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Prostitution

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Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for money or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. A person selling sexual favors is a prostitute, a type of sex worker. In a more general sense of the word, anyone selling their services for a cause thought to be unworthy can be described as prostituting themselves.

Prostitutes and their clients represent both sexes and all sexual preferences. Prostitutes are stigmatized in many societies and religions; their customers are typically stigmatized to a lesser degree.

Male customers of prostitutes are known as clients or johns.

The English word whore, referring to (female) prostitutes, is taken from the Old English word hōra (from the Indo-European root kā meaning "desire") but usage of that word is widely considered pejorative and prostitute is a less value-laden term. On the other hand, in Germany most prostitutes' organizations deliberately use the word Hure (whore) since they feel that prostitute is a bureaucrats' term and an unnecessary euphemism for something not in need of euphemisms. The term sex worker is becoming the label of choice in Australia. See also: call girl, courtesan, escort.

Male prostitutes offering their services to male customers are called "escorts", "hustlers", "rent boys", "punks" (US), "trade", or "boy toys" or "bitches". Male prostitutes offering services to female customers are known as "escorts" or "gigolos". Though there is a stereotype that such male prostitutes are rare, a comprehensive study by Nither Tinnakul of Chulalongkorn University at Bangkok found the number in Thailand alone to be at least 30,000. This is not insignificant in a country where the total number of female prostitutes is estimated at around 100,000. In Argentina, male prostitutes serving both men and women are known as "taxi boys".

Organizers of prostitution are typically known as pimps (if male), madams (if female), and mama-sans if female and Asian.

The term prostitution is sometimes used in the more general meaning of having sex in order to achieve a certain goal different from procreation or pleasure. This includes forms of religious prostitution in which sex is practiced in compliance with religious precepts. Prostitution in this broader sense is also used in espionage. Arguably, it frequently occurs in normal marriages as well.

Another generalization is using the term or an equivalent to mean any form of earning well in an unscrupulous degrading manner, e.g. quote whore, media whore, karma whore, XP whore. The term pimp is also sometimes similarly used figuratively, as in poverty pimp.

Types of prostitution

Prostitution today occurs in various different settings.

  • In street prostitution the prostitute solicits customers while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street.
  • Prostitution can also take place in the prostitute's apartment and in many countries this is the only legal form of prostitution. A hybrid between brothel and apartment prostitution exists in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands: female prostitutes rent tiny one-room apartments in red-light districts and solicit customers from behind windows.
  • Prostitution occurs in some massage parlors and in Asian countries in some barber shops where sexual services may be offered for an additional tip.
  • Where prostitution is more out in the open, solicitation is done at bars, even open-air bars. Thailand is famous world-wide for these establishments. The typical bar set-up has the prostitutes dance on stage as you would see at a striptease club. This is partly done to get the women above the audience so men can look them over and pick who they want. It is also partly done to keep the women in shape by dancing a lot. Since most customers pick the prostitutes this way, the women are very physically active on stage to show how much energy they have and thus how much energy they'll have in bed. The women take turns dancing on the stage. When off the stage, they try to recover energy for the next time up on stage and also make themselves available for men that do not wish to use waitresses and bartenders to bring them to them. While on stage, the women wear a very large number (normally on a garter belt on their thigh) that the audience can clearly see. Men wishing to hire the dancer on stage then tell a waitress or bartender which number they want and the waitress/bartender will tell the dancer after her time on stage to come over to that man. In Thailand, a man wishing to take a woman out of the bar must pay a "bar fee" or "bar fine". This is normally how the bar makes its money off of the women. What the women make off the customer outside the bar is their money. But before leaving, the prostitute and her customer negotiate exactly what they'll do and where. The prostitute will then tell the man what the bar fine is and what she'll charge on top of that.

