"[T]he Code issues by Christian [Byzantine] Emperor Theodosius [II]... deprived fathers and mothers of their legal right to compel their daughters or slaves to prostitute themselves. The code also took steps to abolish the prostitution tax, thus giving the state less of a financial interest in prostitution."

W. C. Firebaugh Notes in his translation of The Satyricon, Complete (1922) by Petronius Arbiter

If the girl was young and apparently respectable, the official sought to influence her to change her mind; failing in this, he issued her a license (licentia stupri), ascertained the price she intended exacting for her favors, and entered her name in his roll. Once entered there, the name could never be removed, but must remain for all time an insurmountable bar to repentance and respectability. Failure to register was severely punished upon conviction, and this applied not only to the girl but to the pandar [sic] as well. The penalty was scourging, and frequently fine and exile. Notwithstanding this, however, the number of clandestine prostitutes at Rome was probably equal to that of the registered harlots."

When an applicant registered with the aedile, she gave her correct name, her age, place of birth, and the pseudonym under which she intended practicing her calling. (Plautus, Poen.)

"Rent from a brothel was a legitimate source of income.... Procuration also, had to be notified before the aedile [government regulators], whose special business it was to see that no Roman matron became a prostitute.... [I]n the year 180 B C. Caligula inaugurated a tax upon prostitutes (vectigal ex capturis)...

"Apasia, was a hetaira, one of the highly educated women from eastern Greece who entertained and accompanied men in many of their festivals, often including sex. As the mistress of Perikles, a principal ruler of Athens in the mid-fifth century B.C.E., Aspasia's influence on the Athenian leader was reputedly enormous; at various times his policies and speeches were ascribed to her."

"[He]taira...a 'female companion'...was the term normally used for courtesans in Classical Athens...They were generally more cultivated than citizen women; they were trained (usually by older hetairai) to be entertaining and interesting rather than to be thrifty managers of households...Some hetairai functioned as entrenched mistresses or even common-law wives, but others less fortunate were essentially prostitutes."

"The celebrated Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet Solon founded state brothels and taxed prostitutes on their earnings in the 5th century BC.... The cost of sex was one obole, a sixth of a drachma and the equivalent of an ordinary worker's day salary."

"According to Chinese tradition, commercial brothels were started in the seventh century B.C. by the stateman-philosopher Kuang Chung [b.710-d.645] as a means for increasing the state's income. Though there is some doubt as to whether Kuang Chung actually established the principle of licensing prostitutes, prostitution very early was set apart in special areas of the town."

Assyrian law distinguished prostitutes from other women by dress in the Code of Assura. "If the wives of a man, or the daughters of a man go out into the street, their heads are to be veiled. The prostitute is not to be veiled. Maidservants are not to veil themselves. Veiled harlots and maidservants shall have their garments seized and 50 blows inflicted on them and bitumen [asphalt or tar like substance] poured on their heads."

"The Sumerian word for female prostitute, kar.kid, occurs in the earliest lists of professions dating back to ca. 2400 B.C. Since it appears right after nam.lukur... one can assume its connection with temple service. It is of interest that the term kur-garru, a male prostitute or transvestite entertainer, appears on the same list but together with entertainers. This linkage results from a practice connected with the cult of Ishtar, in which transvestites performed acts using knives. On the same list we find the following female occupations: lady doctor, scribe, barber, cook. Obviously, prostitution, while it is a very old profession, is not the oldest."

Beginning in the 1490s the Great Pox (syphilis) ravaged Europe for nearly a century. "The recognition of the veneral nature of infection, and the fear of disease, combined with the moral fervor of the various sixteenth-century Reformers, resulted in a reaction against prostitution."

Tamae Mizuta Marie Mulvey-Roberts Perspectives on the History of British Feminism: The Rights of Married Women, 1994

"[I]n 1469 a special ordinance of Henry IV, King of Castila, was launched against the men engaged in it, who acting as procurers, associated themselves with the women and were called ruffians: when any such were found, they were for the first offense to receive 100 lashes; for the second they were to be banished for life; for the third they were to be hung."

"When the Great Council of Venice ratified a decree in 1358 that declared prostitution 'absolutely indispensable to the world,' this was a definite sign of the times."

"It was between 1350 and 1450 that the cities institutionalized prostitution, setting up a prostibulum publicum [municipal brothel] when the city did not already have one. The Castelletto in Venice opened its doors in 1360.... Florence took a similar decision in 1403; Siena in 1421."

