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The purpose of this study is to examine social workers’ discourses about the Swedish sex purchase law and how they perceive that the sex purchase law and the social workers’ professional ethical principles affect the social workers’ ability to support people who are selling sex.

This study is a discourse analytical interview study based on a social constructionist perspective. The study focuses on analyzing the interviews based upon an inductive method. The interviews are qualitative and semi-structured.

The interviews were conducted by interviews with three social workers with experiences of working with people who sell sex. The central focus of the study is to analyze the social workers’ statements that are regarded as their perceptions. The statements serve as arguments that answers the purpose questions.

The results show that the interviewed social workers perceive that the sex purchase laws do affect the social workers’ ability to support people who sell sex. On the other hand, they show disagreement on whether the social workers’ professional ethical principles affected the social workers’ ability to support people who sell sex.