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128-516: The name comes from the high volume of teenage Midwestern prostitutes that populated the area from the 1960s to the 1990s and the term only began to disappear as public prostitution became the target of New York City's massive crackdown on prostitution and street crime under then- mayor Rudolph Giuliani . The phrase was used in the title of the 1980 film, Off the Minnesota Strip , starring Hal Holbrook and featuring Mare Winningham as

256-479: A "private agreement" reached between a woman and a man in a brothel . Yoshiwara has a large number of soaplands where women wash men's bodies. They began when explicit prostitution in Japan became illegal, and were originally known as toruko-buro ( "Turkish bath" ). Japanese prostitutes were held in high regard by European travelling men in the 19th century. A British army officer reported that Japanese women were

384-470: A 15-year-old girl who was ruthlessly dragged on the ground for over 50 feet and then was raped by 10 Burmese soldiers. Human trafficking refers to the acquisition of persons by improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children states, "Trafficking in persons" shall mean

512-578: A bride is killed at home by her husband or husband's family due to his dissatisfaction over the dowry provided by her family. Dowry death refers to the phenomenon of women and girls being killed or committing suicide due to disputes regarding dowry. Dowry violence is common in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. In India, in 2011 alone, the National Crime Records Bureau reported 8,618 dowry deaths, while unofficial figures suggest

640-459: A country that has received major international criticism for the way it has dealt legally with the issue of violence against women is Finland; with authors pointing out that a high level of equality for women in the public sphere (as in Finland) should never be equated with equality in all other aspects of women's lives. The American Psychiatric Association planning and research committees for

768-692: A definition of what such violence is, and a proposal to combat it. The Istanbul Convention ( Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence ) of the Council of Europe describes VAW as "a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women" and defines VAW as "all acts of gender-based violence that result in or are likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological, or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life". The 1979 Convention on

896-450: A favor, according to Augustine. In urban societies there was an erroneous view that prostitution was flourishing more in rural regions rather than in cities, however, it has been proven that prostitution was more rampant in cities and large towns. Although there were wandering prostitutes in rural areas who worked according to the calendar of fairs, similar to riding a circuit, in which prostitutes stopped by various towns based on what event

1024-841: A few decades ago: for instance, in France, married women received the right to work without their husband's permission in 1965. In Spain, during the Franco era, a married woman required her husband's consent ( permiso marital ) for nearly all economic activities, including employment, ownership of property and traveling away from home; the permiso marital was abolished in 1975. Concerns exist about violence related to marriage – both inside marriage (physical abuse, sexual violence, restriction of liberty) and in relation to marriage customs ( dowry , bride price , forced marriage , child marriage , marriage by abduction , violence related to female premarital virginity ). Claudia Card, professor of philosophy at

1152-1052: A form of violence against women. Women from certain lower castes have been involved in prostitution as part of a tradition, called Intergenerational prostitution . In pre-modern Korea, women from the lower caste Cheonmin , known as Kisaeng , were trained to provide entertainment, conversation, and sexual services to men of the upper class. Women with illegal resident status are disproportionately involved with prostitution. For example, in 1997, Le Monde diplomatique stated that 80% of prostitutes in Amsterdam were foreigners and 70% had no immigration papers. Militarism produces special environments that allow for increased violence against women. War rapes have accompanied warfare in virtually every known historical era. War rapes are rapes committed by soldiers, other combatants, or civilians during armed conflict or war or during military occupation, distinguished from sexual assaults and rapes committed amongst troops in military service. It also covers

1280-404: A given country). In most cases, it can be either an enforced crime, an unenforced crime, a decriminalized activity, a legal but unregulated activity, or a regulated profession. It is one branch of the sex industry , along with pornography, stripping , and erotic dancing . Brothels are establishments specifically dedicated to prostitution. In escort prostitution , the act may take place at

1408-406: A husband calls his wife to his bed (i.e. to have sexual relation) and she refuses and causes him to sleep in anger, the angels will curse her till morning';" and several comments on the issue of marital rape made by Muslim religious leaders have been criticized. Dating abuse, or dating violence, is the perpetration of coercion, intimidation, or assault in the context of dating or courtship . It

