Prostitución

La prostitución, la práctica de participar en una actividad sexual relativamente indiscriminada, en general con alguien que no es un cónyuge o un amigo, a cambio de un pago inmediato en dinero u otros objetos de valor. Las prostitutas pueden ser mujeres o hombres o transgénero, y la prostitución puede implicar actividad heterosexual u homosexual, pero históricamente la mayoría de las prostitutas han sido mujeres y la mayoría de los clientes hombres.

Las percepciones de la prostitución se basan en valores culturalmente determinados que difieren entre las sociedades. En algunas sociedades, las prostitutas han sido vistas como miembros de una profesión reconocida; en otros han sido rechazados, vilipendiados y castigados con lapidación, encarcelamiento y muerte. Pocas sociedades han ejercido la misma severidad hacia los clientes; de hecho, en muchas sociedades, los clientes sufren pocas o ninguna repercusión legal. En algunas culturas, se ha requerido la prostitución de las jóvenes como un rito de la pubertad o como un medio para adquirir una dote, y algunas religiones han requerido la prostitución de una cierta clase de sacerdotisas. Los antiguos griegos y romanos ordenaron que las prostitutas vistieran trajes distintivos y pagaran impuestos severos. La ley hebrea no prohibía la prostitución, sino que limitaba la práctica a las mujeres extranjeras.Entre las ordenanzas establecidas por Moisés para regular la salud pública había varias relacionadas con enfermedades de transmisión sexual.

En Europa durante la Edad Media, los líderes de la iglesia intentaron rehabilitar a las prostitutas penitentes y financiar sus dotes. Sin embargo, la prostitución floreció: no solo fue tolerada sino también protegida, autorizada y regulada por la ley, y constituyó una fuente considerable de ingresos públicos. Se establecieron burdeles públicos en grandes ciudades de toda Europa. En Toulouse, en Francia, los beneficios se repartieron entre la ciudad y la universidad; en Inglaterra, los bordellos fueron originalmente autorizados por los obispos de Winchester y posteriormente por el Parlamento.

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.