In Dec. 1254 St. Louis [King Louis IX of France] ordered the expulsion of all 'women of evil life' from his kingdom and the confiscation of their belongings and even their clothing. In 1256 he repeated the order to expel women 'free with their bodies and other common harlots', but he adds that it would be desirable to drive them out of respectable streets, to keep them as far away as possible from religious establishments, and when feasible, to force them to lodge outside the city walls. In 1269, on the eve of his departure for his second crusade, he sent the regents a letter reminding them of the decree of 1254 and urging them to enforce it strictly so that this evil could be extirpated root and branch."

Alfonso IX['s]... ([Castilian] ruler 1188-1230)... regulations about prostitution are among the earliest in Europe. In a section of code... he concentrated on those who profited from prostitutes.... Those involved in selling prostitutes were to be exiled from the kingdom; lanlords who rented rooms to prostitutes were to have their houses impounded and also pay a fine; brothelkeepers had to free the women found in their brothels... and find them husbands or else suffer the possibility of execution; husbands who prostituted their wives were to be executed; and pimps were to be flogged for a first offense, and if they persisted were to be sent to the galleys as convicts. Women who supported pimps were to be publicly whipped and have the clothes they wore destroyed."

Henry II allowed the regulation of London's Bankside "stew-houses" [brothels] which included rules that prohibited forced prostitution, allowed for weekly searches by constables or bailiffs, and mandated closing on holidays. Prostitutes were not allowed to live at the brothels or be married and were discouraged from taking short shifts.

In 1158, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa punished prostitutes traveling with the army. When caught in the act, the prostitute was ordered to have her nose cut off in an attempt to make her less attractive. A soldier caught in the act sometimes had a finger cut off or an eye removed."

Tamae Mizuta Marie Mulvey-Roberts Perspectives on the History of British Feminism: The Rights of Married Women, 1994

"A decree of Recared, Catholic king of the Visigoths of Spain (596-601) absolutely prohibited prostitution. Girls and women born of free parents convicted of either practising prostitution, or inducing debauchery, were condemned for the first offence to be flogged (300 strokes) and to be ignominously expelled from the town."

Justinian was married to Empress Theodora, an alleged former prostitute, in 525. They created laws that banished procuresses and brothel keepers from the capital, granted freedom to slaves forced into prostitution, and banned sex in public bathhouses.

Byzantine Emperor Justinian the Great compiled the existing imperial laws into the Corpus Juris Civilis with 38 entries on prostitution in 534.

Prostitutes did not legally exist in France after 1560 but were unofficially licensed by police. For example the Lenoir ordinance "purported to renew the 1560 Act..." stated "[p]rostitutes - femmes de débauche - were forbidden to exist. If, however, they insisted on existing, they were forbidden to walk in public places or display themselves at windows in such a way as to attract custom; and, if they insisted on doing these forbidden things, they must do them only in certain parts of the city."

"Colonial New York was preeminently a seaport, and prostitution flourished in the streets and taverns close to the docks... New York, remarked John Watt in the 1760s, was 'the worst School for Youth of any of his Majesty's Dominions, Ignorance, Vanity, Dress, and Dissipation, being the reigning Characteristics of their insipid Lives.' For much of the eighteenth century, 'courtesans' promenaded along the Battery after nightfall. On the eve of the Revolution, over 500 'ladies of pleasure [kept] lodgings contiguous within the consecrated liberties of St. Paul's [Chapel].' A few blocks north, at the entrance to King's College (later Columbia University), Robert M'Robert claimed that dozens of prostitutes provided 'a temptation to the youth that have occasion to pass so often that way.'"

Timothy J. Gilfoyle, PhD "The Urban Geography of Commercial Sex: Prostitution in New York City, 1790-1860," The Other Americans: Sexual Variance in the National Past, 1996

In 1751 Empress Maria Theresa established the Chastity Commission at Vienna which lasted until her son, Emperor Joseph II, abolished it. "Its object was indeed not only to suppress prostitution, but fornication generally, and the means adopted were fines, imprisonment, whipping and torture. The supposed causes of fornication were also severely dealt with; short dresses were prohibited, billiard rooms and cafes were inspected and no waitresses were allowed."

From very early times, for example, nightwalking was an offense in Massachusetts. The law against nightwalking in that state, which testifies to the presence of prostitutes, was enacted in the colonial assembly of 1699 and reenacted by the state legislature in 1787. It was not until 1917 in Massachusetts, however, that a prostitute could be punished for prostitution."

