Prostitution in Italy
Encyclopedia
In Italy
prostituzione (prostitution) (the exchange of sexual services for money) is not illegal, but organized prostitution (indoors in brothels or controlled by third parties) is prohibited. Brothels became illegal in 1959. Sex workers in Italy are often referred to as Lucciole (fireflies), which is also the name of their website.
. The city of Venice
declared in 1358 that brothels were indispensable, and courtesans achieved high social status in Venice, particularly in the seventeenth century.
, modeled on the French Napoleonic system of Réglementation and the Bureau des Moeurs. A decree of 1859, by Count Camillo Benso di Cavour to aid the French army which supported the Piedmontese against Austria, authorized the opening of houses controlled by the state for the exercise of prostitution in Lombardia. On 15 February 1860 the decree was signed into law (Legge Cavour) with the enactment of the "Regulations of the Security Service on Prostitution."
A further law (Legge Crispi), adopted on 29 March 1888 prohibited the selling of food and drinks, and parties, dances and songs in the brothels and the opening of such homes near places of worship, schools and kindergartens. It also provided that the shutters should always remain closed, hence the name "case chiuse" or "closed houses". A further amendment was the Legge Nicotera of 1891. Under this system prostitution in Italy was fully legal in private houses. A system of sifilicomi (hospitals for sex workers) were set up under the belief that they were the sources of venereal disease. Although sex workers found this regulated system repressive they were able to develop ways to resist it. Under the Fascists
(1922–1943), more repressive measures were introduced in 1923, 1933 and 1940.
Overall the system was considered a failure, and as in other European countries with Réglementation, movement for its abolition grew from the latter years of the nineteenth century from leftist and feminist groups. This abolitionism is often considered confusing, since it has been applied to both the abolition of regulation and the abolition of prostitution. However, these forces led to the introduction of a new system in Italy that abolished regulation, but not prostitution.
(Merlin Law, named after its main author, socialist
MP Lina Merlin) was approved. This law, still in force today with little change, revoked the regulation system, closed the case chiuse and established a new offence called sfruttamento della prostituzione (exploitation of prostitution) with the aim to punish pimp
ing. Specifically article 3.8, provides penalties for "chiunque in qualsiasi modo favorisca o sfrutti la prostituzione altrui" ("any person who in any way promotes or exploits the prostitution of others"). Article. 3.3 lists places where prostitution is prohibited, such as houses, hotels, dance halls, entertainment clubs or other areas open to the public. Article 5 prohibits libertinaggio (solicitation) "in a public place or place open to the public, solicits in a scandolous or disturbing manner, or follows a person inviting them by acts or words".
Article 7 prohibited registration and mandatory health checks.
or independent sex work by a worker in their own home. The law, was promoted as an equality measure liberating women, but despite its good intentions to give more rights to dependent prostitutes, was the subject of intense debate over the ten years it took to come into effect. A debate which continues today. The law specically refers to donne (women).
, becoming more visible, and into private homes.
The law remained a subject of intense debate, with its defence being seen as a feminist issue, though both Marxists and Catholics support it. The Christian Democrats repeatedly sought the law's repeal from 1973, and in 1998 also the Democrats of the Left
, at least temporarily. This would have re-opened the case. At the same time conservative women's groups such as Federcasalinghe
pushed for regulation, such as medical examinations, but feminists generally opposed this. However, surveys consistently suggest that there is considerable support for re-opening the case.
Following the founding of the Comitato (see Advocacy, below) attempts to change the law continued with 22 bills introduced in the 1996-2001 legislative session.
Prostitution became much more visible in the early 1990s with increasing migratory waves from Eastern Europe
and Western Africa which had begun in the 70s. The fall of the Soviet regime, the Yugoslavia
n war and new immigration policies (Legge Martelli n. 39/90) contributed to an influx in 1989/90 from former Soviet bloc countries - "Polish Girls" . A second wave came from Nigeria
and Peru
, using tourist visas that then expired (clandestini), followed by Albania
in 1993-4. The fourth wave (1995) were also again from Nigeria and Albania, while 1996-8 saw the arrival of migrants from Moldavia
, and Lithuania
as well as Albania.
Immigration law became much more repressive in 1998 with the enactment of the Legge Turco-Napolitano (law n. 40/98). (see below)
Amongst these migrants were women who joined the sex trade with varying degrees of voluntariness, some enduring coercion and debt bondage (Human trafficking
) (see below), including under-aged girls. These issues of foreign nationals, coerced sex work and under-aged workers have reshaped the debate in Italy as elsewhere in recent years. Descriptions of the conditions of migrant women, particularly young women, on the street shifted the debate in the 90s from the Comitatos image of independent and assertive women to that of victims of male violence.
One reaction of the local authorities was to withdraw residence permits from foreign women on the streets and deportation of the 'clandestini'.
With migration, street prostitution became more visible, the workers being considered to now be mainly foreigners. In turn this created another force driving policy, community groups from neighbourhoods where street prostitution was most visible particularly from the 1990s.
Municipalities have also tried to police sex work themselves since 1994, including targeting clients, sending notices to their homes and confiscating vehicles
although charging clients with aiding and abetting was blocked by a tribunal in Perugia
in September 2000.
Continuing police activity became a national focus following the suicide of a client that year.
Another initiative was to create tolerance zones, such as in Mestre in 1995.
A more tolerant approach has emerged from local authorities, based on riduzione del danno (harm reduction
).
Some municipal authorities have created confusion by erecting signs drawing attention to prostitution occurring in the neighbourhood.
.
