This is one of those times when you have to be careful how you phrase what you mean because it is easy for your points to be misinterpreted.
For the record, I can see that prostitution provides a necessary service but hope that I never have to avail myself of it.
I also concur that the sex 'industry' is at the same time prolific and also dangerous but fail to see how legislation alone can significantly impact upon it unless it is acknowledged as a legitmate business and regulated accordingly.
The old chestnut about whoring and soldiering being the oldest professions (and frequently intermingling) is a truism but it is a sadness that in the 21st century, even in the 1st world, it is the only employment choice available for some women. But it is only a sadness if society as a whole denigrates and despises the role.
For me, because of my religious upbringing, the difference between a woman who charges for sex and one who has sex after dinner and a movie is very clear in terms of
my moral compass. But how different is it really? If both women are
chosing to do this then, intellectually, there is no difference - both benefit financially, neither is harmed and neither is committed to anything further.
I have personaly known women who have been 'on the game' for a source of income who were not part of the 'stable' of some pimp. For them, the model I noted above applies i.e. they needed money and made use of their assets to obtain it. Indeed, one really did find it empowering that men would pay to spend time with her; as there is no accounting for psychology that is not our own, I would not presume to judge her.
Sadly, the real world situation is seldom so clear. Once someone, usually a man, turns this transaction into something that benefits
him then the whole thing darkens and becomes unacceptable - or at least it does to me.
On topic (at last

), the Swedish laws on this are ridiculous and fail to 'protect' those whom the laws were allegedly designed for (regardless of what the PR tried to say). The Dutch approach is more sensible but has been circumvented by organised crime, presenting the issue of crime within business that occasionally shows up in many fields - the difference here being that the 'product' are human beings, which changes things somewhat.
What can be done to bring some sense of justice and order to this?
To be honest I don't know. On the one side, I actually find it abhorent that a governement will try to prevent a person making use of what assets they have to earn a living - if a womans choices are to charge for sex or not eat what right has a government to stop her? On the other I know that the 'Pretty Woman' ideal does not often exist in the grimy underbelly of our societies and the government has an obligation to try and protect those that are exploited in a trade that is all too often tawdry and violent.
Is it common sense to posit that the answer is to make the 'Pimping' aspect illegal? That would leave women free to pursue this avenue without legal hampering if they so desired whilst removing a good deal of the seediness and danger that is currently attached.
It's not a perfect answer as the women will still be in harms way from those men who get their kicks from domination and harming but it would at least act to remove that part of the business I find most abhorent i.e. the fact that pimping is human trafficing of the most debased kind (I'm embarassed that my reactionary right wing side comes out on this issue and am ashamed that my solution is what I term the "38 pence cure" (that being how much it used to cost to hand-load a pistol round)).