Abstract
This article comparatively analyses city-based prostitution policies and practices and their effects on sex workers in countries that have adopted a partial criminalization model of intervention towards prostitution – Belgium and Italy. The two case studies selected for this research – the cities of Antwerp (Belgium) and Catania (Italy) – were chosen for their adopted local approach towards prostitution in designated red-light districts (RLDs): whereas prostitution has been collaboratively governed in Antwerp, it has simply been tolerated in Catania. By considering the factors that have led to the development of prostitution policies and practices in these two cities, and their characteristics both within and outside the two cities’ RLDs, this article compares and analyses the effects produced on sex workers across city areas. The study revealed a number of similarities between the two local cases considered: local practices towards sex work in both cities have been shaped by urban regeneration in RLDs, and by concerns about nuisance and crime across city areas (irregular immigration and trafficking, in particular); in all instances, they have had similar exclusionary effects on sex workers – and especially on the migrant women among them. The study also identified two key differences in the practices towards prostitution adopted in these two cities: they differed in the level of access to support services offered to sex workers and in the pervasiveness of proactive police control. The article concludes by arguing that all these local practices – including the ones that are seemingly different – ultimately converge in their ethos: they reinforce the socially constructed status of migrant sex workers as either law-breakers or trafficked victims to be subject to control and, in the latter case, also protection.
Highlights
Prostitution is a divisive social issue and, as a case of ‘morality politics’ (Wagenaar and Altink, 2012), its governance is often shaped by conflicting ideological and political positions on the problematic intersection of sex and money
The analysis centred on the local prostitution policies and practices adopted in Antwerp and Catania and considered the factors that led to their adoption, and their characteristics within and outside the red-light districts (RLDs), including their effects on sex workers
The findings of this study indicate the presence of regular police patrols in both RLDs: whereas in Antwerp they aim at controlling commercial sex and its related crime and nuisance, in Catania they mostly target drug dealing
Summary
Prostitution is a divisive social issue and, as a case of ‘morality politics’ (Wagenaar and Altink, 2012), its governance is often shaped by conflicting ideological and political positions on the problematic intersection of sex and money. Reflecting normative (and sometimes moral) views on the phenomenon and often with varying objectives, most European countries regulate prostitution according to one of the following models of intervention: some legalize it under certain conditions (strict regulations, for example, are adopted in Austria, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands); others aim to abolish it by criminalizing clients (in countries that have adopted the abolitionist model, such as France, Norway, Iceland and Sweden); and yet others do not criminalize the selling and purchasing of sex but punitively sanction most prostitution-related activities as ‘illegal’ (for example, sex trafficking, procuring) or ‘anti-social’/‘uncivil’ (for example, loitering and public soliciting) – the latter mostly through administrative fines, which have recently witnessed a resurgence in some European countries (Di Ronco and Peršak, 2014; Peršak, 2017; Selmini, 2005, 2012; Selmini and Crawford, 2016; Villacampa and Torres, 2013; Villacampa, 2017). When tolerance is not accompanied by appropriately designed interventions, unsafe working environments for sex workers may be created, and tense relations between the latter and local communities may be fuelled (for the example of Barcelona, see Sobrino Garcés, 2017)
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