While it was always possible to request a residency permit on humanitarian grounds, this was not well known or utilised by foreign sex workers. In 1996 Livia Turco
as Minister of Social Afffairs introduced the first "Justice Permit" for trafficking victims who renounced their traffickers, as part of the Dini Decree on immigration (D. L. 376/90). Catholic organisations opposed the denuciation clause. The political initiative to address the situation of women migrant workers came from Anna Finocchiaro
(Democratic Party
), Minister of Equal Opportunities. Giorgio Napolitano
(Democrats of the Left
), Interior Minister announced new measures in 1997 to deal with prostitution as an 'urban safety' issue, and there was little debate over the proposals given widespread concern over trafficking. The main opposing viewpoint was that residence permits should be granted only on the condition of denouncing traffickers.
What debate there was essentially confined to the position of women. The resulting legislation was the Legge Turco-Napolitano of 1998 (L. 40/98),
jointly sponsored by Livia Turco
(Social Afffairs). The position of the (relatively weak and scattered) women's movement was that victims should not be further victimised by being expelled to their home country sans papiers and a possible life-threatening situation.
Measures included increasing penalties for recruiting and trafficking (article 10), and allowing victims of trafficking to stay in the country under a 'protection permit' (article 16, which became 18 in the Testo unico sull'immigrazone)
The permits wwere administered by the Questore (local police chief) on humanitarian grounds but this concerned NGOs because of the complexity of the procedures and the potential for arbitrariness. The victim then had to enroll in training courses organised by approved NGOs. The law also allocated funds for associations assisting these victims but did require them to exit sex work, although they were supposed to denounce it. The requirement for denuciation in the original Dini decree was removed. In advocating this, Turco was influenced by the Commission for Equal Opportunities, whose first president, Elena Marinucci (PSI) had embraced the aims of the Comitato and attempted to legislate this in 1987.
Amongst critics were the Comitato who objected to prostitution as something that women required to be protected from, without addressing stigmatisation. However, Catholic organisations dominated the list of approved agencies and followed this belief. However, the debates did distinguish between forced prostitution and a 'free and conscious choice of the individual'.
Although the law was not explicitly targeted at sex work, its implementation was. Despite gender neutral language the implementation focused on young female victims of trafficking, driven by populist media imagery. The new law did little to stem the debate. When the D`Alema
government was elected later that year (October 1998) three women ministers from three parties (Green
, PPI, DS
), Laura Balbo (Equal Opportunities), Rosa Russo Jervolino (Internal Affairs) and Livia Turco (Social Affairs) announced they would look at new proposals on trafficking and defend the dignity of women.
The result was a new prominence for Anna Finocchiaro's consultative body, the Interministerial Table for the Fight against Trafficking (February 1998), with wide representation. Finocchiaro had declared `Trafficking in women is a new and very serious problem that we have to combat primarily with the punishment for reduction into slavery, instead of using the Merlin law`. In March 1999 the ministers announced new more severe penalties for exploitation and new rules for protection of those who renounced prostitution. In November an interministerial commission was established to implement article 18 of L40/98. Available statistics for 1998 report 342 known victims, 37% of whom minors, and predominantly from Albania, Nigeria and Yugoslavia. 242 permits were granted in 1999 and 600 in 2000.
other laws concerning public order and decency could be used, and some places had local ordinances against street prostitution). Regular attempts were made to criminalise outdoor work.
was introduced by Mara Carfagna
,
Minister for Equal Opportunities,
and approved by the Consiglio dei ministri on the 11th September.
,
where it has been debated in committee in conjunction with a group of related bills (March 19, 2009).
In interviews with Gente and Panorama, Carafagna stated that she was declaring war on prostitution
and criticised opponents who proposed quartieri a luci rosse (red light districts).
It remains firmly on the agenda of the Berlusconi government, despite the sex work scandals that continue to be associated with him.
This has been achieved by packaging anti-prostitution measures into security packages, frustrated by the slow passage of the actual legislation. As with previous attempts this has attracted much criticism.
harm reduction advocates
feminist groups,
human rights and immigrant groups,
and lawyers
and continues to be a matter of both popular and academic debate.
Carfagna believes it is necessary to combat trafficking.
Work permits can be issued to migrant dancers in entertainment clubs for one year in a single workplace. Sex work is forbidden but nude dancing is tolerated. Suspicions of sexual encounters lead to club closures.
This was considered a major breakthrough for sex workers' rights.
According to a TAMPEP
report on the legislations and policies regarding prostitution in Europe, in Italy the dominant frames are sex work as violence, force, organised crime, a threat to public security and order, and driving demand for migration and trafficking.
The women's movement has been divided between those who saw prostitution as exploitation and those who saw it as work. In general
the movement has not prioritised prostitution, giving it mid-level importance, and saw it as a cultural issue and did not trust the State as an intervenor. On this issue Catholic organisations have been part of a hostile backlash to feminism, as is the fascist right. For example the mayor of Bologna cut all funding to women's shelters.
The women's movement of the early years denounced prostitution.
The policy of fining clients of street prostitutes, which has started to be implemented in the early 1990s, by city mayors, has been approved by part of the feminist movement (blaming clients for the existence of prostitution was a common discourse among both feminists and Catholics) but opposed by other feminists who felt this policy further victimized the women.
Amongst the ongoing debates surrounding sex work in Italy are the feminist legal scholars who advocate "diritto leggero", the concept that the State should intervene only minimally in matters considered the free choice of the individual. There was a trend towards supporting normalization. A prominent advocate for this position has been Roberta Tatafiore, chief editor of Noidonne ("Us Women").
In regard to legal issues, feminists in general have supported the Merlin law, which banned brothels and regulation; and stood for decriminalization, with the exception of exploitation by third parties (pimps).
In the centre-left government of Prodi, the policy system was reasonably open and the dominant approach matched that of the women's movement, in moving ahead with "protection".