Still other bars service the men right in the bar. For example, in Thailand, some bars have the men sit up at the bar and while the man is watching a stripper, the prostitutes move around under the bar in darkness giving one man after another anonymous oral sex. After the stripper on stage completes a song, she then goes under the bar and one of the women under the bar goes up on stage to do a striptease. Unofficially, the price of the oral sex is included in the price of the drinks the men buy. However, most of the prostitutes work solely for the tips men give them after the man has climaxed. If a man doesn't tip, the most he can expect is one blow job and then being ignored by all the other prostitutes as they inform each other that he doesn't tip. This information can be done by way of whispers or simply a mark under the bar that the next woman can see when moving by the customer. To not make a mess, it is common that the bars require the women to swallow the sperm. It is also not uncommon for the women not to eat before coming to work on an expected busy night and expecting to be full by the end of that night on sperm alone.

  • Brothels are establishments specifically dedicated to prostitution, often confined to special red-light districts in big cities. Other names for brothels include Bordello, Whorehouse and Cathouse. Historical and rarer slang terms for brothels include bordel (from the French), Bovril, case (compare Spanish casa or Italian casa chiusa), common-house*, creep, crib, dress-house, drum, flash-house, flesh-shambles, gaff, harlot-house, hook shop, hot house*, house of ill/evil repute/fame, house of accommodation, house of assignation, joy-house, juke, kip, knocking-shop, leaping house, lupanar (from Latin), maison close (French closed house), maison de passe (house of passage), maison tolérée (tolerated house, i.e. licensed), massage parlour, meat house, moll-shop, notch-house, nunnery*, panel-house, parlour-house, peg house, picked hatch*, public house, rap club, rib-joint, slaughter-house, smuggling-ken, sporting-house, stew, trugging house/place, vaulting house, warren and whore-shop/sty. (* used by Shakespeare) Many of these are or originated as euphemisms, and their variety is affected in part by the euphemism treadmill.
  • In escort or out-call prostitution, the customer calls an agency and the act takes place at the customer's place of residence or more commonly at his hotel room. This form of prostitution often shelters under the umbrella of escort agencies, who supply attractive escorts for social occasions. While some escort agencies provide non-sexual services only, many turn a blind eye to escorts who provide additional sexual services or actively encourage them. Alternately, an escort may work independently of an agency and place advertisements in newspapers and magazines for his or her own services. Even where this prostitution is legal, the euphemistic term "escort service" is common. See call girl.


In many countries, illegal immigrants work in prostitution, sometimes against their will and generally in circumstances where they feel they have no other choice. Often these prostitutes are kept in financial debt by the brothel owners, who charge them for their travel and other costs. The arrangement may be such that the prostitutes can never earn enough to pay off the debt. The term used for forcing people into prostitution is "sexual slavery".

In addition to the first world, this also takes place in countries of South Asia such as India and Thailand, where young girls are sometimes sold to brothel owners. In modern day Thailand and India this is becoming much rarer.

While in both of these societies visiting prostitutes is a common and almost normal behavior, Thailand is also a destination of sex tourists, travellers from rich countries in search of cheap sexual services. Other popular sex tourism destinations are Brazil, the Caribbean, and former eastern bloc countries.

Female prostitutes, especially street prostitutes, are commonly associated with a pimp, a man who lives off the proceeds of several prostitutes and may offer some protection in return. The relationship between pimp and prostitute is often abusive. In areas where legal restrictions on prostitution are greatest, the power of pimps over prostitutes can actually be increased by the illegality of prostitution. For example, in Finland, the immigration law allows the state to deport immigrants suspected of prostitution without a trial; thus in cases of physical abuse by the pimps, the prostitutes cannot even resort to the police.

There are other commercial sexual activities that are generally not classified as prostitution. These include acting and modeling for pornographic materials, even if this involves engaging in sexual intercourse; exotic dancing, which is naked, sexually provocative acting (sometimes involving masturbation) without physical contact with the customer; lap dancing, where the dancer may come into contact with the customer in sexually provocative but strictly limited ways; and the services of professional dominants.

In the case California v. Freeman, the California Supreme Court ruled that adult film makers could not be prosecuted under state laws against prostitution.