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1536-403: A lack of firm values and integrity, and venality, has long been a staple of Russian political rhetoric. One of the famous insults of Leon Trotsky made by Joseph Stalin was calling him a "political prostitute". Leon Trotsky used this epithet himself, calling German Social Democracy, at that time "corrupted by Kautskianism ", a "political prostitution disguised by theories". In 1938, he used

1664-474: A legal right to "punish" their wives. The criminal code states at Paragraph 41 that there is no crime if an act is committed while exercising a legal right; examples of legal rights include: "The punishment of a wife by her husband, the disciplining by parents and teachers of children under their authority within certain limits prescribed by law or by custom". In the West, married women faced discrimination until just

1792-535: A mechanism for the subjugation of women, whether in society in general or in an interpersonal relationship . The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women states, "violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women" and "violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men." Kofi Annan , Secretary-General of

1920-576: A minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. Because of the illegal nature of trafficking, reliable data on its extent is very limited. The WHO states "Current evidence strongly suggests that those who are trafficked into the sex industry and as domestic servants are more likely to be women and children." A 2006 study in Europe on trafficked women found that

2048-587: A necessary evil for society to function. French politicians chose to regulate prostitution, introducing a "Morals Brigade" onto the streets of Paris. A similar situation did in fact exist in the Russian Empire ; prostitutes operating out of government-sanctioned brothels were given yellow internal passports signifying their status and were subjected to weekly physical exams. A major work, Prostitution, Considered in Its Moral, Social, and Sanitary Aspects ,

2176-451: A procuress from her home to public baths and centers established by municipal legislation, the only centers for prostitution legally allowed were the institutionalized and publicly funded brothels. This did not prevent illegal brothels from thriving. Brothels theoretically banned the patronage of married men and clergy, but it was sporadically enforced and there is evidence of clergymen present in brawls that were documented in brothels. Thus

2304-401: A range of actions with unwelcome sexual overtones, including verbal transgressions. Sexual violence is a broader term referring to the use of violence to obtain a sexual act, including, for example, trafficking. Sexual assault is usually defined as unwanted sexual contact and when this involves sexual penetration or sexual intercourse it is referred to as rape . Women are most often

2432-533: A scandal involving her husband, Charles Cora, shooting US Marshal William H. Richardson. This led to the rise of new statutes against prostitution, gambling and other activities seen as "immoral". 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 Woman's Christian Temperance Union . On

2560-512: A teenage runaway who returns to her home in Minnesota after months of working as a prostitute in New York. The made-for-TV film won the 1980 Emmy for 'Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or Special' for writer David Chase . The Minnesota Strip is referenced in the 1978 Broadway Musical Runaways . The Dictators ' song "Minnesota Strip" from their 1978 album Bloodbrothers is about

2688-640: A woman who "did business trading [their bodies], within the confine[s] of a brothel ." A fourteenth-century English tract, Fasciculus Morum , states that the term prostitute (termed ' meretrix ' in this document), "must be applied only to those women who give themselves to anyone and will refuse none, and that for monetary gain". In general prostitution was not typically a lifetime career choice for women. Women usually alternated their career of prostitution with "petty retailing, and victualing," or only occasionally turned to prostitution in times of great financial need. Women who became prostitutes often did not have

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2816-559: A year. According to Dervish Ismail Agha, in the Dellâkname-i Dilküşâ, the Ottoman archives, in the hammams , the masseurs were traditionally young men , who helped wash clients by soaping and scrubbing their bodies. They also worked as sex workers . The Ottoman texts describe who they were, their prices, how many times they could bring their customers to orgasm , and the details of their sexual practices. In

2944-409: Is violent acts primarily committed by men or boys against women or girls . Such violence is often considered a form of hate crime , committed against persons specifically because they are of the female gender , and can take many forms. VAW has a very long history, though the incidents and intensity of such violence have varied over time and between societies. Such violence is often seen as

3072-463: Is a custom prevalent in many societies that in its extreme can lead to the rejection of daughters. Sex-selective abortion of females is more common among the higher income population, who can access medical technology . After birth, neglect and diverting resources to male children can lead to some countries having a skewed ratio with more boys than girls, with such practices killing an approximate 230,000 girls under five in India each year. In China,