The issue was raised again in 1999 by Jervolino
, proposing amending the Merlin Law to stiffen penalties for exploitation. Giuliano Amato
, Minister of Institutional Reforms, suggested that instead the client should be penalised and Antonio Di Pietro
(Lista Di Pietro) introduced a bill into the Senate
but raised the ire of feminist politicians, in particular Livia Turco who emphasised that prostitution should be decriminalised and only true abuse be penalised. She and Laura Balbo also received representation from the Comitato against this. This debate occurred during meetings of a parliamentary commission into prostitution, where there were frequent references to underage foreign sex workers.
In 1996 two female politicians, Anna Serafini and Daria Bonfietti (DS
) introduced legislation to penalise the use of underage workers, responding to a series of international forces, including Programme of Action Against Sexual Exploitation of Children for Commercial Purposes (Stockholm 1996), UNESCO
and ECPAT
. They received the support of Rosa Russo Jervolino
, Minister of Internal Affairs
. This initiative unified a number of legislative proposals.
The media reported abuse and murders (particularly an 8 year old boy in Ostia in 1998,)
internet child pornography and sex tourism, with the terminology shifting from 'teenager' to 'child', and frequently conflated 'women and children' as equally vulnerable. Parliament responded rapidly and the Penal Code was amended
to deal with sexual contact with minors or possession of child pornography with no opposition.
There was however division over the issue of the defence of ignorance, the final decision being it was not a defence. One feminist MP, Ersilia Salvato (RC
) complained about the rushed legislation and abstained. Because Italian law prohibits gender discrimination (another legacy of Lina Merlin), the language was neutral, although not the effect. It was however considered impossible to enforce since it would require the worker to lay the complaint. The issue was never on the agenda of the women's movement, not even by the shelters, and who played no part in the debate, nor did the Equal Opportunities Minister (Anna Finocchiaro). Nor was the policy environment receptive to feminist input, since the Government was anxious to be seen to be responding to media and moral panic on paedophilia.
in response to concerns about foreign workers on the streets. Anna Finocchiaro, the Minister of Equal Opportunities, was a key player in this, as was the Justice Commission President Marida Bolognesi (DS). The Inquiry interviewed many stakeholders during six hearings but there was relatively little representation from the women's movement. The main framework was the idea that foreigners were 'invading' the streets of Italy, as a public order issue. This was a heavily gendered debate. In the end the commission adopted three principles - harm reduction, education of clients, and the importance of upholding the Merlin law. The deliberations included proposing a law to finance local government programmes to assist sex worklers with protection permits. At the same time the three women ministers were promoting education campaigns in the countries of origin of migrant sex workers (e.g. Nigeria, Eastern Europe), while other programmes assisted police in their reswponsibilities regarding permits were initiated, and help lines set up, while 8 million euros were allocated to NGOs to carry out their responsibilities under article 18 of the Turco-Napolitano Act.
There wasw little feminist input into this discussion, with the exception of Elsa Antonioni of the Anti-violence shelter who streessed the continuity between sex for money and sex for free, pointing to the vulnerability of sex workers' civil rights (e.g. their children could be taken into care). This was not pursued, although the strong role of the Equal Opportunities Ministry can be seen as an insider women's voice.
Their campaigns include trafficking prevention, sex worker rights, and campaigning for decriminalisation and an end to stigmatisation. Their demands saw a number of bills introduced in parliament, which despite support from three leftist parties were unsuccessful. However, attempts to change the law continue in parliament. The Comitato has been one of the major women's voices in sex work debates in Italy, at least in comparison with the women's movement overall, and worked closely with the women's shelters. Their position of minimum interference was shared with both the women's movement and the policy agencies. This has only been partially successful. A frequent target has been the provisions of the Merlin Law that punish those involved, of which livia Turco was a prominent political voice. Positioned against this cause has been the law and order agenda of both centre-left and centre right coalitions.
A 2008 report stated that were some 100,000 prostitutes in Italy.
In 2007 it was stated that the total number of workers was 70,000.
The Italian Statistics Institute stated the number of street workers in 1998 was 50,000.
estimated that the percentage of foreign sex workers in Italy had reached 90%, an increase from previous years.
In that report only Spain
was found to have such a high percentage of migrants in the trade, although most Western Europe
an countries reported a majority of workers were migrants. This was in contrast with the former Communist
countries, where the reverse is true - most workers being of national origin.
Claims about trafficking vary widely and are difficult to verify. Estimates vary from 7%
to 100%
of migrant workers. The 2009 US State Department report on Human Rights states "In 2008, according to the Ministry of Interior, 4,350 persons were charged with trafficking in persons and pandering."
Clampdowns by authorities often result in displacement of the trade across borders, such as that with Austria and Switzerland where brothels are legal.
However lines between street and indoor work are often blurred, for instance by street workers using vans.
(102 women, 40 transsexual) showed that most respondents (95%) reported always using condoms with clients. 8% of the women and 2% of the transsexuals reported injectable drug use. 38% of the women with a stable partner used contraceptives while 33% of them had had a voluntary abortion in the previous year. 38% of the women and 80% of transsexuals had had checks for STDs in the last year. HIV
-prevalence was 6% among women and 20% amongst transsexuals. 4/6 positive women and 1/8 of the positive transsexuals used injectable drugs. 5/6 HIV-positive women were Italian.
However of 558 workers attending a STD clinic in Bologna between 1995 and 1999, only 1.6% tested positive for HIV. The authors concluded that "prostitutes do not have a prominent role in the transmission and diffusion of STDs"
Despite this opponents of prostitution continue to claim they are sources of disease.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
prostituzione (prostitution) (the exchange of sexual services for money) is not illegal, but organized prostitution (indoors in brothels or controlled by third parties) is prohibited. Brothels became illegal in 1959. Sex workers in Italy are often referred to as Lucciole (fireflies), which is also the name of their website.