Street prostitution

In street prostitution, the prostitute solicits customers while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, usually dressed in skimpy, suggestive clothing. Often the prostitute (commonly called a "hooker" or "street hooker" to distinguish them from other sex workers) appears to mind his or her own business and waits for the customer to initiate contact. The act is performed in the customer's car or in a nearby alley or rented room (motels that service prostitutes commonly rent rooms by the half or full hour). This type of sex work offers the most freedom while it can sometimes be the least respected and most dangerous form of prostitution. Street prostitutes may be drug addicts and are commonly subjected to violence by their customers. Some serial killers prey on street prostitutes because they are able to enter an unknown man's car, try to not bring attention to themselves or their clients, and often go missing for days and weeks before anyone notices. The most famous example of this type of serial killings is that of Jack the Ripper.

Contrary to what is presented in movies (such as Pretty Woman), street prostitutes are sometimes the least attractive of all types of prostitutes. Most "street hookers" work outside due to the fact that they control how and where they do their dates, and because they are able to negotiate their own prices. They have the freedom to choose their dates, as opposed to receiving dates they have no prior knowledge of in a hotel room. The notion of all street workers having pimps is very outdated. Many hookers work ouside because they are not obligated to give a cut of their money to anyone, and they have the freedom to choose their own corners and hours. Brothel workers and call girls commonly end up as street prostitutes if they want to make extra money that is 100% theirs or if, less commonly, get disfigured by a customer, have so much of a drug addiction that the brothel/agency do not want to handle with them anymore, or did not save any money and get too old thus unattractive to work in a brothel or for a escort service. Sometimes, attractive street prostitutes are run-away teenage girls, but they may either quickly move onto brothels or escort services or are returned to their parents by the authorities. In smaller cities transsexual and transgendered women often work as street prostitutes becuase they can choose not to offer complete service, thereby hiding their identity better. Many street hookers are not sex addicts or unintelligent and often have day jobs or take university classes and are capable of forming meaningful relationships. Street prostitution is easy and sometimes more profitable than other types of sex work, in an society which is generally hostile to trans women/young sex workers.

Some street prostitutes may be too uneducated to get or keep traditional employment, while other might be university grads or students. The current trend in sentencing prostitutes is to try to educate them while they are in prison. This is an acceptable option for prostitutes who work because they feel they have no other alternatives, rather than girls who work because they choose to. They are then able to learn about other options open to them, although the prison education system is faulty. Unfortunately, because they are in prison, they will then have a criminal record and thus have a difficult time getting anything but low paying jobs to start, which is much less than the women would make on the street, thereby not really giving reluctant hookers the option of a new life.

Street prostitutes may sometimes have a pimp, in the way that anyone working in the sex industry may work for someone. Pimps justify taking a proportion of the prostitute's earnings by claiming they protect prostitutes from dangerous clients. Violence and threats are usually involved, as well as conning and lying. In reality prostitutes are often at more risk from the pimps themselves. Pimps often target vulnerable young girls who have run away from home, initially offering themselves as lovers or father-figures, thus satisfying the young girls need to be accepted. After introducing their victims to prostitution, they often encourage drug addiction, or drug selling to maintain their victim's dependency and use beatings and insults to assert their control. Pimps are most commonly low-echelon drug dealers with no real authority.

Street prostitutes can be drug users, in the same way that a lawyer or an accountant may be dependant on drugs. Drug abuse is obviously not specific to street prostitues, which is to say that a drug user may be a prostitute, but a prostitute may not be a drug user. Some street prostitutes are rejected, avoided, and disowned by their families and friends, due to family and friends having closed-minded views of what sex is/should be. Prostitutes generally end up only associating with other street prostitutes or sex workers, because these are the people who understand them. Much the same way that housewives associate with other housewives because that is the lifestyle that they are comfortable with. In the African-American culture, and many other cultures, these prostitutes-only subcultures are very strong and supportive of each other. So strong are some of these subcultures, that they prevent men from becoming their pimps and commonly "rescue" prostitutes who currently have pimps.

