La prostitution

La prostitution, la pratique de se livrer à une activité sexuelle relativement aveugle, en général avec quelqu'un qui n'est pas un conjoint ou un ami, en échange d'un paiement immédiat en argent ou en d'autres objets de valeur. Les prostituées peuvent être des femmes ou des hommes ou des transgenres, et la prostitution peut entraîner des activités hétérosexuelles ou homosexuelles, mais historiquement la plupart des prostituées ont été des femmes et la plupart des clients des hommes.

Les perceptions de la prostitution reposent sur des valeurs culturellement déterminées qui diffèrent d'une société à l'autre. Dans certaines sociétés, les prostituées sont considérées comme membres d'une profession reconnue; dans d'autres, ils ont été rejetés, injuriés et punis de lapidation, d'emprisonnement et de mort. Peu de sociétés ont exercé la même sévérité envers les clients; en effet, dans de nombreuses sociétés, les clients subissent peu ou pas de répercussions juridiques. Dans certaines cultures, la prostitution a été exigée des jeunes filles comme rite de puberté ou comme moyen d'acquérir une dot, et certaines religions ont exigé la prostitution d'une certaine classe de prêtresses. Les anciens Grecs et Romains exigeaient que les prostituées portent des vêtements distinctifs et paient de lourdes taxes. La loi hébraïque n'interdit pas la prostitution mais limite la pratique aux femmes étrangères.Parmi les ordonnances édictées par Moïse pour réglementer la santé publique, plusieurs concernaient les maladies sexuellement transmissibles.

En Europe, au Moyen Âge, les responsables d'églises ont tenté de réhabiliter les prostituées pénitentes et de financer leurs dot. Néanmoins, la prostitution prospère: elle est non seulement tolérée mais également protégée, autorisée et réglementée par la loi, et elle constitue une source considérable de revenus publics. Des bordels publics ont été créés dans les grandes villes d'Europe. À Toulouse, en France, les bénéfices ont été partagés entre la ville et l'université; en Angleterre, les bordels étaient à l'origine autorisés par les évêques de Winchester puis par le Parlement.

Stricter controls were imposed during the 16th century, in part because of the new sexual morality that accompanied the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. Just as significant was the dramatic upsurge of sexually transmitted diseases. Sporadic attempts were made to suppress brothels and even to introduce medical inspections, but such measures were to little avail.

In the late 19th century a variety of changes in Western societies revived efforts to suppress prostitution. With the rise of feminism, many came to regard male libertinism as a threat to women’s status and physical health. Also influential was a new religious-based moralism in Protestant countries. Antiprostitution campaigns flourished from the 1860s, often in association with temperance and women’s suffrage movements. International cooperation to end the traffic in women for the purpose of prostitution began in 1899. In 1921 the League of Nations established the Committee on the Traffic in Women and Children, and in 1949 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a convention for the suppression of prostitution.

In the United States, prostitution was at best sporadically controlled until passage of the federal Mann Act (1910), which prohibited interstate transportation of women for “immoral purposes.” By 1915 nearly all states had passed laws that banned brothels or regulated the profits of prostitution. After World War II, prostitution remained prohibited in most Western countries, though it was unofficially tolerated in some cities. Many law-enforcement agencies became more concerned with regulating the crimes associated with the practice, especially acts of theft and robbery committed against clients. Authorities also intervened to prevent girls from being coerced into prostitution (“white slavery”). Prostitution is illegal in most of the United States, though it is lawful in some counties in Nevada.

In most Asian and Middle Eastern countries, prostitution is illegal but widely tolerated. Among predominantly Muslim countries, Turkey has legalized prostitution and made it subject to a system of health checks for sex workers, and in Bangladesh prostitution is notionally legal but associated behaviours such as soliciting are prohibited. In some Asian countries the involvement of children in prostitution has encouraged the growth of “sex tourism” by men from countries where such practices are illegal. Many Latin American countries tolerate prostitution but restrict associated activities. In Brazil, for example, brothels, pimping, and child exploitation are illegal.

During the 1980s, attitudes toward prostitution changed radically through two major developments. One was the worldwide spread of AIDS, which increased concern about public health problems created by prostitution. In Africa especially, one factor in the rapid spread of AIDS was the prostitution industry serving migrant labourers. A second influential development was a renewal of feminist interest and the perspective that prostitution is both a consequence and a symptom of gender-based exploitation. Reflecting these shifting attitudes, from the 1980s the more neutral term sex worker was increasingly employed to describe those involved in commercial sex activities.

It is difficult to generalize about the background or conditions of prostitutes because so much of what is known about them derives from studies of poorer and less-privileged individuals, people who are more likely to come into contact with courts and official agencies. Much more is known about streetwalkers, for example, than about the higher-status women who can be more selective about their clients and work conditions. Based on available studies, though, it is reasonable to assert that female sex workers often are economically disadvantaged and lack skills and training to support themselves. Many are drawn at an early age into prostitution and associated crime, and drug dependency can be an aggravating factor. They frequently are managed by a male procurer, or pimp, or by a supervisor, or madam, in a house of prostitution. Health hazards to prostitutes include sexually transmitted diseases, some of which may be acquired through drug abuse. Male prostitution has received less public attention in most cultures. Heterosexual male prostitution—involving males hired by or for females—is rare. Homosexual male prostitution has probably existed in most societies, though only in the 20th century was it recognized as a major social phenomenon, and its prevalence increased during the late 20th and early 21st century.