Oleksandr Talavera University of Birmingham On These services can be provided by individuals as well as organizations e. The draft law requires for regulation of these services and introduces legal entry barriers e. Short history of the issue Prostitution is a controversial issue in many modern societies. The history of prostitution dates back to ancient times when sacred prostitutes used to be women who had sex not for gain but as a ritual.
Since then governments have extensively experimented with regulating and deregulating the market for sex services. Later, in Henry VIII made an unsuccessful attempt to close brothels and reduce the spread of syphilis disease.
Three centuries later, the Contagious Diseases Act allowed police to arrest prostitutes in ports and army towns and bring them to compulsory checks for venereal diseases. Modern Western states entertain a very diverse set of approaches to prostitution, sometimes diametrically opposed.
On the one side of the spectrum, there are countries like Germany and the Netherlands which allow off-street and even street prostitution, but at the same time introduce regulation, such as age restrictions and licensing of brothels. On the other side of the spectrum, there are countries such as Sweden that criminalize and prosecute any paid sex, with penalties for clients. Many countries, however, follow a middle way between these two extremes, when certain types of activities in the commercial sex sector are banned, but others are not.
For example, in the UK, the act of exchanging sexual services for money is not a crime, although there are a number of illegal sex-related activities. In particular, soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, pimping and pandering are offences. Furthermore, it is illegal to own or manage a brothel, which is defined as more than one worker in particular premises.