"Prostitution was not an offense in either English or American common law, and, prior to World War I, although being a prostitute was not an offense, prostitution was generally regulated as a specific sort of vagrancy. When prostitutes were punished as sexual deviants, it was under laws against adultery or fornication or for being 'common nightwalkers'--women who strolled the streets at night for immoral purposes.

It burned down a year later in the Meireki Fire and was rebuilt in 1659, this time out past Asakusa. Officially renamed Shin (New) Yoshiwara, it was now permitted to carry on night time operations, which were prohibited in the old quarter."

The red-light district Yoshiwara [Good Luck Meadow] was "established in 1617 on the edge of the city [Edo now known as Tokyo] to gather all legal brothels in an out-of-the-way spot, the Yoshiwara was relocated in 1656 following Edo's rapid expansion.

"...[I]n 1586, Pope Sixtus V declared that the death penalty would be imposed on prostitution and 'sins against nature.' Sixtus V intended his command to be followed all over the Catholic world. There were some death sentences, but not many. For their part, the Lutherans continued to shave off both hair and ears; the Calvinists branded, and burdened with large stones carried around the city, and employed the stocks in public places."

"An ordinance of Charles IX., dated 1560, prohibited the opening or keeping of any brothel or house of reception for prostitutes in Paris.... In 1588 an ordinance of Henry III. reaffirmed the ordinance of 1560, and alleged that the magistrates of the city had connived at the establishment of brothels. Ordinances of the provost followed in the same strain, and all prostitutes were required to leave Paris within twenty-four hours."

Guido Ruggiero, PhD Binding Passions: Tales of Magic, Marriage, and Power at the End of the Renaissance, 1993

The ideal was that unlike the common whore, who was available to all, the universal victim at the bottom of the hierarchy of prostitution, the 'honest courtesan' was an exacting mistress... who judged honestly her suitors, accepting only the best."

"An aristocratic and courtly environment with limited access to aristocratic and courtly women… engendered a higher caliber of prostitute -- a woman who was not only young and beautiful, but who could grace with wit and charm a dinner or an evening otherwise dominated by male clerics... [T]he courtesan flourished as an elite form of prostitute quickly copied by an increasingly aristocratic upper class throughout Italy...

"[I]n 1913... the American Vigilance Association, (which had by then incorporated the American Purity Alliance as well as all of its scattered affiliates) joined with the Federation [American Federation for Sex Hygiene formerly American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis] to form the American Social Hygiene Association as the formal unification of the purity strand and the physicians' strand was accomplished."

Kristin Luker, PhD "Sex, Social Hygiene, and the State: The Double-Edged Sword of Social Reform," Theory and Society, Oct. 1998

The Bureau of Social Hygiene was incorporated by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1913 as a result of his service on a special grand jury to investigate white slavery in New York City in 1910. The purpose of the Bureau was "the study, amelioration, and prevention of those social conditions, crimes, and diseases which adversely affect the well-being of society, with special reference to prostitution and the evils associated therewith.""Within a few years, the Bureau of Social Hygiene commissioned and supported two important investigations: George Jackson Kneeland's Commercialized Prostitution in New York City (1913) and Abraham Flexner's researches into European methods of dealing with prostitution, Prostitution in Europe (1914). ...[T]he bureau sponsored research on aspects of prostitution such as police systems, the need for women police, legal statutes, and court reform and produced a series of psychological studies of delinquent women."

The US Supreme Court in Hoke v. United States held that regulating prostitution was strictly the province of the states but that Congress could regulate interstate travel for purposes of prostitution or immoral purposes.

"[I]t must be remembered that the most serious evils of this traffic in virtue are not physical but moral, and that the most effective means of counteracting them must ever be in the elevation of the moral sentiment of the community to a sense of individual responsibility for upright conduct in behalf of decency and virtue."

"In 1911 a new public morality act was enacted in the Netherlands. Article 250bis of the penal code states that it is forbidden to give opportunity for prostitution [brothel keeping]."

Johannes C. J. Boutellier "Prostitution, Criminal Law and Morality in the Netherlands," Crime, Law and Social Change, May 1991

The Mann Act came at a time when the prostitution debate and the white-slave trade were high-profile issues. "In the twenty years between 1890 and 1909, thirty-six entries [in Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature] appear under the heading 'prostitution.' Forty-one entries appear in the ten years, between 1915 and 1924. But for the mere five years between 1910 and 1914, 'prostitution' carries no less than 156 entries."