Due to the hazards of being a street prostitute, it is a very dangerous and potentially deadly job. This is mainly because of archaic sex laws. Making solicitation or communicating in public illegal does not stop prostitution, rather is endorses unsafe prostitution. Instead of being able to work out in the open where hookers could be protected by police and other citizens, hookers are forced to do their work in the shadows and alleys of the street. Many sex workers routinely face violence at the hands of customers or police.

Escort/Out-call Prostitution

See also main article at Call girl.

Those who work for an escort agency may obtain the position by responding to an employment advertisement, usually placed in a regional newspaper. Escort agencies maintain a database or "stable" of employees of different types in order to cater to a wider client base. (Some agencies may specifically cater to a certain type of prostitute, such as "all-Asian".) There are both male-for-male and female-for-male/female-for-female escort agencies; less commonly are both genders available from one agency, and there are a few male-for-female agencies. Transsexual prostitutes are available from some escort agencies.

Typically escort agencies advertise in regional publications and even telephone listings like the Yellow Pages. Many of them maintain websites with photo galleries of their employees. An interested client would contact the agency by telephone and offer a description of what kind of escort they are looking for. The agency will then suggest an employee who might fit the client's need.

The client's contact information is then taken down, and the agency calls the escort in question. It is then up to the escort to directly contact the client via telephone to make arrangements for an appointment. It is during this telephone call that details of the business arrangement are discussed—i.e., whether or not (and what) sex acts will be incorporated into the "date". The escort then makes a call to the agency to confirm the appointment's location and time. Generally the escort is also expected to call the agency upon arrival at the location, and upon leaving, to assure his or her safety.

The purpose of these details is to protect the escort agency (to some degree) from prosecution for breaking the law. If the employee is solely responsible for arranging any illegal aspects of their professional encounter the agency can maintain plausible deniability should an arrest be made.

The amount of money that is made by an escort is different depending on gender, service rendered and location. Generally male escorts make less than women, and women make less than transexuals. For point of reference, the gay escort agency "TOPPS", based in Washington, D.C., charges $150 an hour for male escorts, and $250 an hour for transexuals. The agency takes $50 per hour from the employee.

Legality of selling sex

In most countries, the basic act of exchanging money for sex among adults is legal. However, it is almost impossible to engage in most forms of prostitution legally because surrounding activities such as advertising, solicitation, pimping, as well as owning, operating, or working in a brothel are illegal. Prostitution itself is illegal in the United States (except for ten counties in the state of Nevada), India, some Muslim and various Communist countries.

At one end of the legal spectrum, prostitution carries the death penalty in some Muslim countries; at the other end, prostitutes are tax-paying and unionized professionals in the Netherlands and brothels are legal and advertising businesses there (however, prostitutes must be at least 18, while for non-commercial sex the age of consent is 16). The legal situation in Germany and New Zealand is almost as liberal as in the Netherlands; see prostitution in the Netherlands, prostitution in Germany and prostitution in New Zealand.

Rules vary as to which roles in prostitution are illegal: being a prostitute, being a client, or being a pimp. Sweden outlaws the buying, but not the selling of sex. In the case of a prostitute under 18 in the Netherlands, being the client or pimp is illegal, but being the prostitute is not, except if the client is also underage (under 16).

Establishments engaged in sexual slavery or owned by organized crime are the highest priority targets of law enforcement actions against prostitution. Police also frequently intervene when prompted by local resident complaints. In most countries where prostitution is illegal, at least some forms of it are tolerated. It has been alleged that this situation allows the police to extort money or services from prostitutes in exchange for "looking the other way".

Pimping is a sex crime in almost all jurisdictions.

In 1949, the United Nations adopted a convention stating that prostitution is incompatible with human dignity, requiring all signing parties to punish pimps and brothel owners and operators and to abolish all special treatment or registration of prostitutes. The convention was ratified by 89 countries with the notable exceptions of Germany, the Netherlands and the United States.

