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Immunology => Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) => Prostitution
Prostitution
INTRODUCTION
Prostitution, the performance of sexual acts solely for the purpose of material gain. Persons prostitute themselves when they grant sexual favors to others in exchange for money, gifts, or other payment and in so doing use their bodies as commodities. In legal terms, the word prostitute refers only to those who engage overtly in such sexual-economic transactions, usually for a specified sum of money. Prostitutes may be of either sex, but throughout history the majority have been women, reflecting both the traditional socioeconomic dependence of women and the tendency to exploit female sexuality. Although prostitution has often been characterized as the "world's oldest profession," the concept of women as property, which prevailed in most cultures until the end of the 19th century, meant that the profits of the profession most often accrued to the men who controlled it. Men have traditionally been characterized as procurers and customers, but they are increasingly being identified as prostitutes. They generally serve male customers and sometimes impersonate women.
Prostitution in various forms has existed from earliest times. It is dependent on the economic, social, and sexual values of a society. It has been secular or under the guise of religion. In some societies prostitution was believed to ensure the preservation of the family. Women have usually entered prostitution through coercion or under economic stress. In most societies prostitutes have had low social status and a restricted future, because their sexual service was disapproved and considered degrading. A few female prostitutes, however, have acquired wealth and power through marriage; one example is the Byzantine empress Theodora, wife of Justinian I.
PREINDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES
Prostitution was widespread in preindustrial societies. The exchange of wives by their husbands was a practice among many primitive peoples. In the ancient Middle East and India temples maintained large numbers of prostitutes. Sexual intercourse with them was believed to facilitate communion with the gods.
In ancient Greece prostitution flourished on all levels of society. Prostitutes of the lowest level worked in licensed brothels and were required to wear distinctive clothing as a badge of their vocation. Prostitutes of a higher level usually were skilled dancers and singers. Those of the highest level, the hetaerae, kept salons where politicians met, and they often attained power and influence.
In ancient Rome prostitution was common despite severe legal restrictions. Female slaves, captured abroad by the Roman legions, were impressed into urban brothels or exploited by owners in the households they served. The Roman authorities attempted to limit the spread of slave prostitution and often resorted to harsh measures. Brothel inmates, called meretrices, were forced to register with the government for life, to wear garish blond wigs and other distinctive raiment, to forfeit all civil rights, and to pay a heavy tax.
In the Middle Ages the Christian church, which valued chastity, attempted to convert or rehabilitate individual prostitutes but refrained from campaigning against the institution itself. In so doing the church followed the teaching of St. Augustine, who held that the elimination of prostitution would breed even worse forms of immorality and perversion, because men would continue to seek sexual contact outside marriage. By the late Middle Ages, prostitution had reached a high point in Western history. Licensed brothels flourished throughout Europe, yielding enormous revenues to government officials and corrupt churchmen. In Asia, where women were held in low esteem and no religious deterrent existed, prostitution was accepted as natural.
During the 16th century prostitution declined sharply in Europe, largely as the result of stern reprisals by Protestants and Roman Catholics. They condemned the immorality of brothels and their inmates, but they were also motivated by the perception of a connection between prostitution and an outbreak of syphilis, a previously unknown disease. Brothels in many cities were closed by the authorities. Under a typical ordinance, enacted in Paris in 1635, prostitutes were flogged, shaved bald, and exiled for life without formal trial.
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES
These harsh strictures did not, however, eradicate prostitution and sexually transmitted disease. Gradually it became obvious that these ills were increasing, especially in the large, crowded cities that accompanied the industrialization of the West in the 18th and 19th centuries. Beginning with Prussia in 1700, most continental European governments shifted their tactics from suppression of prostitution and sexually transmitted disease to control through a system of compulsory registration, licensed brothels, and medical inspection of prostitutes. Britain, although it did not license brothels, passed Contagious Disease Prevention acts in the 1860s providing for medical inspection of prostitutes in certain naval and military districts. In Britain and the United States prostitution flourished openly in urban red-light districts. City officials, viewing prostitutes as a "necessary evil," allowed prostitutes to ply their trade as long as they refrained from annoying any "respectable" person who happened into the area. A lucrative white-slave trade developed, in which women and girls were shipped across international borders for immoral purposes.
