Interferenze e convergenze fra prostituzione e tratta nelle recenti proposte di incriminazione del cliente

Commercial sex is a heterogeneous phenomenon: many « sex workers » argue that prostitution is a matter of choice; at the same time, sexual exploitation is one of the main business activities in human trafficking. Recently, in Europe, the idea of discouraging demand of exploited people criminalizing clients of prostitutes is increasingly supported: the « Swedish model » criminalizes all forms of paying for sex; according to the Directive on trafficking, EU States are expected « to establish as a criminal offence the use of services which are the objects of sexual exploitation, with the knowledge that the person isa victim of human trafficking ».Having analyzed Italian legal system on voluntary prostitution, as well as law and legislation on trafficking in persons, the author examines the mentioned proposals on criminalization of clients and considers relations between prostitution and trafficking, empirical results of the Swedish model and implementation problems of the directive in some European countries. Finally, he questions whether the criminalization of the client is an effective tool to deal with vulnerable people in prostitution or a mismatch between two different phenomena, such as sex work and trafficking for sexual purposes.