The Mann Act or White-Slave Traffic Act became law on June 25, 1910. Named after Rep. James Robert Mann (R-IL) it created federal law against "prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose." It dealt with forced prostitution, harboring immigrant prostitutes, and the transportation across state lines. "As of April 1912 the white slave investigations overshadowed the entire balance of the Bureau's [the future Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)] work."

The US Supreme Court in Keller v. United States ruled that deporting a resident alien who become a prostitute after entering the US violates the Tenth Amendment.

The American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis was formed by Dr. Price A. Morrow to combat veneral diseases and prostitution. The organization thought "[m]unicipalities can better devote their energies to teaching and warning against her than in regulating her in business. Education is cheaper and more effective."

In the fall of 1900 the Committee of 15 was formed to examine how New York City should treat prostitution. Its 1902 report The Social Evil opposed regulation and included recommendations such as improvements to housing, health care, and increasing women's wages.

"Regulation of the prostitutes themselves became the province of the central government in 1900, when the Home Ministry issued the Rules Regulating Licensed Prostitutes. That same year, the Administrative Enforcement Law (Gyosei shikkoho) gave police extensive powers to arrest unlicensed prostitutes and order them to undergo medical examinations."

Sheldon Garon, PhD "The World's Oldest Debate? Prostitution and the State in Imperial Japan, 1900-1945," The American Historical Review, Apr. 1993

New Orleans' first anti-prostitution ordinance was the 1857 Lorette ordinance which prohibited prostitution on the first floor of buildings but was soon after declared unconstitutional. In July 1865, after the Civil War, more regulations were made leading up to the creation of the red-light district of Storyville in 1897. It ended legally in 1917 due to concerns over health risks to US soldiers.

A public sensation caused by William T. Stead's stories of white slavery and child prostitution in the Pall Mall Gazette helped pass the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 which was an "Act to make further provisions for the protection of women and girls, the suppression of brothels, and other purposes."

US Congress passed the Page Act of 1875 that outlawed the importation of women into the United States for the purposes of prostitution.

The city of St. Louis, Missouri passed the Social Evil Ordinance empowering the Board of Health to regulate prostitution. The Board of Health required registration and medical examination of all known prostitutes as well as the licensing of brothels. The medical examiners were paid by fees collected from the 'social evilists' (prostitutes) and madams. The ordinance was nullified by the Missouri state legislature in 1874.

This legislation allowed the police to arrest prostitutes in ports and army towns and bring them in to have compulsory checks for venereal disease. If the women tested positive they were hospitalized until cured. It was claimed many of the women arrested were not prostitutes resulting in forced medical examinations and hospitalizations. The law was repealed Mar. 26, 1886.

"The 1864 [Contagious Diseases] Act was followed in 1866 by a second Act which made the system permanent, and a third Act in 1869 which extended the system although still confining it to towns of military and navy use."

Napoleon introduced a system of regulation to the Netherlands in 1810. It ended in 1813 when the French withdrew. Slowly the system came back and the Local Government Act of 1851 again institituted regulation to prevent the spread of disease.

Johannes C. J. Boutellier "Prostitution, Criminal Law and Morality in the Netherlands," Crime, Law and Social Change, May 1991

"[T]he Revolution of 1789 threw the legal status of prostitution into some question, as revolutionaries raised doubts concerning the standing of royal decrees previously outlawing it. Into this breach stepped the Bureau des Moeurs of Paris, which began life in an administrative decree of 1802 and ended up as a massive governmental department. By the time of its demise in 1903, it commanded a budget of over 100,000 francs a year and its methods were copied throughout the rest of France. Indeed the Bureau des Moeurs was the very model of state 'toleration' of prostitution, a model both hailed and decried by reformers around the world."

Kristin Luker, PhD "Sex, Social Hygiene, and the State: The Double-Edged Sword of Social Reform," Theory and Society, Oct. 1998

The US Supreme Court in Mortensen v. United States ruled that prostitutes could travel across state lines without violating the Mann Act if the "sole purpose of the journey from beginning to end was to provide innocent recreation" without prostituting.

"Between 1941 and 1944, about 250 prostitutes were registered as ‘entertainers’ with the Honolulu Police Department. Each paid $1 a year for her license and was expected to report her earnings and pay taxes on them. Approximately fifteen houses of prostitution operated in Honolulu. Prostitution was illegal in Hawaii as it was on the mainland... In Hawaii, the May Act [signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941 to prohibit prostitution aimed at servicement] had been assiduously avoided, although enforcement provisions specifically applied to American territories as well as states... The military and many people in Hawaii approved of them [brothels] because, in the face of what they saw as unstoppable urges and acts, the houses seemed to keep venereal rates relatively low. The brothel district, in one form or another, had existed for decades to serve the huge deployment of marines, sailors, and soldiers...and also to service the disproportionately male population of plantation workers who made Hawaii’s prewar economy go... On September 21, 1944, Governor Stainback... ordered the regulated brothels shut down."

