In how many countries in the world is Prostitution legal? The US allows it in Nevada, but no where else that I know. Is it regulated in the countries that allow it?
You’ll find that it’s legal in many European countries, it’s the pimping that’s illegal. This is to protect the women, so that they can report a crime by the pimp, such as a beating, without fear of (in theory) being harassed.
Some countries use this to curtail prostitution, by making it virtually impossible for them to rent a place to do the work. The law makes it possible to arrest anyone who rents a place or participates in advertising for the services, by encompassing them as procurer.
A few years ago Sweden passed a law making the client of a prositute a fellon.I think we were the first country in the world to do so.The idea is to put the "blame"on the man. The advocates of the law claim it’s been a success, the detractors (and I lean towards this myself) think it has only served to force prostitution even more underground.
Heh heh, this makes it sound like the federal government has set aside Nevada as some sort of nature preserve for prostitutes. Actually, if I understand correctly (and I’m no expert on prostitution), the laws are all at the state and local level, not the national, and all states except Nevada have outlawed prostitution, though they could theoretically change their laws to allow it. Dunno if the same sort of thing is true in other countries.
Prostitution is legal in France, but solliciting or advertizing for sex services is illegal, making the life of prostitutes quite difficult (they can be fined or arrested for solliciting inthe streets, and it seems to be enforced quite randomly).
Pimping is illegal too (with a very broad definition : anyone living with a prositute or who received anything from her is legally a pimp), and brothels have been forbidden since WWII.
IOW, the french laws on this matter are highly hypocritical. Prositutes are expected to pay taxes, though.
Completely legal in Canada.
http://www.sexwork.com/coalition/canada.html
Of course there are a few restrictions but I could pick up the phone and order some sex right now if I wanted to it seems (at least from the link).
The state of affairs in the UK is typically British: prostitution is neither entirly illegal or legal. Sex for money is not per se illegal, but soliciting in public is illegal as are such activities as curb crawling. Living off immoral earnings is a crime, but as far as I know this law is primarly used to control pimping.
Apparently, it was recently legalised in Germany, as I was reading today in Metro (a free UK national newspaper) about a case of a woman who was threatened with a cut in her unemployment benefit if she refused to accept a job as a prostitute. It seems to be true; see
for more details. NB: this is the website of a different UK newspaper (not free), as the Metro website didn’t have the story.
Fine Point Note: Prostitution is not legal throughout the state of Nevada. Brothels are permitted by individual Counties.
For an interesting read on the topic (the journalist who stayed at the Mustang Ranch): Brothel by Alexa Albert.
So a teenaged child of a prostitute, who lives with the prostitute and gets an allowance and food, is legally a pimp in France?
If we want to really pick this nit: The STATE allows prostitution and it is up to individual counties to decide what they want to do. Just like here in PA, the state allows for bars and restaurants to sell alcohol and each individual county can prohibit it. Indeed, each town may prohibit it if they wish.
However, none of that detracts from the point that we must include the US in countries where it is legal, because there is at least one place where it is so. The further nuances of that legality don’t really add to the question of which countries permit prostitution.
To further pick the nit, I believe the state says the county must have a population of less than 250,000 for prostitution to be allowed. Prostitution is definitely illegal in Las Vegas.
This question never occured to me. I assume there are exceptions for family members.
I don’t know that I would express the Canadian situation as it is “completely legal” because I think it could be open to misinterpretation by others. The restrictions on the site you linked to highlight some of the complexities of the situation.
Overall, I’d say that Canada is closer to that of the situation for Great Britain as expressed by Gaius.Cornelius, i.e. not illegal per se but that there are aspects of it that have been criminalized, with harsher penalties for offences involving minors.