Some municipalities in the Netherlands would like a "zero policy" for brothels, i.e. not allow any, on moral grounds, but by law this is not possible. However, regulations, including restrictions in number and location are common. Whether a zero policy on urban planning grounds is allowed is still unclear.

Advertising prostitution

In countries where prostitution is legal, advertising it may be legal (as in the Netherlands) or illegal (as in Germany). In countries where prostitution is illegal, advertising it is usually also illegal.

Covert advertising for prostitution can take a number of forms:

  • by cards in newsagents' windows
  • by cards placed in public telephone enclosures: so-called tart cards
  • by euphemistic advertisements in regular magazines and newspapers (for instance, talking of "massages" or "relaxation")
  • in specialist contact magazines
  • via the World Wide Web

Regulated prostitution

In some jurisdictions, such as Nevada (see prostitution in Nevada), Switzerland and several Australian states, prostitution is legal but heavily regulated.

Such approaches are taken with the recognition that prostitution is impossible to eliminate and thus these societies have chosen to regulate it in ways that reduce the more undesirable consequences. Goals of such regulations include controlling sexually transmitted disease, reducing sexual slavery and controlling where brothels may operate.

The Dutch legalisation of prostitution has similar objectives, as well as improving health and working conditions for the women and weakening the link between prostitution and criminality.

Daily Planet is a brothel in Melbourne, Australia whose shares have been listed on the Australian Stock Exchange since 2003. There are various regulatory regimes governing prostitution in Australia and a level of increasing professionalism is being seen in the industry with the establishment of business associations like the Queensland Adult Business Association [1]that ascribe to a strict ethical code which entrenches the independence of service providers.

Child prostitution

For child prostitution the laws on prostitution as well as those on sex with a child apply. If prostitution in general is legal there may be a minimum age requirement for legal prostitution that is higher than the general age of consent (see above for some examples). There are about one million child prostitutes in China.

Most child prostitution is forced teenage prostitution and the customers are usually not true pedophiles. Forced prostitution of pre-teenage children does exist but is considerably rarer.

Sex tourism

Sex tourism is tourism, partially or fully for the purpose of having sex, usually with prostitutes. Sex tourism destinations are typically poor countries, where poverty drives people into prostitution. Some paedophiles use sex tourism to have access to sex with children that is unavailable in their home country. Most countries with a major sex tourism industry are working on attempting to reduce or eliminate sex tourism.

Several western countries have recently enacted laws punishing citizens who, as sex tourists, engage in sex with minors in other countries. These laws are rarely enforced since the crime often goes undiscovered.

Medical situation

Since prostitutes tend to have large numbers of sexual partners, prostitution has often been associated with the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as AIDS.

Typical responses to the problem are:

  • banning prostitution completely
  • introducing a system of registration for prostitutes that mandates health checks and other public health measures
  • educating prostitutes and their clients to encourage the use of barrier contraception and greater interaction with health care

Some think that the first two measures are counter-productive. Banning prostitution tends to drive it underground, making treatment and monitoring more difficult. Registering prostitutes makes the state complicit in prostitution and does not address the health risks of unregistered prostitutes. Both of the last two measures can be viewed as harm reduction policies.

The encouragement of safer sex practices, combined with regular testing for sexually transmitted diseases, has been very successful when applied consistently.

Politics

Roughly speaking, the possible attitudes are:

  • abolition: "prostitution should be made to disappear"
    • "prostitution is immoral and prostitutes and their clients should be prosecuted": the prevailing attitude in the United States and Muslim countries;
    • "prostitution is a sad reality of exploitation of the prostitutes, especially women, but prostitutes should not be criminalized":
      • "the clients of prostitutes exploit the prostitutes": prostitutes are not prosecuted, but their clients are prosecuted, the current situation in Sweden.
      • prostitution is legal, but discouraged, while pimping is prohibited, the current situation in France among others;
  • regulation: prostitution may be considered a legitimate business, or at least an unavoidable evil; prostitution and the employment of prostitutes are legal, but regulated (with respect to health etc... concerns).
  • legalization: "prostitution is a victimless crime, and should be made completely legal so that it is no longer an underground activity, allowing the normal checks and balances of society and existing laws to apply"
  • "decriminalization": "prostitution is inevitable, but exploitative; laws should target violent pimps and traffickers, not prostitutes." Proponents of this view often cite instances of government regulation under legalization that they consider instrusive, demeaning, or violent, but feel that criminalization adversely effects prostitutes.