History
Prostitution thrived in Italy in the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. The city of Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
declared in 1358 that brothels were indispensable, and courtesans achieved high social status in Venice, particularly in the seventeenth century.
Regolamentazione
Regolamentazione, the regulation system of prostitution, was established in 1861, with Italian unificationItalian unification
Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...
, modeled on the French Napoleonic system of Réglementation and the Bureau des Moeurs. A decree of 1859, by Count Camillo Benso di Cavour to aid the French army which supported the Piedmontese against Austria, authorized the opening of houses controlled by the state for the exercise of prostitution in Lombardia. On 15 February 1860 the decree was signed into law (Legge Cavour) with the enactment of the "Regulations of the Security Service on Prostitution."
A further law (Legge Crispi), adopted on 29 March 1888 prohibited the selling of food and drinks, and parties, dances and songs in the brothels and the opening of such homes near places of worship, schools and kindergartens. It also provided that the shutters should always remain closed, hence the name "case chiuse" or "closed houses". A further amendment was the Legge Nicotera of 1891. Under this system prostitution in Italy was fully legal in private houses. A system of sifilicomi (hospitals for sex workers) were set up under the belief that they were the sources of venereal disease. Although sex workers found this regulated system repressive they were able to develop ways to resist it. Under the Fascists
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
(1922–1943), more repressive measures were introduced in 1923, 1933 and 1940.
Overall the system was considered a failure, and as in other European countries with Réglementation, movement for its abolition grew from the latter years of the nineteenth century from leftist and feminist groups. This abolitionism is often considered confusing, since it has been applied to both the abolition of regulation and the abolition of prostitution. However, these forces led to the introduction of a new system in Italy that abolished regulation, but not prostitution.
Legge Merlin L. 75/58
In 1959, the Legge Merlin L75/1958(Merlin Law, named after its main author, socialist
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
MP Lina Merlin) was approved. This law, still in force today with little change, revoked the regulation system, closed the case chiuse and established a new offence called sfruttamento della prostituzione (exploitation of prostitution) with the aim to punish pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
ing. Specifically article 3.8, provides penalties for "chiunque in qualsiasi modo favorisca o sfrutti la prostituzione altrui" ("any person who in any way promotes or exploits the prostitution of others"). Article. 3.3 lists places where prostitution is prohibited, such as houses, hotels, dance halls, entertainment clubs or other areas open to the public. Article 5 prohibits libertinaggio (solicitation) "in a public place or place open to the public, solicits in a scandolous or disturbing manner, or follows a person inviting them by acts or words".
Article 7 prohibited registration and mandatory health checks.
Theory
This follows the standard abolitionist control of prostitution (abolishing regulation) policy prohibiting trafficking, exploitation and aiding and abetting of prostitution. What remained legal was street prostitutionStreet prostitution
Street prostitution is a form of prostitution in which a sex worker solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, beaches, etc. The street prostitute is often dressed in a...
or independent sex work by a worker in their own home. The law, was promoted as an equality measure liberating women, but despite its good intentions to give more rights to dependent prostitutes, was the subject of intense debate over the ten years it took to come into effect. A debate which continues today. The law specically refers to donne (women).
Effect
As expected, the effect of the law was to push women out into the streetsStreet prostitution
Street prostitution is a form of prostitution in which a sex worker solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, beaches, etc. The street prostitute is often dressed in a...
, becoming more visible, and into private homes.
The law remained a subject of intense debate, with its defence being seen as a feminist issue, though both Marxists and Catholics support it. The Christian Democrats repeatedly sought the law's repeal from 1973, and in 1998 also the Democrats of the Left
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...
, at least temporarily. This would have re-opened the case. At the same time conservative women's groups such as Federcasalinghe
pushed for regulation, such as medical examinations, but feminists generally opposed this. However, surveys consistently suggest that there is considerable support for re-opening the case.
Following the founding of the Comitato (see Advocacy, below) attempts to change the law continued with 22 bills introduced in the 1996-2001 legislative session.
Migration
Prostitution became much more visible in the early 1990s with increasing migratory waves from Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and Western Africa which had begun in the 70s. The fall of the Soviet regime, the Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
n war and new immigration policies (Legge Martelli n. 39/90) contributed to an influx in 1989/90 from former Soviet bloc countries - "Polish Girls" . A second wave came from Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, using tourist visas that then expired (clandestini), followed by Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
in 1993-4. The fourth wave (1995) were also again from Nigeria and Albania, while 1996-8 saw the arrival of migrants from Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
, and Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
as well as Albania.
Immigration law became much more repressive in 1998 with the enactment of the Legge Turco-Napolitano (law n. 40/98). (see below)
Amongst these migrants were women who joined the sex trade with varying degrees of voluntariness, some enduring coercion and debt bondage (Human trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
) (see below), including under-aged girls. These issues of foreign nationals, coerced sex work and under-aged workers have reshaped the debate in Italy as elsewhere in recent years. Descriptions of the conditions of migrant women, particularly young women, on the street shifted the debate in the 90s from the Comitatos image of independent and assertive women to that of victims of male violence.
One reaction of the local authorities was to withdraw residence permits from foreign women on the streets and deportation of the 'clandestini'.
Street prostitution
With migration, street prostitution became more visible, the workers being considered to now be mainly foreigners. In turn this created another force driving policy, community groups from neighbourhoods where street prostitution was most visible particularly from the 1990s.
Municipalities have also tried to police sex work themselves since 1994, including targeting clients, sending notices to their homes and confiscating vehicles
although charging clients with aiding and abetting was blocked by a tribunal in Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
in September 2000.