Beth L. Bailey, PhD David Farber, PhD The First Strange Place: The Alchemy of Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii, 1994

The Nazis began regulating brothels in the fall of 1934. "By 1939 at the latest, Nazi prostitution policies diverged in important ways from previous systems of regulationism. Conventionally, state-regulated prostitution aimed to protect 'respectable' society against moral 'pollution' by prostitutes. The Nazis also strove to eradicate street soliciting and to confine prostitutes to tightly supervised brothels.... For the first time, a German government made the establishment of supervised brothels compulsory for all cities and issued standardized regulations for the operation of 'public houses.' What was new about the Nazi system... was the attempt to use the state... to create a certain form of human sexuality. Nazi brothels aimed to maintain the physical fitness and morale of 'Aryan' men. At the same time, the persecution of prostitutes intensified greatly. Previously, prostitutes who violated police orders were punished with fines or short prison and workhouse sentences. In the Third Reich, such violations frequently led to streetwalkers' internment in a concentration camp."

Julia Roos, PhD "Backlash against Prostitutes' Rights: Origins and Dynamics of Nazi Prostitution Policies," Journal of the History of Sexuality, Jan.-Apr. 2002

"In May 1933 the Nazis effectively outlawed street soliciting. The revised Clause 361/6 criminalized any form of public solicitation pursued 'in a conspicuous manner or in a manner suited to harass individuals or the public.' Parallel to these new legal restrictions on prostitution, the police engaged in massive raids on streetwalkers. Though no comprehensive figures exist, it has been estimated that 'thousands, even more likely tens of thousands' of prostitutes were arrested during the spring and summer of 1933."

Julia Roos, PhD "Backlash against Prostitutes' Rights: Origins and Dynamics of Nazi Prostitution Policies," Journal of the History of Sexuality, Jan.-Apr. 2002

"Military brothels were created all over the occupied areas of Asia during the war for the use of Japanese soldiers: the first were set up as early as 1932 [in Shanghai, China], but most were created after the outbreak of full-scale fighting in China in 1937. Some of these were managed by civilians for profit, but frequented by members of the Japanese armed forces; others were established and run directly by the Japanese military.... The number of women recruited to work in these places is unknown - estimates vary from 20,000 to 400,000, though a careful study by historian Yoshimi Yoshiaki suggests a narrower range of between 50,000 and 200,000. The methods of recruitment and the conditions which women faced also varied enormously. Some were Japanese women who had worked as prostitutes previously, and were 'volunteers' in a sense, although often driven to 'volunteer' through pressures of poverty, debt and desperation. A very large number were women from Korea and China. Many had been lured away from their homes with promises of work in factories or restaurants, only to find themselves incarcerated in 'comfort stations' in foreign lands. Other women in Korea, Southeast Asia and elsewhere were rounded up at gunpoint."

Former "comfort women" from Korea, Kim Sun-ok and Lee Su-dan, on the site of the former "comfort station" in Shimenzi, China in which they worked. Source: nytimes.com, Mar. 27, 2013

Before 1927 prostitution was generally illegal but cities were allowed to regulate things such as STD testing, where prostitutes could live, and where prostitutes could travel. "The... [Law for Combating Venereal Diseases] decriminalized prostitution in general, abolished the morals police, and outlawed regulated brothels. These were major achievements from the perspective of prostitutes' rights. However, to secure passage of the reform, Social Democrats and liberals were forced to make important concessions to the moral Right, who opposed a consistent decriminalization of prostitution. Clause 16/4 of the anti-VD law... made street soliciting illegal in areas adjacent to churches and schools as well as in towns with a population smaller than 15,000."

Julia Roos, PhD "Backlash against Prostitutes' Rights: Origins and Dynamics of Nazi Prostitution Policies," Journal of the History of Sexuality, Jan.-Apr. 2002

"In 1919 a Committee for the Suppression of Prostitution was inaugurated at the Public Health Office in Moscow. Its operations were conducted not against the girls - seen as unwilling victims of the czarist regime - but against the capitalist-created institution itself; since the causes could be diagnosed as purely economic, the remedy lay in economic solutions. So the girls were sent away to labour colonies to be trained as nurses or re-educated in other trades."