In time the ineffectuality and corruption of licensed prostitution stirred protests throughout Europe. Britain repealed the Contagious Disease Prevention acts, which were not proving to be a deterrent to sexually transmitted disease and were, moreover, regarded as a threat to the civil liberties of their subjects. Many governments sought to check prostitution by attacking the international traffic in women and children. Britain passed the Criminal Amendment Act (1885) forbidding such traffic, and 13 major powers signed a treaty (1904) outlawing it and providing for an international exchange of data on the subject.
PROSTITUTION IN THE U.S.
Beginning about 1910, religious and civic organizations in the U.S. developed a nationwide campaign against both the immorality of prostitution and its relationship to sexually transmitted disease. On the federal level, Congress passed the White Slave Traffic Act (Mann Act, 1910) forbidding the interstate transport of women and girls for immoral purposes. On the local level, many antiprostitution laws were passed. Some laws reflected the belief that prostitutes were misguided, coerced unfortunates who needed rehabilitation and protection from procurers. Others represented the view that prostitutes were morally or mentally inferior human beings. Although both kinds of laws still exist, the latter type is enforced today.
Prostitution in the U.S. in the late 20th century takes various forms. Some prostitutes, or "call girls," operate out of their own apartments and maintain a list of regular customers. Some follow convention circuits or work in certain resort areas, such as Las Vegas, Nevada, where demand for their services is high. Others work in so-called massage parlors, a newer version of the old-time brothel. The majority are "streetwalkers," soliciting, or being solicited by, customers on city streets. Increasing numbers are young runaways to the city who turn to the streets for survival. Because the statutes are enforced in such a way as to punish overtness and visibility rather than any specific act, almost all of the prostitutes arrested each year are streetwalkers. Customers, although legally culpable, are rarely arrested.
CURRENT U.S. ATTITUDES
Until the 1960s, attitudes toward prostitution were based on the Judeo-Christian view of immorality. Researchers have recently attempted to separate moral issues from the reality of prostitution. The rationale for its continued illegal status in the U.S. rests on three assumptions: prostitution is linked to organized crime; prostitution is responsible for much ancillary crime; and prostitution is the cause of an increase in sexually transmitted disease. These assumptions are now in question.
Recognized experts have pointed out that prostitution is no longer an attractive investment for organized crime because it is difficult to control, is too visible, and affords too small a return compared to the severe penalties for procuring. It is obvious that ancillary crime-larceny, robbery, assault, and misuse of narcotics-does occur in conjunction with prostitution, especially when a streetwalker is involved. Whether it is rational to make one activity criminal in order to reduce or control another merits serious inquiry. Finally, public-health officials indicate that prostitutes account for only a small percentage of the sexually transmitted disease cases in the U.S. Greater sexual freedom has made young people the major source of such cases.
Furthermore, strong arguments have been made in support of legalizing prostitution. Decriminalization would free the courts and police from handling victimless crime, allowing these forces more time to deal with serious and violent crimes. The constitutional question of violation of equal protection has also been raised, since the law penalizes prostitutes but not their customers.
In the U.S. today, prostitution is legal only in the state of Nevada (at the option of each county government). Polls have shown that approximately half of the U.S. population would favor decriminalization of prostitution throughout the country.
A WORLDWIDE SOCIAL PROBLEM
Prostitution exists almost everywhere; in 1985 a revival of the practice was even noted in China, where emphasis on equality between the sexes combined with government repression seemed to have eliminated the profession. The issue of prostitution has been partially resolved through decriminalization and tolerance. The U.S. remains one of the few countries with laws against prostitution. In other nations criminal laws seek instead to deal with the social problems of prostitution through control of public solicitation and restriction of those who would exploit prostitutes. The prevalence of the AIDS virus among prostitutes, however, caused renewed concern about the problem of prostitution in the 1980s.
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