3200-475: Is abducted by the would-be groom, who is often helped by his friends. The victim is often raped by the would be groom, after which he may try to negotiate a bride price with the village elders to legitimize the marriage. Forced and child marriages are practiced by some inhabitants of Tanzania. Girls are sold by their families to older men for financial benefits, and often girls are married off as soon as they hit puberty, which can be as young as seven years old. To

3328-652: Is about as common as violence against women in heterosexual relationships. Women are much more likely than men to be murdered by an intimate partner. In the United States, in 2005, 1181 women were killed by their intimate partners, compared to 329 men. It is estimated that 30% or more of the women who are admitted to the ER could be victims of domestic violence In England and Wales about 100 women are killed by partners or former partners each year while 21 men were killed in 2010. In 2008, in France, 156 women were killed by their intimate partner, compared to 27 men. According to

3456-481: Is also when one partner tries to maintain abusive power and control . Dating violence is defined by the CDC as "the physical, sexual, psychological, or emotional violence within a dating relationship, including stalking". Widows have been subjected to forced remarriage called widow inheritance , where they are forced to marry a male relative of their late husband. Another practice is the banned remarriage of widows, which

3584-419: Is considered a sin ) and states, "The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another." Some conservative religious figures interpret this as rejecting to possibility of marital rape. Islam makes reference to sexual relations in marriage too, notably: "Allah's Apostle said, 'If

3712-419: Is illegal but is widely tolerated and accepted as a husband's prerogative. The criminalization of spousal rape is recent, having occurred during the past few decades. Traditional understanding and views of marriage , rape , sexuality , gender roles and self determination have started to be challenged in most Western countries during the 1960s and 1970s, which led to the criminalization of marital rape during

3840-425: Is indistinguishable from prostitution. Religious supporters of mut'ah argue that temporary marriage is different from prostitution for a couple of reasons, including the necessity of iddah in case the couple have sexual intercourse. It means that if a woman marries a man in this way and has sex, she has to wait for a number of months before marrying again and therefore, a woman cannot marry more than 3 or 4 times in

3968-468: Is legal in India and Korea. A more extreme version is the ritual killing of widows, as seen in India and Fiji. Sati is the burning of widows, and although sati in India is today an almost defunct practice, isolated incidents have occurred in recent years, such as the 1987 sati of Roop Kanwar , as well as several incidents in rural areas in 2002 and 2006. A traditional idea upheld in some places in Africa

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4096-687: Is legalised prostitution which has been sanctioned by the Twelver Shia authorities. She quotes the Oxford encyclopedia of modern Islamic world to differentiate between marriage ( nikah ) and mut'ah , and states that while nikah is for procreation, mut'ah is just for sexual gratification. According to Zeyno Baran, this kind of temporary marriage provides Shi'ite men with a religiously sanctioned equivalent to prostitution. According to Elena Andreeva's observation published in 2007, Russian travellers to Iran consider mut'ah to be "legalized profligacy" which

4224-486: Is not addressed enough in this law, and only establishes a minimum age of 18 for the boys of Tanzania. A minimum age needs to be enforced for girls to stop these practices and provide them with equal rights and a less harmful life. The custom of dowry , which is common in South Asia, especially in India, is the trigger of many forms of violence against women. Bride burning is a form of violence against women in which

4352-413: Is not inherent in the etymology, which rather suggests one 'exposed to lust' or sex 'indiscriminately offered.'" The word prostitute was then carried down through various languages to the present-day Western society. Most sex worker activists groups reject the word prostitute and since the late 1970s have used the term sex worker instead. However, sex worker can also mean anyone who works within

4480-438: Is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse , non-penetrative sex , manual sex , oral sex , etc.) with the customer. The requirement of physical contact also creates the risk of transferring infections . Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services , commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking . It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession " in

4608-417: Is often used interchangeably with violence against women , and some articles on VAW reiterate these conceptions by stating that men are the main perpetrators of this violence. Moreover, the definition stated by the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women also supported the notion that violence is rooted in the inequality between men and women when the term violence is used together with