Continuing police activity became a national focus following the suicide of a client that year.
Another initiative was to create tolerance zones, such as in Mestre in 1995.
A more tolerant approach has emerged from local authorities, based on riduzione del danno (harm reduction
Harm reduction
Harm reduction refers to a range of public health policies designed to reduce the harmful consequences associated with recreational drug use and other high risk activities...
).
Some municipal authorities have created confusion by erecting signs drawing attention to prostitution occurring in the neighbourhood.
Dealing with immigration (Legge Turco-Napolitano L. 40/98)
Originally proposed by international agencies, and approved by the EU in 1996, the cause of protection of migrant workers was taken up in Italy by Maria Paola Colombo Svevo (PPI), President of Irene, an NGO, and by other Catholic and lay NGOs such as CaritasCaritas (charity)
Caritas Internationalis is a confederate of 164 Roman Catholic relief, development and social service organisations operating in over 200 countries and territories worldwide....
.
While it was always possible to request a residency permit on humanitarian grounds, this was not well known or utilised by foreign sex workers. In 1996 Livia Turco
Livia Turco
Livia Turco is an Italian politician, member of the Democratic Party .She came from a working class background in Morozzo, Cuneo and studied in Cuneo and Torino. In Torino she began her political career by becoming onvolved with the communist party, becoming a deputy in 1987...
as Minister of Social Afffairs introduced the first "Justice Permit" for trafficking victims who renounced their traffickers, as part of the Dini Decree on immigration (D. L. 376/90). Catholic organisations opposed the denuciation clause. The political initiative to address the situation of women migrant workers came from Anna Finocchiaro
Anna Finocchiaro
Anna Finocchiaro Fidelbo is an Italian politician. She is the Democratic Party's leader in the Senate. She served as Minister for Equal Opportunities in the cabinet of Romano Prodi from 1996-98.-Biography:...
(Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Italy)
The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....
), Minister of Equal Opportunities. Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano is an Italian politician who has been the 11th President of Italy since 2006. A long-time member of the Italian Communist Party and later the Democrats of the Left, he served as President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1992 to 1994 and as Minister of the Interior from 1996 to...
(Democrats of the Left
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...
), Interior Minister announced new measures in 1997 to deal with prostitution as an 'urban safety' issue, and there was little debate over the proposals given widespread concern over trafficking. The main opposing viewpoint was that residence permits should be granted only on the condition of denouncing traffickers.
What debate there was essentially confined to the position of women. The resulting legislation was the Legge Turco-Napolitano of 1998 (L. 40/98),
jointly sponsored by Livia Turco
Livia Turco
Livia Turco is an Italian politician, member of the Democratic Party .She came from a working class background in Morozzo, Cuneo and studied in Cuneo and Torino. In Torino she began her political career by becoming onvolved with the communist party, becoming a deputy in 1987...
(Social Afffairs). The position of the (relatively weak and scattered) women's movement was that victims should not be further victimised by being expelled to their home country sans papiers and a possible life-threatening situation.
Measures included increasing penalties for recruiting and trafficking (article 10), and allowing victims of trafficking to stay in the country under a 'protection permit' (article 16, which became 18 in the Testo unico sull'immigrazone)
The permits wwere administered by the Questore (local police chief) on humanitarian grounds but this concerned NGOs because of the complexity of the procedures and the potential for arbitrariness. The victim then had to enroll in training courses organised by approved NGOs. The law also allocated funds for associations assisting these victims but did require them to exit sex work, although they were supposed to denounce it. The requirement for denuciation in the original Dini decree was removed. In advocating this, Turco was influenced by the Commission for Equal Opportunities, whose first president, Elena Marinucci (PSI) had embraced the aims of the Comitato and attempted to legislate this in 1987.
Amongst critics were the Comitato who objected to prostitution as something that women required to be protected from, without addressing stigmatisation. However, Catholic organisations dominated the list of approved agencies and followed this belief. However, the debates did distinguish between forced prostitution and a 'free and conscious choice of the individual'.
Effect
Although the law was not explicitly targeted at sex work, its implementation was. Despite gender neutral language the implementation focused on young female victims of trafficking, driven by populist media imagery. The new law did little to stem the debate. When the D`Alema
Massimo D'Alema
Massimo D'Alema is an Italian politician. He is also a journalist and a former national secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left...
government was elected later that year (October 1998) three women ministers from three parties (Green
Federation of the Greens
The Federation of the Greens is a green political party in Italy, which includes also a large eco-socialist faction. Since 2009 the party leader is Angelo Bonelli.-Early years:...
, PPI, DS
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...
), Laura Balbo (Equal Opportunities), Rosa Russo Jervolino (Internal Affairs) and Livia Turco (Social Affairs) announced they would look at new proposals on trafficking and defend the dignity of women.
The result was a new prominence for Anna Finocchiaro's consultative body, the Interministerial Table for the Fight against Trafficking (February 1998), with wide representation. Finocchiaro had declared `Trafficking in women is a new and very serious problem that we have to combat primarily with the punishment for reduction into slavery, instead of using the Merlin law`. In March 1999 the ministers announced new more severe penalties for exploitation and new rules for protection of those who renounced prostitution. In November an interministerial commission was established to implement article 18 of L40/98. Available statistics for 1998 report 342 known victims, 37% of whom minors, and predominantly from Albania, Nigeria and Yugoslavia. 242 permits were granted in 1999 and 600 in 2000.
Progetto di legge Carfagna
Until 2008, although there were no laws against street prostitutionStreet prostitution
Street prostitution is a form of prostitution in which a sex worker solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, beaches, etc. The street prostitute is often dressed in a...
other laws concerning public order and decency could be used, and some places had local ordinances against street prostitution). Regular attempts were made to criminalise outdoor work.
