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Prostitution in Thailand is not itself illegal, but public solicitation for prostitution is prohibited if it is carried out "openly and shamelessly" or "causes nuisance to the public". Due to police corruption and an economic reliance on prostitution dating back to the Vietnam War, it remains a significant presence in the country. It results from poverty, low levels of education and a lack of employment in rural areas. Prostitutes mostly come from the northeastern (Isan) region of Thailand, from ethnic minorities or from neighbouring countries, especially Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. In 2019, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimated the total population of sex workers in Thailand to be 43,000.
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. While the Prostitution Prevention Law of 1956 states that "No person may either do prostitution or become the customer of it", loopholes, liberal interpretations and a loose enforcement of the law have allowed the Japanese sex industry to prosper and earn an estimated 2.3 trillion yen per year.
Prostitution is legal in India, but a number of related activities including soliciting, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, prostitution in a hotel, child prostitution, pimping and pandering are illegal. There are, however, many brothels illegally operating in Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, and Nagpur, among others. UNAIDS estimate there were 657,829 prostitutes in the country as of 2016. Other unofficial estimates have calculated India has roughly 3 million prostitutes. India is widely regarded as having one of the world's largest commercial sex industry. It has emerged as a global hub of sex tourism, attracting sex tourists from wealthy countries. The sex industry in India is a multi-billion dollar one, and one of the fastest growing. Sex workers face poor conditions and structural barriers.
Procuring, pimping, or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp or a madam or a brothel keeper, is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The procurer may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing and possibly monopolizing a location where the prostitute may solicit clients. Like prostitution, the legality of certain actions of a madam or a pimp vary from one region to the next.
Prostitution in Finland is legal, but soliciting in a public place and organised prostitution are illegal. According to a 2010 TAMPEP study, 69% of prostitutes working in Finland are migrants. As of 2009, there was little "visible" prostitution in Finland as it was mostly limited to private residences and nightclubs in larger metropolitan areas.
Prostitution in Italy, defined as the exchange of sexual acts for money, is legal, although organized prostitution, whether indoors in brothels or controlled by third parties, is prohibited. Brothels were banned in 1958. A euphemism often used to refer to street prostitutes in Italy is Lucciole, while escorts are referred to as Squillo.
Prostitution in Latvia is legal and regulated. The country is a destination for sex tourism.
Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact with the customer. The requirement of physical contact also creates the risk of transferring infections. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. A person who works in the field is usually called a prostitute or sex worker, but other words, such as hooker and whore, are sometimes used pejoratively to refer to those who work in prostitution. The majority of prostitutes are female and have male clients.
Current laws passed by the Parliament of Canada in 2014 make it illegal to purchase or advertise sexual services and illegal to live on the material benefits from sex work. The law officially enacted criminal penalties for "Purchasing sexual services and communicating in any place for that purpose."
Prostitution in Portugal is legal, but it is illegal for a third party to profit from, promote, encourage or facilitate the prostitution of another. Consequently, organized prostitution is prohibited.
Prostitution in Vietnam is illegal and considered a serious crime. Nonetheless, Vietnam's Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) has estimated that there were 71,936 prostitutes in the country in 2013. Other estimates puts the number at up to 200,000.
Prostitution is illegal in Egypt. The Egyptian National Police officially combats prostitution but, like almost all other countries, prostitution exists in Egypt. UNAIDS estimate there to be 23,000 prostitutes in the country, including Egyptians, West African and Eastern Europeans.
Prostitution in Nigeria is illegal in all Northern States that uses the penal code and sharia law also known as Islamic law. In Southern Nigeria, the activities of pimps or madams, underage prostitution and the operation or ownership of brothels are penalized under sections 223, 224, and 225 of the Nigerian Criminal Code. Even though the Nigerian constitution/Nigerian law does not legalize commercial sex work, it is vague if such work is performed by an independent individual who operates on his or her own accord without the use of pimps.
Akasen (赤線) was the Japanese slang term for districts historically engaged in the sex work industry in Japan, specifically within the time period of January 1946 through to March 1958.
