Dr. Kathryn McGarry:

By criminalising demand, they seek to reduce prostitution but they have not reduced demand. There is evidence to suggest it has not been reduced in any significant manner. The Rose Alliance in Sweden, for example, which represents sex workers, has noted that there has not been a significant reduction in the number of the clients they engage with. One major issue, however, is the increase in the number of violent clients. Furthermore, in 2003 a brothel was raided in Stockholm and the names of 571 clients were found on a database. That was three years after the introduction of the purchase ban.

Another argument that has been made relates to the increase in sex tourism with men leaving Sweden to purchase sexual service elsewhere.