Bill 1079
In 2008, a further new progetto di legge (bill) outlawing street prostitutionwas introduced by Mara Carfagna
Mara Carfagna
Maria Rosaria Carfagna is an Italian politician and former showgirl and topless model. After obtaining a degree in law, Carfagna worked for several years on Italian television shows and as a model. She later entered politics and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for Forza Italia party in 2006...
,
Minister for Equal Opportunities,
and approved by the Consiglio dei ministri on the 11th September.
Scope
The bill is framed as an amendment to the Legge Merlin of February 20, 1958, No 75 by providing for penalties for the act of prostitution, solicitation or availing oneself of sexual services in a place open to the public (Art. 1). Article 2 amends article 600 bis of the penal code to provide penalties for recruiting, inducing, promoting, using, managing, organizing, controlling, or profiting from the sexual services of a person under 18, or for those promising any kind reward for a sexual act with a person between 14 and 18. It also provides for repatriation of foreign minors engaging in prostitution. Article 3 deals with organized crime, penalising conspiracy to exploit prostitution via article 416 of the penal code. Article 4 provides no new resources and repeals article 5 of the Legge Merlin, which it replaces, prohibiting libertinaggio (solicitation constituting offence or harassment) subject to up to 15 days imprisonment.Legislative history
The bill (S.1079) was introduced into the SenateItalian Senate
The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...
,
where it has been debated in committee in conjunction with a group of related bills (March 19, 2009).
In interviews with Gente and Panorama, Carafagna stated that she was declaring war on prostitution
and criticised opponents who proposed quartieri a luci rosse (red light districts).
It remains firmly on the agenda of the Berlusconi government, despite the sex work scandals that continue to be associated with him.
This has been achieved by packaging anti-prostitution measures into security packages, frustrated by the slow passage of the actual legislation. As with previous attempts this has attracted much criticism.
Opposition
The bill is opposed by the Catholic Church, sex workersharm reduction advocates
feminist groups,
human rights and immigrant groups,
and lawyers
and continues to be a matter of both popular and academic debate.
Carfagna believes it is necessary to combat trafficking.
2008 ordinances
The Domestic Security regulations of 24 July 2008 (L.125/08) gave mayors judicial power to declare anything that might endanger the security and decorum of their cities an emergency. Under these powers sex workers and clients have been subjected to ordinances that permit municipal police to administer fines. The Public Security Law enables police chiefs to expel persons from a city in which they do not officially reside. EU citizens are subject to fines while non-EU citizens may be placed in detention centres and deported. The Comitato reports a breakdown in relationships between NGOs and authorities and between NGOs and workers, an avoidance of health services and an increase in criminal activity. While enforcement varies by region and over time, the immediate effect has been the expected and desired one of clearing the streets (at least temporarily) and displacing workers to remote areas. Indoors work has increased and quality of life in general has deteriorated. Unprotected sex has increased due to reduced ability to negotiate. Stigmatisation and vulnerability have increased as has a greater reliance on social services. As noted in other countries, as soon as police activity is reduced older work patterns reappear.Legal status
Prostitution is legal (it is not mentioned in the Penal Code as such), brothels and pimping are illegal. Single sex workers working from apartments are 'tolerated'. Loitering is permitted but soliciting ('unabashedly inviting clients on the street’) is illegal. Migrants with work or residence permits may work in sex work however police may revoke residence permits and begin deportation procedures.Work permits can be issued to migrant dancers in entertainment clubs for one year in a single workplace. Sex work is forbidden but nude dancing is tolerated. Suspicions of sexual encounters lead to club closures.
Case law
A 2010 court decision created a new precedent, that clients who did not pay the worker would be considered guilty of rape.This was considered a major breakthrough for sex workers' rights.
Theoretical discourses
The three main debates which have occupied the public, media and policy makers are- Allowing victims of trafficking to stay in the country (see Immigration)
- Criminalisation of clients of prostituted children under 16 (see Underage workers)
- Assisting sex workers including victims of trafficking. (see Assisting migrant sex workers)
According to a TAMPEP
TAMPEP
TAMPEP is an international organization that supports the health and human rights of migrant sex workers in Europe. Founded in 1993 with headquarters in Amsterdam, the organization initially operated in Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands...
report on the legislations and policies regarding prostitution in Europe, in Italy the dominant frames are sex work as violence, force, organised crime, a threat to public security and order, and driving demand for migration and trafficking.
Actors
Amongst the political actors were the Centri antiviolenza (Anti-violence centres), and women's shelters who advocated for victims of trafficking to stay in the country even if they did not denounce their exploiters, in keeping with their vision that women are best empowered by allowing them to determine their own course of action.The women's movement has been divided between those who saw prostitution as exploitation and those who saw it as work. In general
the movement has not prioritised prostitution, giving it mid-level importance, and saw it as a cultural issue and did not trust the State as an intervenor. On this issue Catholic organisations have been part of a hostile backlash to feminism, as is the fascist right. For example the mayor of Bologna cut all funding to women's shelters.
The women's movement of the early years denounced prostitution.
The policy of fining clients of street prostitutes, which has started to be implemented in the early 1990s, by city mayors, has been approved by part of the feminist movement (blaming clients for the existence of prostitution was a common discourse among both feminists and Catholics) but opposed by other feminists who felt this policy further victimized the women.
Amongst the ongoing debates surrounding sex work in Italy are the feminist legal scholars who advocate "diritto leggero", the concept that the State should intervene only minimally in matters considered the free choice of the individual. There was a trend towards supporting normalization. A prominent advocate for this position has been Roberta Tatafiore, chief editor of Noidonne ("Us Women").