4736-398: Is otherwise forbidden. Sunni Muslims, who make up the majority of Muslims worldwide, believe the practice of fixed-term marriage was abrogated and ultimately forbidden by either Muhammad, or one of his successors, Umar . Sunnis regard prostitution as sinful and forbidden. Some writers have argued that mut'ah and nikah misyar approximate prostitution. Julie Parshall writes that mut'ah

4864-577: Is said to practice procuring is a procurer , or procuress . They may also be called panderers or brothel keepers . Examples of procuring include: Clients of prostitutes, most often men by prevalence , are sometimes known as johns or tricks in North America and punters in Britain and Ireland. These slang terms are used among both prostitutes and law enforcement for persons who solicit prostitutes. The term john may have originated from

4992-513: Is serious violence in the marriage that is "usually the husband battering the wife". In these cases the emergency room or a legal authority often is the first to notify the clinician . Most importantly, marital violence "is a major risk factor for serious injury and even death and women in violent marriages are at much greater risk of being seriously injured or killed ( National Advisory Council on Violence Against Women 2000)". The authors conclude with what they call "very recent information" on

5120-450: Is that an unmarried widow is unholy and “disturbed” if she is unmarried and abstains from sex for some period of time. This fuels the practice of widow cleansing where the unmarried widow is required to have sexual intercourse as a form of ritual purification, which is commenced with a ceremony for the neighborhood to witness that she is now purified. Unmarried widows are most likely to be accused and killed as witches . Witch trials in

5248-426: Is the one most frequently at risk, and clinicians must be aware that supporting assertiveness by a battered wife may lead to more beatings or even death. Marital or spousal rape was once widely condoned or ignored by law and is now widely considered unacceptable violence against women, repudiated by international conventions, and increasingly criminalized. Still, in many countries, spousal rape either remains legal or

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5376-499: Is unwanted or obsessive attention by an individual or group toward another person, often manifested through persistent harassment , intimidation , or following/monitoring of the victim. Stalking is often understood as "a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.". Although stalkers are frequently portrayed as being strangers, they are most often known people, such as former or current partners, friends, colleagues or acquaintances. In

5504-546: The American Civil War , the word more likely comes from the concentration of prostitutes around the shipyards and ferry terminal of the Corlear's Hook area of Manhattan in the 1820s, who came to be referred to as "hookers". A streetwalker solicits customers on the streets or in public places, while a call girl makes appointments by phone, or in recent years, through email or the internet. Correctly or not,

5632-530: The Indian subcontinent , particularly during the era of the Mughal Empire . These courtesans danced, sang, recited poetry and entertained their suitors at mehfils . Like the geisha tradition in Japan, their main purpose was to professionally entertain their guests, and while sex was often incidental, it was not assured contractually. High-class or the most popular tawaifs could often pick and choose between

5760-856: The Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights announced that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant had killed over 150 women and girls in Fallujah who refused to participate in sexual jihad . During the Rohingya genocide (2016–present), the Armed Forces of Myanmar , along with the Myanmar Border Guard Police and Buddhist militias of Rakhine , committed widespread gang rapes and other forms of sexual violence against

5888-766: The Old English word hōra , from the Proto-Germanic *hōrōn (prostitute), which derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *keh₂- meaning "desire", a root which has also given us Latin cārus (dear), whence the French cher (dear, expensive) and the Latin cāritās (love, charity). Use of the word whore is widely considered pejorative , especially in its modern slang form of ho . In Germany, however, most prostitutes' organizations deliberately use

6016-568: The Rohingya Muslim women and girls. A January 2018 study estimated that the military and local Rakhine Buddhists perpetrated gang rapes and other forms of sexual violence against 18,000 Rohingya Muslim women and girls. The Human Rights Watch stated that gang rapes and sexual violence were committed as part of the military's ethnic cleansing campaign, while the United Nations Special Representative of

6144-615: The Rwandan Genocide as a war crime. According to one report, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant 's capture of Iraqi cities in June 2014 was accompanied by an upsurge in crimes against women, including kidnapping and rape. The Guardian reported that ISIL's extremist agenda extended to women's bodies and that women living under their control were being captured and raped. Fighters are told that they are free to have sex and rape non-Muslim captive women. Haleh Esfandiari from

