'Name and shame sex-buyers': Ask
Sweden's justice minister Beatrice Ask wants families to know if their husbands or fathers are suspected of buying sex.
"It is a little like being shamed on the town square," the government minister said in at a seminar on Thursday.
Ask made her controversial statements at a parliament seminar on prostitution on Thursday, saying that a sex-buyer's family and friends should be informed.
"I could imagine having envelopes in a very garish colour and sending them home to people suspected of this offence," she said.
Ask argued that naming and shaming sex-buyers would be an effective deterrent.
"I think that the worst thing which can happen to many of them who are out there buying sex, is that someone in their circles finds out about it," said Ask.
Speaking to the Aftonbladet tabloid Ask conceded that the garish envelope idea was perhaps not the best idea in practice, but defended the idea in principle.
"In practice maybe we can't have coloured envelopes, but we have to show who they are and let those around them know," she said to the newspaper.
Ask now plans to discuss the idea with her colleagues.
"I have to check with them. They think I am a little wild from time to time," the minister said.
(From The Local - http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=25636)
Who knows if this will ever become the reality but it's good that even ministers in the current right-wing government favour tougher laws. The left, if they win power this September, want to also criminalise paying for sex abroad and I think favour increasing the maximum punishment beyond 6 months.