In regard to legal issues, feminists in general have supported the Merlin law, which banned brothels and regulation; and stood for decriminalization, with the exception of exploitation by third parties (pimps).
In the centre-left government of Prodi, the policy system was reasonably open and the dominant approach matched that of the women's movement, in moving ahead with "protection".
Clients
The shift in emphasis from workers to clients in 1994 when mayors ordered police to fine clients was welcomed by Catholics but feminists were divided. In Bologna in 1998 the Case delle donne per non subire violenze, the Comitato and MIT, a trans-sexual organisation left the city's co-ordinating committee on prostitution in protest, believing that any repression worsened workers' working conditions. There was also a feeling that criminalising clients prevented them reporting abuse of workers or collaborating with authorities.The issue was raised again in 1999 by Jervolino
Rosa Russo Iervolino
Rosa Russo Iervolino is an Italian politician.She is a member of the Democratic Coalition . She was leader of Christian Democratic Women . In 1979 she was senator for Christian Democracy party...
, proposing amending the Merlin Law to stiffen penalties for exploitation. Giuliano Amato
Giuliano Amato
Giuliano Amato is an Italian politician. He was Prime Minister of Italy twice, first from 1992 to 1993 and then from 2000 to 2001. He was more recently Vice President of the Convention on the Future of Europe that drafted the new European Constitution and headed the Amato Group. He is commonly...
, Minister of Institutional Reforms, suggested that instead the client should be penalised and Antonio Di Pietro
Antonio Di Pietro
Antonio Di Pietro is an Italian politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament, an Italian Senator, and Minister of the Prodi Government...
(Lista Di Pietro) introduced a bill into the Senate
Italian Senate
The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...
but raised the ire of feminist politicians, in particular Livia Turco who emphasised that prostitution should be decriminalised and only true abuse be penalised. She and Laura Balbo also received representation from the Comitato against this. This debate occurred during meetings of a parliamentary commission into prostitution, where there were frequent references to underage foreign sex workers.
Underage workers (L. 269/98)
Partly connected to this was the emergence of a need to criminalise clients using underage workers. Engaging in sexual activity with someone under 14 was already classified as statutory rape, but that still left many underage workers. While the age of consent is 14, paying to engage in sexual activities with teenagers between 14 and 17 years old, regardless of consent, is a crime punished with up to three years imprisonment. Publicity around underage workers has been a persistent concern in Italy as elsewhere, although in Italy it often appeared framed as homosexual molestation of male minors.In 1996 two female politicians, Anna Serafini and Daria Bonfietti (DS
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...
) introduced legislation to penalise the use of underage workers, responding to a series of international forces, including Programme of Action Against Sexual Exploitation of Children for Commercial Purposes (Stockholm 1996), UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
and ECPAT
ECPAT
ECPAT is an international non-governmental organisation and network headquartered in Thailand which is designed to end commercial sexual exploitation of children...
. They received the support of Rosa Russo Jervolino
Rosa Russo Iervolino
Rosa Russo Iervolino is an Italian politician.She is a member of the Democratic Coalition . She was leader of Christian Democratic Women . In 1979 she was senator for Christian Democracy party...
, Minister of Internal Affairs
Italian Minister of the Interior
This is a list of Italian Ministers of the Interior since 1861.-Kingdom of Italy:-Italian Republic:...
. This initiative unified a number of legislative proposals.
The media reported abuse and murders (particularly an 8 year old boy in Ostia in 1998,)
internet child pornography and sex tourism, with the terminology shifting from 'teenager' to 'child', and frequently conflated 'women and children' as equally vulnerable. Parliament responded rapidly and the Penal Code was amended
to deal with sexual contact with minors or possession of child pornography with no opposition.
There was however division over the issue of the defence of ignorance, the final decision being it was not a defence. One feminist MP, Ersilia Salvato (RC
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist Italian political party. Its current secretary is Paolo Ferrero....
) complained about the rushed legislation and abstained. Because Italian law prohibits gender discrimination (another legacy of Lina Merlin), the language was neutral, although not the effect. It was however considered impossible to enforce since it would require the worker to lay the complaint. The issue was never on the agenda of the women's movement, not even by the shelters, and who played no part in the debate, nor did the Equal Opportunities Minister (Anna Finocchiaro). Nor was the policy environment receptive to feminist input, since the Government was anxious to be seen to be responding to media and moral panic on paedophilia.
Assisting migrant sex workers
In 1998 the Chamber of Deputies ordered an 'Inquiry to increase knowledge about the social and sanitary aspects of prostitution'in response to concerns about foreign workers on the streets. Anna Finocchiaro, the Minister of Equal Opportunities, was a key player in this, as was the Justice Commission President Marida Bolognesi (DS). The Inquiry interviewed many stakeholders during six hearings but there was relatively little representation from the women's movement. The main framework was the idea that foreigners were 'invading' the streets of Italy, as a public order issue. This was a heavily gendered debate. In the end the commission adopted three principles - harm reduction, education of clients, and the importance of upholding the Merlin law. The deliberations included proposing a law to finance local government programmes to assist sex worklers with protection permits. At the same time the three women ministers were promoting education campaigns in the countries of origin of migrant sex workers (e.g. Nigeria, Eastern Europe), while other programmes assisted police in their reswponsibilities regarding permits were initiated, and help lines set up, while 8 million euros were allocated to NGOs to carry out their responsibilities under article 18 of the Turco-Napolitano Act.
There wasw little feminist input into this discussion, with the exception of Elsa Antonioni of the Anti-violence shelter who streessed the continuity between sex for money and sex for free, pointing to the vulnerability of sex workers' civil rights (e.g. their children could be taken into care). This was not pursued, although the strong role of the Equal Opportunities Ministry can be seen as an insider women's voice.