6272-499: The United States suffered attempted rape or rape sometime in their lives. More than a third of the victims were raped before the age of 18. Women who are sex workers end up in the profession for several reasons. Some were victims of sexual and domestic abuse. Many women have said they were raped as working girls. They may be apprehensive about coming forward and reporting their attacks. When reported, many women have said that

6400-480: The Witch trials in the early modern period or the sexual slavery of the comfort women . The Gender Equality Commission of the Council of Europe identifies nine forms of violence against women based on subject and context rather than life cycle or time period: The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a typology of violence against women based on their cultural life cycles. Sexual harassment includes

6528-554: The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has highlighted the abuse of local women by ISIL militants after they captured an area. "They usually take the older women to a makeshift slave market and try to sell them. The younger girls... are raped or married off to fighters," she said, adding, "It's based on temporary marriages, and once these fighters have had sex with these young girls, they just pass them on to other fighters." In December 2014

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6656-483: The classical period is better documented, and includes references to both free-born voluntary prostitutes, including the high social status hetairai , as well as involuntary slave prostitutes. Male prostitutes also existed in Ancient Greece. There was never a unified legal approach to prostitution in ancient Rome . In ancient Rome, prostitutes had low social status and were considered infamia . Under

6784-578: The decriminalization of prostitution . Prostitute is derived from the Latin prostituta . Some sources cite the verb as a composition of " pro " meaning "up front" or "forward" and " stituere ", defined as "to offer up for sale". Another explanation is that prostituta is a composition of pro and statuere (to cause to stand, to station, place erect). A literal translation therefore is: "to put up front for sale" or "to place forward". The Online Etymology Dictionary states, "The notion of 'sex for hire'

6912-626: The militias that supported them led to 200,000 women being raped over a period of nine months. Rape during the Bosnian War was used as a highly systematized instrument of war by Serb armed forces, predominantly targeting women and girls of the Bosniak ethnic group for physical and moral destruction. Estimates of the number of women raped during the war range from 50,000 to 60,000; as of 2010 only 12 cases have been prosecuted. The 1998 International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda recognized rape in

7040-401: The " Nordic model " that decriminalizes the act of selling sex and makes the purchase of sex illegal. This approach has also been adopted by Canada , Iceland , Ireland , Northern Ireland , Norway , France and Sweden . Others view sex work as a legitimate occupation, whereby a person trades or exchanges sexual acts for money. Amnesty International is one of the notable groups calling for

7168-483: The 2000s. In Canada, marital rape was made illegal in 1983, when several legal changes were made, including changing the rape statute to sexual assault and making the laws gender neutral. In Ireland, spousal rape was outlawed in 1990. In the US, the criminalization of marital rape started in the mid-1970s, and in 1993, North Carolina became the last state to make marital rape illegal. In England and Wales , marital rape

7296-642: The 21st century, Afghans revived a method of prostituting young boys which is referred to as " bacha bazi ". India's devadasi girls are forced by their poor families to dedicate themselves to the Hindu goddess Renuka . The BBC wrote in 2007 that devadasis are "sanctified prostitutes". In Latin America and the Caribbean sex worker movements date back to the late 19th century in Havana, Cuba . A catalyst in

7424-639: The Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of the United Nations General Assembly makes recommendations relating to VAW, and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action mentions VAW. However, the 1993 United Nations General Assembly resolution on the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women was the first international instrument to explicitly define VAW and elaborate on

7552-510: The English-speaking world. A person who works in the field is usually called a prostitute or sex worker , but other words, such as hooker and whore , are sometimes used pejoratively to refer to those who work in prostitution. The majority of prostitutes are female and have male clients. Prostitution occurs in a variety of forms, and its legal status varies from country to country (sometimes from region to region within

7680-594: The House of Lords , in the case of R v. R in 1991. In the Netherlands, marital rape was also made illegal in 1991. One of the last Western countries to criminalize marital rape was Germany, in 1997. The relationship between some religions ( Christianity and Islam ) and marital rape is controversial. The Bible at 1 Corinthians 7:3-5 explains that one has a "conjugal duty" to have sexual relations with one's spouse (in sharp opposition to sex outside marriage , which