The main areas of criminalization as set out in the Criminal Code of Canada are as follows:
1) “Bawdy houses”/aka brothels
Section 210 of the Criminal Code of Canada deals with “bawdy houses” by criminalizing them as follows:
210. (1) Every one who keeps a common bawdy-house is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years
(2) Every one who
(a) is an inmate of a common bawdy-house,
(b) is found, without lawful excuse, in a common bawdy-house, or
(c) as owner, landlord, lessor, tenant, occupier, agent or otherwise having charge or control of any place, knowingly permits the place or any part thereof to be let or used for the purposes of a common bawdy-house,
is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
And also criminalizing transporting someone to a bawdy house:
- Every one who knowingly takes, transports, directs, or offers to take, transport or direct, any other person to a common bawdy-house is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction
- **Procuring, **
Note the increased penalties for offences involving people under the age of 18:
- (1) Every one who
(a) procures, attempts to procure or solicits a person to have illicit sexual intercourse with another person, whether in or out of Canada,
(b) inveigles or entices a person who is not a prostitute to a common bawdy-house for the purpose of illicit sexual intercourse or prostitution,
(c) knowingly conceals a person in a common bawdy-house,
(d) procures or attempts to procure a person to become, whether in or out of Canada, a prostitute,
(e) procures or attempts to procure a person to leave the usual place of abode of that person in Canada, if that place is not a common bawdy-house, with intent that the person may become an inmate or frequenter of a common bawdy-house, whether in or out of Canada,
(f) on the arrival of a person in Canada, directs or causes that person to be directed or takes or causes that person to be taken, to a common bawdy-house,
(g) procures a person to enter or leave Canada, for the purpose of prostitution,
(h) for the purposes of gain, exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person in such manner as to show that he is aiding, abetting or compelling that person to engage in or carry on prostitution with any person or generally,
(i) applies or administers to a person or causes that person to take any drug, intoxicating liquor, matter or thing with intent to stupefy or overpower that person in order thereby to enable any person to have illicit sexual intercourse with that person, or
(j) lives wholly or in part on the avails of prostitution of another person,
is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1)(j), every person who lives wholly or in part on the avails of prostitution of another person who is under the age of eighteen years is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years
(2.1) Notwithstanding paragraph (1)(j) and subsection (2), every person who lives wholly or in part on the avails of prostitution of another person under the age of eighteen years, and who
(a) for the purposes of profit, aids, abets, counsels or compels the person under that age to engage in or carry on prostitution with any person or generally, and
(b) uses, threatens to use or attempts to use violence, intimidation or coercion in relation to the person under that age,
is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years but not less than five years
(4) Every person who, in any place, obtains for consideration, or communicates with anyone for the purpose of obtaining for consideration, the sexual services of a person who is under the age of eighteen years is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.
3) Communicating for the purposes of prostitutions in a public place:
- (1) Every person who in a public place or in any place open to public view
(a) stops or attempts to stop any motor vehicle,
(b) impedes the free flow of pedestrian or vehicular traffic or ingress to or egress from premises adjacent to that place, or
(c) stops or attempts to stop any person or in any manner communicates or attempts to communicate with any person
for the purpose of engaging in prostitution or of obtaining the sexual services of a prostitute is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
(2) In this section, “public place” includes any place to which the public have access as of right or by invitation, express or implied, and any motor vehicle located in a public place or in any place open to public view.
Prostitution is illegal in Japan, but is narrowly defined as “a man paying a woman to put his penis in her vagina.” Everything else (hand jobs, blow jobs, anal sex, etc.) is completely legal (barring age restrictions), and there are, depending on the neighborhood, anywhere from dozens to thousands of shops very openly advertising the ways in which rocks can be gotten off.
Prostitution is openly legal in Costa Rica . What struck me when I went there was how young, attractive, and professional they seemed to be (No, I didn’t use one, I was on my honeymoon). The get regularly tested for STD’s and they do regular sex, but many of them also serve as week-long call girls for single men on trips. There were a lot of them at our resort. The sight of skanky hookers usually makes my pecker go inverted, but the one that I saw were pretty impressive. I believe that the have an official system like a card in a library book where you check the girl in and out and then pay but I don’t know enough about that.
ISTR reading somewhere (sorry, no cite) the police in Japan conveniently look the other way at “a man paying a woman to put his penis in her vagina” and that it goes on somewhat openly.
It is legal in Australia in approved brothels but not for streetwalkers. Some daily papers have pages of ads for different services.
True, and of course IANAL.
But my statement of calling up a prositute seems to be legal. None of the laws surround private communications to solicit sex from someone. And according to my cite it seems it’s legal to advertise such services in a ‘pay for’ magazine or newspaper.
True, although there have been crackdowns lately. Tokyo was relatively strict about it (it still went on, though), but is next-door Kanagawa Prefecture (where Yokohama is), it was pretty open. My old apartment was near the Tokyo/Kanagawa border, and right over the river was a small complex of little shacks with pink lamps over each door. At night, the women (usually Thai or Russian) would stand in the doorways and call in customers. Recently, however, these areas have been closed down.
from the same site a rundown of what is legal in each country Decriminalize Prostitution Now Coalition Your Tax Dollars Are Being Wasted Ruining Citizens Lives Instead of fighting real crime