"Uncontrolled venereal disease could decimate an army as surely as casualties in battle.... Under the Chamberlain-Kahn Act, the government could quarantine for the 'protection of the military and naval forces of the United States' any woman suspected of having venereal disease. The discovery of venereal infection upon examination could constitute proof of prostitution. In effect, during the war any American woman could legally be detained and medically examined if, in the opinion of officials of the CTCA or the Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board, her life-style or observed or rumored sexual behavior indicated that she might be infected."

"The Commission on Training Camp Activities (CTCA) was created by the federal government to deal with the sexual and moral aspects of the training camps... Investigators from the Legal Education Division of the CTCA surveyed prostitution in cities near the cantonments and were able (as the earlier vice commissions were not) to bring federal pressure to bear in eliminating the most visible aspects of prostitution: red-light districts and street solicitation."

"Prostitution in Denmark was decriminalised in 1999 [on Mar. 17], but certain related activities remain illegal. Both buying and selling sexual services are legal, but activities such as operating brothels and pimping are illegal, as is prostitution by non-residents. Sex workers are not entitled to the protection of employment laws or unemployment benefits, but they are still required to register for and pay tax, although they do not have to declare prostitution as being their occupation. Part of the rationale behind decriminalisation was that making it legal to sell sex would also make it easier to police."

Sweden classified prostitution as male violence against women and children stating that only the customer should be considered a criminal.

[T]he International Committee for Prositutes' Rights held its first congress in Amsterdam in 1985." This was the first international meeting of prostitute's rights groups.

On June 5, 1981 the the first mention of what would later be named AIDS appears in medical literature in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Valerie Jenness, PhD "From Sex as Sin to Sex as Work: COYOTE and the Reorganization of Prostitution as a Social Problem," Social Problems, Aug. 1990

In 1971 the state of Nevada began to formally regulate prostitution giving rural counties the option to license brothels.

Based on the recommendation of the Wolfenden Report, Britain decriminalized prostitution but banned solicitation and other related activities with the Street Offense Act of 1959.

Japan’s Law No. 118, the 1956 Anti-Prostitution Law was enacted May 24, 1956 and put in force Apr. 1, 1958. "With that law, the 300-year history of Tokyo's Yoshiwara brothel quarters came to an end -- as did approximately 500 areas utilized for similar purposes around the country."

France closed its brothels and prohibited solicitation, but the act of prostitution stayed legal.

"The Tokyo Brothel-Keepers Association, 'moved,' they said, 'by a spirit of democracy,' recently freed their girls from the traditional system of indentured servitude, which had long been the basis of the famed Yoshiwara district. Last week General MacArthur, in the name of 'the fundamental human rights,' made it an order."

- Netherlands Legalizes Brothels Amsterdam's "red light district," the Netherlands.

Source: cnn.com, July 17, 2013 "Brothels... were illegal until 1 October 2000, when articles 250bis and 432 were removed from the Criminal Code and the ban on brothels and pimping lifted. It is now legal to run a business where men or women over the age of consent are voluntarily employed as prostitutes. The person running the business must satisfy certain conditions and obtain a licence from the local authorities." Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs "Dutch Policy on Prostitution" , 2005

- Germany Reforms Law The 2002 German Prostitution Reform Law declared prostitution was no longer immoral, that pimping is legal if enforced with formal contracts, it increased access to state health insurance and pension schemes, and allowed prostitutes to sue their clients for non-payment. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) "German Prostitutes Get New Rights," Dec. 12, 2001 The 2002 German Prostitution Reform Law declared prostitution was no longer immoral, that pimping is legal if enforced with formal contracts, it increased access to state health insurance and pension schemes, and allowed prostitutes to sue their clients for non-payment.

- New Zealand Decriminalizes On June 25, 2003, by a vote of 60-59, the New Zealand Parliament passed the that decriminalized prostitution and created a system of regulations for brothels. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) "NZ Votes To Legalise Prostitution," June 25, 2003 On June 25, 2003, by a vote of 60-59, the New Zealand Parliament passed the Prostitution Reform Act of 2003 that decriminalized prostitution and created a system of regulations for brothels.

- Britain Considers Policy Change Britain's Home Office produced the report examining the various legal strategies towards prostitution as the government considers possible policy changes. Britain Home Office "Paying the Price," July 2004 Britain's Home Office produced the report Paying The Price examining the various legal strategies towards prostitution as the government considers possible policy changes.