In some countries, there is controversy regarding the laws applicable to prostitution. For instance, the legal stance of punishing pimping while keeping prostitution legal, but "underground" and risky, is often denounced as hypocritical; opponents suggest either going the full abolition route and criminalize clients or making prostitution a regulated business.

Many countries have sex worker advocacy groups which lobby against criminalization and discrimination of prostitutes. These groups generally oppose Nevada-style regulation and oversight, stating that prostitution should be treated like other professions. In the United States, one such group is C.O.Y.O.T.E. (which an abbreviation for "Call Off YOur Tired Ethics") and another is North American Task Force on Prostitution. An international prostitute's rights organization is the International Committee for Prostitute's Rights.

Other groups, often with religious backgrounds, focus on offering women a way out of the world of prostitution while not taking a position on the legal question.

The feminist position towards prostitution is divided. Some theorize prostitution as an act of sexual self-determination, decry discrimination and demand destigmatization and decriminalization; women are supposed to be adults who can choose what they wish to do with their bodies. In that view, the moral prohibition of prostitution is just mere masked patriarchal moralism, with a traditional view of considering women to be incapable of making decisions for themselves. Others, exemplified by the American radical feminist and ex-prostitute Andrea Dworkin, consider it to be sexual abuse or even rape; the prostitutes are then victims, which must be protected from the abuse of the clients and pimps. The former group pushed a law reform in Germany, resulting in January 2002 in the recognition of prostitution as a regular profession, making it possible for prostitutes to join the social security and health care system and to form trade unions. The latter faction of feminists was able in Sweden in 1999 to implement the law outlawing the buying of sexual favors but not the selling.

In the United States, the only political party that favors legalization of prostitution is the United States Libertarian Party. The USLP believes all consenual crimes (any act that is against the law where all parties involved voluntarily consent to engage in the activity) should be eliminated.

History

Prostitution, as one folk saying goes, is "the world's oldest profession". One of the first forms is sacred prostitution, supposedly practiced among Sumerians. In ancient sources (Herodotus, Thucydides) there are many traces of sacred prostitution, starting perhaps with Babylon, where each woman had to reach, once in their lives, the sanctuary of Militta (Aphrodites or Nana/Anahita) and there have sex with a foreigner as a sign of hospitality for a symbolic price.

A similar type of prostitution was practiced in Cyprus (Paphus) and in Corinth, where the temple counted more than a thousand prostitutes (hierodules), according to Strabo. It was widely in use in Sardinia and in some of the Phoenician cultures, usually in honour of the goddess ‘Ashtart. Presumably by the Phoenicians, this practice was developed in other ports of the Mediterranean Sea, like in Erice (Sicily), in Locri Epizephiri, Croton, Rossano Vaglio, Sicca Veneria and other towns. Other hypotheses regard Asia Minor, Lydia, Syria and Etruscans.

It was common in Israel too, but some prophets, like Hosea and Ezekiel strongly fought it; it is assumed that it was part of the cults of Canaan, where a significant portion of prostitutes were male.

In the Bible there are many stories about common (non-sacred) prostitution, with also a case (Tamar) of a false prostitute that commits incest with her father-in-law (Judah). In Jericho, a prostitute named Rahab assisted Israelite spies and was spared from death when the Israelites invaded. Salmon, son of Nahshon, married Rahab, making her an ancestor of King David.