7808-518: The Russian political lexicon, such as when a Huffington Post contributor expressed the opinion that Donald Trump was "prostituting himself to feed his ego and gain power" when he ran for President of the United States. Sex work researcher and writer Gail Pheterson writes that these metaphorical usages exist because "the term prostitute gradually took on a Christian moralist tradition, as being synonymous with debasement of oneself or of others for

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7936-698: The Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, said that Rohingya women and girls were made the "systematic" target of rapes and sexual violence because of their ethnic identity and religion . Other forms of sexual violence included sexual slavery in military captivity, forced public nudity, and humiliation. Some women and girls were raped to death while others were found traumatised with raw wounds after they had arrived in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Human Rights Watch reported of

8064-469: The U.S., a survey by NVAW found that only 23% of female victims were stalked by strangers. Stalking by partners can be very dangerous, as sometimes it can escalate into severe violence, including murder. Police statistics from the 1990s in Australia indicated that 87.7% of stalking offenders were male and 82.4% of stalking victims were female. An acid attack is the act of throwing acid at someone with

8192-549: The United Arab Emirates form a large proportion of the customers. In the Islamic world, sex outside of marriage was normally acquired by men not by paying for temporary sex from a free sex worker, but rather by personal sex slave called concubine , which was a sex slave trade that was still ongoing in the early 20th-century . Traditionally, prostitution in the Islamic world was historically practiced by way of

8320-703: The United Nations , declared in a 2006 report posted on the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) website: Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime with the abuser usually someone known to her. A number of international instruments that aim to eliminate violence against women and domestic violence have been enacted by various international bodies. These generally start with

8448-558: The United States and in the UK allowed for domestic violence and in the UK, before 1891, the husband had the right to inflict moderate corporal punishment on his wife to keep her "within the bounds of duty". Today, outside the West, many countries severely restrict the rights of married women: for example, in Yemen , marriage regulations state that a wife must obey her husband and must not leave home without his permission. In Iraq husbands have

8576-685: The University of Wisconsin-Madison, writes: Women are more likely to be victimized by someone that they are intimate with, commonly called " intimate partner violence " (IPV). Instances of IPV tend not to be reported to police and thus many experts find it hard to estimate the true magnitude of the problem. Though this form of violence is often considered as an issue within the context of heterosexual relationships, it also occurs in lesbian relationships, daughter-mother relationships, roommate relationships and other domestic relationships involving two women. Violence against women in lesbian relationships

8704-665: The WHO, globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner. A UN report compiled from a number of different studies conducted in at least 71 countries found domestic violence against women to be most prevalent in Ethiopia . A study by Pan American Health Organization conducted in 12 Latin American countries found the highest prevalence of domestic violence against women to be in Bolivia . In Western Europe,

8832-547: The advent of the Protestant Reformation , numbers of Southern German towns closed their brothels in an attempt to eradicate prostitution. 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 women did not wear them. Ancient codes regulated in this case the crime of a prostitute that dissimulated her profession. In some cultures, prostitutes were

8960-416: The annual revenue generated by prostitution worldwide to be over $ 100 billion. The position of prostitution and the law varies widely worldwide, reflecting differing opinions. Some view prostitution as a form of exploitation of or violence against women , and children , that helps to create a supply of victims for human trafficking . Some critics of prostitution as an institution are supporters of

9088-483: The area. 40°45′42″N 73°59′12″W  /  40.7617°N 73.9866°W  / 40.7617; -73.9866 This article about a location in Manhattan , New York is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment . The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and

9216-409: The arts of dance, music, poetry, and calligraphy as well as sexual services, and an educated wit was considered essential for sophisticated conversation. Many became celebrities of their times outside the pleasure districts. Their art and fashions often set trends among wealthy women. The last recorded oiran was in 1761. Although illegal in modern Japan, the definition of prostitution does not extend to

9344-784: The best of their suitors. They contributed to music, dance, theatre, film, and the Urdu literary tradition. During the East India Company 's rule in India from 1757 until 1857, it was common for European soldiers serving in the presidency armies to solicit the services of Indian prostitutes , and they frequently paid visits to local nautch dancers for purposes of a sexual nature. Prostitutes from Japan were also popular. Asian prostitutes were held in higher regard than prostitutes from Europe because they came from higher social backgrounds and were regarded as cleaner, more attractive and entertaining than prostitutes back in Europe. In