- US Communities Vote For and Against Legal Prostitution On Nov. 2, 2004, the city of Berkeley, California voted 63.51% against decriminalizing prostitution. The same day Churchill County, Nevada voted 62.78% to keep brothels legal even though no brothels existed in the county at the time. City of Berkeley General Municipal Election - November 2, 2004: Official Results , Nov. 30, 2004 Churchill Official General Election Results , Nov. 2004

- Hawaii Considers Decriminalization "A bill to legalize some prostitution in the islands has the backing of at least 14 state lawmakers and many women's rights advocates. Supporters say they mainly want to start debate of the sensitive topic and explore alternatives to decades of selling sex on Honolulu streets... (and companion Senate Bill 706) might not pass this year. It appears unlikely the bill will get a hearing this session. The decriminalization bill would permit sexual favors done in private, and it would designate areas where prostitution is allowed." [The bill did not receive a hearing.] Mark Niesse "Prostitution Bill Gains Support," Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Feb. 13, 2007 "A bill to legalize some prostitution in the islands has the backing of at least 14 state lawmakers and many women's rights advocates. Supporters say they mainly want to start debate of the sensitive topic and explore alternatives to decades of selling sex on Honolulu streets... House Bill 982 (and companion Senate Bill 706) might not pass this year. It appears unlikely the bill will get a hearing this session. The decriminalization bill would permit sexual favors done in private, and it would designate areas where prostitution is allowed." [The bill did not receive a hearing.]

- San Francisco, CA Votes Against Decriminalizing Prostitution On Nov. 4, 2008, the city and county of San Francisco, CA voted 57.56% to 42.44% against a ballot measure that would decriminalize prostitution by stopping the enforcement of laws related to prostitution and sex workers. City and County of San Francisco 2008 Election Results , Nov. 4, 2008 On Nov. 4, 2008, the city and county of San Francisco, CA voted 57.56% to 42.44% against a ballot measure that would decriminalize prostitution by stopping the enforcement of laws related to prostitution and sex workers.

- Norway Bans the Purchase of Sex "A new law has come into force [on Jan. 1, 2009] in Norway making the purchase of sex illegal. Norwegian citizens caught paying for prostitutes at home or abroad could face a hefty fine or a six-month prison sentence, authorities say. The prison sentence could be extended to three years in cases of child prostitution... The tough new measures go further than similar ones introduced by other Nordic countries such as Sweden [on Jan. 1, 1999] and Finland. Norwegian police have been authorised to use wire-tapping devices to gather evidence... Prostitutes will be offered access to free education and health treatment for those with alcohol or drugs problems." British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) "New Norway Law Bans Buying of Sex," www.news.bbc.co.uk, Jan. 1, 2009 "A new law has come into force [on Jan. 1, 2009] in Norway making the purchase of sex illegal. Norwegian citizens caught paying for prostitutes at home or abroad could face a hefty fine or a six-month prison sentence, authorities say. The prison sentence could be extended to three years in cases of child prostitution... The tough new measures go further than similar ones introduced by other Nordic countries such as Sweden [on Jan. 1, 1999] and Finland. Norwegian police have been authorised to use wire-tapping devices to gather evidence... Prostitutes will be offered access to free education and health treatment for those with alcohol or drugs problems."

- Taiwan Legalizes Prostitution Niko, a 47 year-old prostitute inside a Taipei brothel.

Source: reuters.com, June 24, 2009 "Taiwan began a process of legalizing prostitution Wednesday [June 24, 2009] making the island the latest place in the world to decriminalize the world's oldest profession. In six months, authorities will stop punishing Taiwan sex workers after prostitutes successfully campaigned to be given the same protection as their clients, a government spokesman said... Taiwan outlawed prostitution 11 years ago, but older sections of the capital Taipei still teem with underground sex workers in bars and night clubs on the upper floors of high-rise buildings. The Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters, a Taipei-based advocacy group, estimates that 600,000 people are involved in sex-related jobs." Reuters "Pressured by Sex Workers, Taiwan OKs Prostitution," www.reuters.com, June 24, 2009

