing landlords and hotels if there are indications of the sex trade being practiced on their premises. Sillanpää and Kontula say that this has led to a situation in which fewer prostitutes work in their own homes.
      Visits to hotels and to the homes of clients have become more common. It is difficult for the police to react to such activities.
     
Kontula says that most of the sex trade now takes place among buyers and sellers who have met before.
      Most new contacts take place on a web site called Sihteeriopisto ("Secretary school"), where approximately 70 women and about ten men market their services in Helsinki.
      After the web site, the night clubs Mikado and Alcatraz are the second-most common locations for new contacts between prostitutes and clients, Kontula says.
      Helsinki also has a number of Thai massage locations. Kontula says that most of them sell sex services.
      Street prostitution has decreased considerably from the late 1990s - to the point that Sillanpää says that the activities are difficult to even notice.
     
Officials at the Ministry of Justice believe that the planned criminalisation of the purchase of sex services would reduce procurement and the sex trade.
      One 30-year-old professional, who goes under the name of Angelika, does not believe that the ban would affect her activities, as she already has a number of established clients.
      "As long as men get erections, prostitution will never end", she says.
      Angelika gets new contacts over the Sihteeriopisto web site, and she has no plans to remove her telephone number from there in the future.
     
In the enforcement of the proposed new law, police will have to consider how to get enough evidence to secure a conviction for buying sex services.
      "We will have to consider if there is any point in spending several hours for a single fine, or if we should focus our resources elsewhere", says officer Pauli Åkerla.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Justice Ministry to propose criminalisation of buying sex (14.11.2005)
  Report says most Finnish prostitutes work part-time (27.5.2005)

Links:
  SALLI United Sex Professionals in Finland

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