This report on prostitution and sexual exploitation is based on the directives on victims of violence and human trafficking. According to several reports approximately 40-42 million people are involved in prostitution globally and around 96% of the prostitutes are women. The first Eurostat report with official data on prostitution was published in April 2013 and it focused on human trafficking in the EU between 2008 and 2010. It found that 62% of the trafficked women are victims of sexual exploitation and that many of the trafficked women come from within the EU. Furthermore, prostitution is connected with organised crime, and is second only to drugs in its scope and according to the Havoscope website, yields revenue of approximately $186 billion per year worldwide.
This report is trying to change the perspective on prostitution from the supply to the demand side and therefore endorses the Nordic model of criminalising the client rather than the prostitute, who should have all adequate help and should not be condemned or stigmatised when often suffering from trauma, drug or alcohol addiction and facing a higher mortality rate than women in general. Programmes to help women to escape from prostitution should be developed.