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465 Prostitution
I.
What is Prostitution?
A. Performance of sexual acts with another person in return for the payment of a fee
1. Usually performed by women for men, sometimes men for men
2. Most prostitutes are willing to engage sexual acts with anyone who will pay them, but
some have been known to impose hygienic, age, health, and racial or ethnic criteria.
B. Model or prostitute?
1. Person performing sexual acts in exchange for gifts or future favors.
2. Person who performs sexual acts for a movie or magazine.
II. History
A. Known as the world's oldest profession
1. Street-walking harlots
2. Courtesans - women for royalty
B. Ancient societies
1. Egyptian and Babylonian
a. Sexual relations with priest will bring one closer to God.
2. Greek
a. Hetaerae (good friends) - high class prostitutes living in their own district were for
pleasure
b. Concubines - for daily care
c. Wives to bear legitimate children and guard household.
3. Rome
a. Regarded with indulgence, had to wear distinctive clothing and have red or blonde
hair
C. Old testament and early Christianity
1. Strongly against
2. Jewish fathers were not to allow their daughters into prostitution
3. It was a necessary evil
4. Leviticus 19:29
D. Modem history
1. Many attempts to stop it
2. It is continuous because:
a. Right price
b. Sells quickly
c. Emotionally uninvolved
d. Caters to those who are physically unattractive
III. The World of Prostitution
A. Kinds of prostitutes
1. Street-walkers
a. Solicit business to people walking by
2.
Bar gifts
a. Entertain men in clubs, then encourage them to pay for sexual relations
3.
Call gifts
a. Operate from home, usually have roster of regular customers
4.
Pimps
a. Take much of what prostitutes earn
b. Bail them out of jail
B. Attractions
1.
Financial
a. Most can't earn that much in other lines of work
b. Need large sums of money to support drug habits
2.
Excitement of illegal, night life, freedom from supervision
C. Hazards
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Possibility of arrest
Venereal disease
Mistreated by customer
Exploited by pimps
Forced into underground crime
Become "social outcast" making it more difficult to return to a normal life
IV. The Law
A. Two trends regarding state involvement
1. Legalization
a. Government control
b. Licensing
c. Mandatory medical examination
d. Only certain locals from where prostitutes work
2.
Decriminalization
a. Removal of criminal penalties for prostitution
b. Pros:
1). End process where prostitutes are arrested, fined, released back for work
2). Free police and courts from victimless crime and allow cops to work against
serious threats to public safety
3). Reduction in police corruption involving payoffs to law enforcement personnel
c. Cons:
1). The immorality of prostitution justifies it as a criminal offence
2). Would encourage more to become prostitutes
3). Hand in hand with other crimes such as assault and theft
B. Constitutional questions raised
1. Enforcement of laws banning prostitution is intrusion into areas of private behavior
2. Laws violate standards of equal protection
C. Laws in U.S.
1. Illegal in all of U.S. except in one county in Nevada
a. The women there are fingerprinted and carry I.D. cards
2. Public opinion poll showed half of U.S. favored decriminalizing prostitution
a. More men than women favored
D. Laws in other countries
1. In many European countries prostitution is not a criminal offence
2. Public solicitation outlawed
a. Nuisance
b. Offensive
3. Illegal to live off earnings of a prostitute
a. No one can rent to them