Prostitution in Lebanon is nominally legal and regulated. However, no licences have been issued since 1975. In modern Lebanon, prostitution takes place semi-officially via 'super night clubs', and illegally on the streets, in bars, hotels and brothels. UNAIDS estimate there to be 4,220 prostitutes in the country.
The legality of prostitution in Europe varies by country.
Thailand is a centre for child sex tourism and child prostitution. Even though domestic and international authorities work to protect children from sexual abuse, the problem still persists in Thailand and many other Southeast Asian countries. Child prostitution, like other forms of child sexual abuse, not only causes death and high morbidity rates in millions of children but also violates their rights and dignity.
Prostitution laws varies widely from country to country, and between jurisdictions within a country. At one extreme, prostitution or sex work is legal in some places and regarded as a profession, while at the other extreme, it is considered a severe crime punishable by death in some other places. A variety of different legal models exist around the world, including total bans, bans that only target the customer, and laws permitting prostitution but prohibiting organized groups, an example being brothels.
Yūkaku (遊廓) were legal red-light districts in Japanese history, where both brothels and prostitutes - known collectively as yūjo, the higher ranks of which were known as oiran - recognised by the Japanese government operated. Though prostitution was, officially, legal to engage in and pay for only in these areas, there were a number of places where prostitutes and brothels operated illegally, known as Okabasho, the generic name for all unlicensed red-light districts other than Yoshiwara.
Prostitution, as defined under modern Japanese law, is the illegal practice of sexual intercourse with an 'unspecified' (unacquainted) person in exchange for monetary compensation, which was criminalised in 1956 by the introduction of article 3 of the Anti-Prostitution Law. However, the definition of prostitution made illegal under this law is strictly limited to sexual intercourse with an 'unspecified person', and does not criminalise the sale of numerous other acts performed by sex workers in exchange for compensation, such as oral sex, anal sex, mammary intercourse, and other non-coital sex acts; the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Law of 1948, also known as the "Law to Regulate Adult Entertainment Businesses", amended in 1985, 1999 and 2005, regulates these businesses, making only one definition of prostitution in Japan illegal.
References
- ↑ Hōmushō 1957.
- ↑ Eibun Hōreisha 2003.
- 1 2 3 4 Peterfreund, Tenica (2010). "Japan's Prostitution Prevention Law: The Case of the Missing Geisha". Seton Hall University . Retrieved 22 September 2018.
- 1 2 "売春防止法" [Prostitution prevention law]. law.e-gov.go.jp. 24 May 1961. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
- ↑ West 2010, p. 153.
- 1 2 3 4 McLelland & Mackie 2014, p. 282.
- ↑ Hastings, Sally (2013). "Chapter 2: Disputing Rights: The Debate over Anti-Prostitution Legislation in 1950s Japan". In Burns, Susan & Brooks, Barbara (eds.). Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium. University of Hawai'i Press. pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-0824839192.
- ↑ Tadashi 2011, p. 250.
- 1 2 "平成 ６年版 犯罪白書 第2編/第3章/第1節/5" [5. Treatment at the Women's Guidance Institute] (in Japanese). Heisei era white paper, 2nd edition,Chapter 3, Section 11. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
Bibliography
- Eibun Hōreisha (2003). Prostitution Prevention Law: (Law No. 118, May 24, 1956). Eibun-Horei-Sha.
- Hōmushō (Correction Bureau) (1957). Materials Concerning Prostitution and Its Control in Japan. Tokyo: Ministry of Justice, Japan. OCLC 19432229.
- McLelland, Mark; Mackie, Vera (2014). Routledge Handbook of Sexuality Studies in East Asia (Ebook). New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781317685746. OCLC 890981601.
- Tadashi, Shimadatsu (2011). 問いとしての〈正しさ〉: 法哲学の挑戦 ["Correctness" as a Question: Challenge of Law Philosophy](Tankobon) (in Japanese). NTT出版 [NTT Shuppan]. ISBN 9784757141971. OCLC 758440848.
- West, Mark D. (2010). Law in Everyday Japan: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes (Ebook). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226894096. OCLC 711000616.