Advocacy
An influential group of sex workers is the Comitato - Committee for the Civil Rights of Prostitutes (Comitato per i Diritti Civili delle Prostitute, or CDCP), formed in 1983 in response to violent attacks on sex workers and run by Carla Corso, a feminist, and Pia Covre from their national offices in Pordenone.Their campaigns include trafficking prevention, sex worker rights, and campaigning for decriminalisation and an end to stigmatisation. Their demands saw a number of bills introduced in parliament, which despite support from three leftist parties were unsuccessful. However, attempts to change the law continue in parliament. The Comitato has been one of the major women's voices in sex work debates in Italy, at least in comparison with the women's movement overall, and worked closely with the women's shelters. Their position of minimum interference was shared with both the women's movement and the policy agencies. This has only been partially successful. A frequent target has been the provisions of the Merlin Law that punish those involved, of which livia Turco was a prominent political voice. Positioned against this cause has been the law and order agenda of both centre-left and centre right coalitions.
Extent
Accurate estimates of the numbers of workers in any particular country are hard to obtain, and prone to error and bias.A 2008 report stated that were some 100,000 prostitutes in Italy.
In 2007 it was stated that the total number of workers was 70,000.
The Italian Statistics Institute stated the number of street workers in 1998 was 50,000.
Migration and tourism
A 2009 report from TAMPEPTAMPEP
TAMPEP is an international organization that supports the health and human rights of migrant sex workers in Europe. Founded in 1993 with headquarters in Amsterdam, the organization initially operated in Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands...
estimated that the percentage of foreign sex workers in Italy had reached 90%, an increase from previous years.
In that report only Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
was found to have such a high percentage of migrants in the trade, although most Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
an countries reported a majority of workers were migrants. This was in contrast with the former Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
countries, where the reverse is true - most workers being of national origin.
Claims about trafficking vary widely and are difficult to verify. Estimates vary from 7%
to 100%
of migrant workers. The 2009 US State Department report on Human Rights states "In 2008, according to the Ministry of Interior, 4,350 persons were charged with trafficking in persons and pandering."
Clampdowns by authorities often result in displacement of the trade across borders, such as that with Austria and Switzerland where brothels are legal.
Venues
In 2008 it was estimated that 65% of workers are on the streets and 35% in private residences or clubs. 20% were stated to be minors and 10% to have been forced into prostitution by criminal gangs.However lines between street and indoor work are often blurred, for instance by street workers using vans.
Health of sex workers
A 1997/1998 study of 142 street prostitutes from RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
(102 women, 40 transsexual) showed that most respondents (95%) reported always using condoms with clients. 8% of the women and 2% of the transsexuals reported injectable drug use. 38% of the women with a stable partner used contraceptives while 33% of them had had a voluntary abortion in the previous year. 38% of the women and 80% of transsexuals had had checks for STDs in the last year. HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
-prevalence was 6% among women and 20% amongst transsexuals. 4/6 positive women and 1/8 of the positive transsexuals used injectable drugs. 5/6 HIV-positive women were Italian.
However of 558 workers attending a STD clinic in Bologna between 1995 and 1999, only 1.6% tested positive for HIV. The authors concluded that "prostitutes do not have a prominent role in the transmission and diffusion of STDs"
Despite this opponents of prostitution continue to claim they are sources of disease.
Sources
- Mary, Mary quite contrary Italy struggles to come to grips with the Madonna-whore complex. Amanda Castleman Continental Drift Spring 2010
- International Encyclopedia of Sexuality: Italy
- Luisa Leonini. IL SEX BUSINESS NELLA SOCIETÀ CONTEMPORANEA. Convegno Prostituzione e tratta a 50 anni dalla legge Merlin e a 10 anni dall'art. 18 D.Lgs. 286/98 Roma, 21 novembre 2008
- Adriana Gracia Piscitelli. Tropical sex in a european country: Brazilian women's migration to Italy in the frame of international sex tourism (Sexo tropical em um país europeu: migração de brasileiras para a Itália no marco do "turismo sexual" internacional) Estud. fem. vol.4 no.se Florianópolis 2008
- Illegal immigration in Italy
- Social Action Department - Prostitution and Trafficking
- Feminismo a sud
- TAMPEP position on migration and sex work 2001
- The Evolution of Italian Immigration policy. Immigration legislation, 1986-2002 An inadequate policy for a major issue. European Migration Network 2003
Government inquiries
Indagine conoscitiva sugli aspetti sociali e sanitari della prostituzione, Camera dei deputati, Commissione XII (affari sociali) 1999, pp. VIII-160, Euro 6,71 (IC13022)- Audizione del Comitato per i diritti civili delle prostitute e dei rappresentanti delle organizzazioni sindicali 1-6e documento conclusivo (28 luglio 1999)
- Audizione del Ministro per le pari opportunita' Anna Finocchiaro 16 luglio 1998
- Audizione dei rappresentanti del tavolo di coordinamento nazionale sulla prostituzione e sulla tratta, nonchè dei rappresenta 13 gennaio 1999
Books
- Fernando Henriques. Prostitution and Society. Macgibbon and Kee, London 1963
- Mary Gibson. Prostitution and the State in Italy, 1860-1915. Rutgers University Press, New Jersey 1986
See also
- Prostitution in ancient RomeProstitution in ancient RomeProstitution in ancient Rome reflects the ambivalent attitudes of Romans toward pleasure and sexuality. Prostitution was legal and licensed. Some large brothels in the 4th century, when Rome was becoming officially Christianized, seem to have been counted as tourist attractions and were possibly...