Compare facts

[Curvaceous Kate]

I can see that some people here are completely freaking out with the law change. Some of you are feeling resentment, some of you are just plain scared, while others are going to give up and some play safe with who they already know.

I thought that maybe if you had some facts you might get a better perspective on the reality and then you can make a more informed decision on what you want to do and hopefully stop feeling resentment towards the sex workers for not being made criminals, as believe me, it is no walk in the park for us either.

So... let's start with comparing Sweden with Northern Ireland.

In 1999 when the law was introduced the population of Sweden was 8.858. While Northern Ireland in 2014 is 1.8 million. That is over 4 times smaller than Sweden.

In the first year there were 94 reports and 11 people were prosecuted or given 'wavered prosecutions', which meant they had to go on an adult caution scheme (no prison).

That is with a population of 8.58 million

In 2011 it was recorded a population 9.5 million in Sweden, so nearly 5 times more than Northern Ireland. 12 years after the law came in to place the reports have increased predominantly, with a record of 765 reportings and a total of 445 prosecutions and wavered prosecutions, which comparable would translate to approx 89 for Northern Ireland.

There is no record of anyone going to prison.

You also need to take into account that the methods used in Sweden are not all accessible to the PSNI, along with the resources or the man power.

It's not great, but Northern Ireland is not Sweden. Yes there will be some people reported, but they will be the ones that don't know what they are doing, let their guard down or don't try to play safe. If you are careful and plan properly, don't act on impulse so much and try to make sure you know where you're going you should be okay. They don't have the money to go after everyone, they are going to concentrate on the nuisance calls, the over used and less discrete and leave the rest of us to get on with our work in peace.