In ancient Greek society, prostitutes were independent and sometimes influential women who were required to wear distinctive dresses and had to pay taxes. Some similarities have been found between the Greek Hetaera and the Japanese Geisha, complex figures that are perhaps in an intermediate position between prostitution and courtisanerie. Some prostitutes in ancient Greece, such as Lais were as famous for their company as their beauty, and some of these women charged extraordinary sums for their services.

In Greece, Solon instituted the first of Athens' brothels (oik`iskoi) in the 6th century BC, and with the earnings of this business he built a temple dedicated to Aprodites Pandemo (or Qedesh), patron goddess of this commerce. The Greek word for prostitute is porne, derived from the verb pernemi (to sell), with the evident modern evolution. The procuring was however severely forbidden.

Each specialised category had its proper name, so there were the chamaitypa`i, working outdoor (lie-down), the perepatetikes who met their customers while walking (and then worked in their houses), the gephyrides, who worked near the bridges. In the 5th century, Ateneo informs us that the price was of 1 obole, a sixth of a drachma and the equivalent of an ordinary worker's day salary. The rare pictures describe that sex was performed on beds with covers and pillows, while triclinia usually didn't have these accessories.

In ancient Rome, while there were some commonalities with the Greek system, as the Emprire grew prostitutes were often foreign slaves, caught, bought, or raised for that purpose, sometimes by large-scale "prostitute farmers". Enslavement into prostitution was sometimes used as a legal punishment against criminal free women. Life expectancy for prostitutes was generally low, but some managed to get free and establish themselves e.g. as folk doctors.

During the Middle Ages prostitution was commonly found in urban contexts. Although all forms of sexual activity outside of marriage were regarded as sinful by the Catholic Church, prostitution was tolerated because it was held to prevent the greater evils of rape and sodomy. Augustine of Hippo held that prostitution was a necessary evil: just as a well-ordered palace needed good sewers, so a well-ordered city needed brothels. By the High Middle Ages it is common to find town governments ruling that prostitutes were not to ply their trade within the town walls, but they were tolerated outside if only because these areas were beyond the jurisdiction of the authorities. In the Languedoc region of France town governments came to set aside certain streets as areas where prostitution could be tolerated. Still later it became common in the major towns and cities of Southern Europe to establish civic brothels, whilst outlawing prostitution taking place outside these brothels. In much of Northern Europe a more laissez faire attitude tends to be found. By very end of the fifteenth century attitudes seemed to have begun to harden against prostitution. With the advent of the Protestant Reformation numbers of Southern German towns closed their brothels in an attempt to eradicate prostitution. The prevalence of sexually transmitted disease from the earlier sixteenth century may also have influenced attitudes.

In some periods prostitutes had to distinguish themselves by particular signs, sometimes wearing very short hair or no hair at all, or wearing veils in societies where other woman did not wear them. Ancient codes regulated in this case the crime of a prostitute that dissimulated her profession. In some cultures, prostitutes were the sole women allowed to sing in public or act in theatrical performances.

In the 18th century, presumably in Venice, prostitutes started using condoms, made with catgut or cow bowel.

Originally, prostitution was widely legal in the United States. Prostitution was made illegal in almost all states between 1910 and 1915 largely due to the influence of the Women's Christian Temperance Union which was influential in the banning of drug use and was a major force in the prohibition of alcohol. In 1917 the legally defined prostitution district Storyville in New Orleans was closed down by the Federal government over local objections. Prostitution remained legal in Alaska until 1953, and still is legal in some counties of Nevada. Beginning in the late 1980s, many states increased the penalties for prostitution in cases where the prostitute is knowingly HIV-positive. These laws, often known as felony prostitution laws, require anyone arrested for prostitution to be tested for HIV, and if the test comes back positive, the suspect is then informed that any future arrest for prostitution will be a felony instead of a misdemeanor. Penalties for felony prostitution vary in the states that have such laws, with maximum sentences of typically 10 to 15 years in prison.

In the 1970s some religious groups were discovered practicing religious prostitution as an instrument to make new adepts.

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