9472-528: The best prostitutes in the world, for their attractiveness, cleanliness, and intelligence. The Mahabharata and the Matsya Purana mention fictitious accounts of the origin of Prostitution. Although, Later Vedic texts tacitly, as well as overtly, mention Prostitutes, it is in the Buddhist literature that professional prostitutes are noticed. A tawaif was a courtesan who catered to the nobility of

9600-527: The clergy were at least present in brothels at some point or another. Brothels also settled the "obsessive fear of the sharing of women" and solved the issue of "collective security." The lives of prostitutes in brothels were not cloistered like that of nuns and "only some lived permanently in the streets assigned to them." Prostitutes were only allowed to practice their trade in the brothel in which they worked. Brothels were also used to protect prostitutes and their clients through various regulations. For example,

9728-550: The client's residence or hotel room (referred to as out-call), or at the escort's residence or a hotel room rented for the occasion by the escort (in-call). Another form is street prostitution . According to a 2011 report by Fondation Scelles there are about 42 million prostitutes in the world, living all over the world (though most of Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa lack data, studied countries in that large region rank as top sex tourism destinations). Estimates place

9856-407: The confinement of prostitutes to red light districts . Sumptuary laws became the regulatory norm for prostitutes and included making courtesans "wear a shoulder-knot of a particular color as a badge of their calling" to be able to easily distinguish the prostitute from a respectable woman in society. The color that designated them as prostitutes could vary from different earth tones to yellow, as

9984-419: The course of violent marriages, which suggests that "over time a husband's battering may abate somewhat, but perhaps because he has successfully intimidated his wife. The risk of violence remains strong in a marriage in which it has been a feature in the past. Thus, treatment is essential here; the clinician cannot just wait and watch." The most urgent clinical priority is the protection of the wife because she

10112-561: The definitions disregard violence against men and that the term gender , as used in gender-based violence , only refers to women. Other critics argue that employing the term gender in this particular way introduces notions of inferiority and subordination for femininity and superiority for masculinity. There is no widely accepted current definition that covers all the dimensions of gender-based violence. Violence against women can fit into several broad categories. These include violence carried out by individuals as well as by states. Some of

10240-521: The early 17th century, there was widespread male and female prostitution throughout the cities of Kyoto , Edo , and Osaka , Japan. Oiran were courtesans in Japan during the Edo period . The oiran were considered a type of yūjo ( 遊女 ) "woman of pleasure" or prostitute. Among the oiran , the tayū ( 太夫 ) was considered the highest rank of courtesan available only to the wealthiest and highest ranking men. To entertain their clients, oiran practiced

10368-455: The early modern period (between the 15th and 18th centuries) were common in Europe and in the European colonies in North America. Today, there remain regions of the world (such as parts of Sub-Saharan Africa , rural North India , and Papua New Guinea ) where belief in witchcraft is held by many people, and women accused of being witches are subjected to serious violence. Son preference

10496-713: The end of the 15th-century attitudes seemed to have begun to harden against prostitution. An outbreak of syphilis in Naples 1494 which later swept across Europe, and which may have originated from the Columbian Exchange , and the prevalence of other sexually transmitted infections from the earlier 13th century, may have been causes of this change in attitude. By the early 16th century, the association between prostitutes, plague, and contagion emerged, causing brothels and prostitution to be outlawed by secular authority. Furthermore, outlawing brothel-keeping and prostitution

10624-606: The era. The Church used Mary Magdalene's biblical history of being a reformed harlot to encourage prostitutes to repent and mend their ways. Simultaneously, religious houses were established with the purpose of providing asylum and encouraging the reformation of prostitution. 'Magdalene Homes' were particularly popular and peaked especially in the early fourteenth century. Over the course of the Middle Ages, popes and religious communities made various attempts to remove prostitution or reform prostitutes, with varying success. With

10752-479: The establishment of prostitution, men were less likely to collectively rape honest women of marriageable and re-marriageable age. This is most clearly demonstrated in St. Augustine 's claim that "the removal of the institution would bring lust into all aspects of the world." Meaning that without prostitutes to subvert male tendencies, men would go after innocent women instead, thus the prostitutes were actually doing society