- Male Prostitutes Legalized in Nevada Brothels "Men may now join the ranks of Nevada’s brothel prostitutes, after a unanimous decision today that added language to health codes so male sex workers could be tested for infectious diseases... Men were previously barred in Nevada from the oldest profession because codes specified that prostitutes must undergo 'cervical' testing for sexually transmitted diseases, which ruled out men. Bobbi Davis, owner of the Shady Lady Ranch, a small brothel near Beatty, wanted to add male prostitutes to her stable of sex workers. And while there have been plans for brothels to hire men in the past, Davis made the first-ever request to have the Nevada State Board of Health add [weekly] urethral exams to the guidelines. That allows male sex workers to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. Davis has said the men could start working at her five-bed brothel starting in the New Year. The male prostitutes will decide for themselves whether to accept male or female clients, she said, just as the female prostitutes do now." Las Vegas Sun "New Era: Health Authorities Open Brothels to Male Prostitutes," lasvegassun.com, Dec. 11, 2009

- Canadian Court Declares Ban on Brothels and Soliciting Prostitution Unconstitutional Dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford, left, and former prostitute Valerie Scott, two of the women who challenged Canada's prostitution laws in Oct. 2009.

Source: cbc.ca, Sep. 28, 2010 "The Ontario Superior Court struck down key provisions of Canada's prostitution law Tuesday [Sep. 28, 2010], saying it endangers sex trade workers. The ruling, which is being suspended for 30 days, would effectively decriminalize sex trade in the province and, if upheld on appeal, halt enforcement of anti-prostitution laws across Canada. The court declared unconstitutional portions of the law banning brothels and soliciting for prostitution. Three Toronto women launched the legal challenge in October 2009, arguing that prohibiting solicitation endangers prostitutes by forcing them to seek customers on street corners. They called for the decriminalization of prostitution and for the right to open brothels to provide a safer environment for prostitutes. The court agreed." Agence France-Presse (AFP) "Court Strikes Down Canada's Prostitution Law," news.google.com, Sep. 28, 2010

- Zurich Launches Drive-in "Sex Boxes" Zurich's drive-in "sex boxes."

Source: bbc.co.uk, Aug. 26, 2013 "Although prostitution is legal in Switzerland, critics say the law actually offers little protection to the women themselves... Now the city has come up with a solution it believes will protect them: soliciting on the streets will be forbidden, and instead prostitutes and their clients will be expected to use a custom-built compound on an industrial site in the Zurich suburbs. The facility opens this week; inside the gates, which are manned by security guards, there is a 'strip' which men can drive down, and select the woman of their choice... But since all business must take place inside the compound, there are drive-in 'sex boxes', and here the measures taken to protect the women are very apparent. On the driver's side, the boxes are very narrow, making it difficult for him to get out of the car. On the passenger side, there is plenty of space, an alarm button and an emergency exit." British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) "Zurich Introduces 'Drive-in' Sex," bbc.co.uk, Aug. 26, 2013 "Zurich Introduces 'Drive-in' Sex," bbc.co.uk, Aug. 26, 2013 "The Zurich sex box experiment follows their largely successful introduction in Germany, where they have been in operation in designated big city areas since 2001. They are reported to have led to a 'considerable drop' in violence against sex workers. But in Dortmund [Germany], a number of sex boxes installed in 2007, were closed down in 2011 after they fell under the control of eastern European gangs." Independent (UK) "Switzerland Opens Drive-in ‘Sex Boxes’ in Bid to Reduce Zurich's Street Prostitution," independent.co.uk, Aug. 26, 2013

- Canada Bans the Purchase (But Not the Sale) of Sex "The [Dec. 6, 2014] Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, or Bill C-36, criminalizes the purchase (but not the sale) of sexual services, and restricts the advertisement of sexual services and communication in public for the purpose of prostitution. The bill replaces legislation, overturned in December 2013 by Canada's Supreme Court, which criminalized acts associated with selling sexual services... Bill C-36 follows the example of Sweden, Norway and Iceland, where the purchase - but not the sale - of sex was criminalized in legislation passed since the late 1990s." New York Times "Canada's Flawed Sex Trade," nytimes.com, Jan. 20, 2015

- France Bans the Purchase (But Not the Sale) of Sex "The French parliament has finally approved changes to the country's prostitution laws. On Wednesday [Apr. 6, 2016] legislators approved a bill against prostitution and sex trafficking that bans buying sex, not selling it. Customers who break the law will face fines and be made to attend awareness classes on the harms of the sex trade... Supporters of the bill argue that it will help fight trafficking networks... But opponents fear that cracking down will push prostitutes to hide, leaving them even more at the mercy of pimps and violent clients... [T]he legislation has been inspired by Sweden, which passed a similar measure in 1999." Sydney Morning Herald "France Overhauls Prostitution Laws, Makes It Illegal to Pay for Services," smh.com.au, Apr. 7, 2016