10880-521: The face and body. Such attacks are common in South Asia, in countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India; and in Southeast Asia, especially in Cambodia. A forced marriage is a marriage in which one or both parties are married against their will. Forced marriages are common in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The customs of bride price and dowry , which exist in many parts of

11008-419: The familial ties or means to protect themselves from the lure of prostitution, and it has been recorded on several occasions that mothers would be charged with prostituting their own daughters in exchange for extra money. Medieval civilians accepted without question the fact of prostitution, it was a necessary part of medieval life. Prostitutes subverted the sexual tendencies of male youth, just by existing. With

11136-442: The fear of women who did not fit into a stereotypical category outside of marriage or religious life. Secular law, like most other aspects of prostitution in the Middle Ages, is difficult to generalize due to the regional variations in attitudes towards prostitution. The global trend of the thirteenth century was toward the development of positive policy on prostitution as laws exiling prostitutes changed towards sumptuary laws and

11264-478: The following decades. With a few notable exceptions, it was during the past 30 years that most laws against marital rape have been enacted. Some countries in Scandinavia and in the former Communist Bloc of Europe made spousal rape illegal before 1970, but most Western countries criminalized it only in the 1980s and 1990s. In many parts of the world the laws against marital rape are very new, having been enacted in

11392-507: The forms of violence perpetrated by individuals are: rape , domestic violence , sexual harassment , acid throwing , reproductive coercion , female infanticide , prenatal sex selection , obstetric violence , online gender-based violence and mob violence ; as well as harmful customary or traditional practices such as honor killings , dowry violence , female genital mutilation , marriage by abduction and forced marriage . There are forms of violence that may be perpetrated or condoned by

11520-487: The forthcoming DSM-5 (2013) have canvassed a series of new Relational disorders , which include Marital Conflict Disorder Without Violence or Marital Abuse Disorder (Marital Conflict Disorder With Violence) . Couples with marital disorders sometimes come to clinical attention because the couple recognize long-standing dissatisfaction with their marriage and come to the clinician on their own initiative or are referred by an astute health care professional. Secondly, there

11648-637: The frequent customer practice of giving one's name as "John", a common name in English-speaking countries, in an effort to maintain anonymity. In some places, men who drive around red-light districts for the purpose of soliciting prostitutes are also known as kerb crawlers . Female clients of prostitutes are sometimes referred to as janes or sugar mamas . The word "prostitution" can also be used metaphorically to mean debasing oneself or working towards an unworthy cause or "selling out". In this sense, "prostituting oneself" or "whoring oneself"

11776-405: The government, such as war rape ; sexual violence and sexual slavery during conflict, forced sterilization ; forced abortion ; violence by the police and authoritative personnel; stoning and flogging . Many forms of VAW, such as trafficking in women and forced prostitution are often perpetrated by organized criminal networks. Historically, there have been forms of organized WAV, such as

11904-648: The incidence of rapes recorded by police during 2008 varied between 0.1 per 100,000 people in Egypt and 91.6 per 100,000 people in Lesotho with 4.9 per 100,000 people in Lithuania as the median . Around the world, rape is often not reported or handled properly by law enforcement for a wide variety of reasons. In 2011, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that "nearly 20% of all women" in

12032-431: The intention of injuring or disfiguring them. Women and girls are the victims in 75–80% of cases and are often connected to domestic disputes, including dowry disputes, refusal of a proposal of marriage, or sexual advances. The acid is usually thrown at the faces, burning the tissue, often exposing and sometimes dissolving the bones. The long-term consequences of these attacks include blindness and permanent scarring of

12160-485: The law that "forbid brothel keepers [from] beat[ing] them." However, brothel regulations also hindered prostitutes' lives by forbidding them from having "lovers other than their customers" or from having a favored customer. Courts showed conflicting views on the role of prostitutes in secular law as prostitutes could not inherit property, defend themselves in court, or make accusations in court. However, prostitutes were sometimes called upon as witnesses during trial. By

12288-519: The movement being a newspaper published by Havana sex workers. This publication went by the name La Cebolla , created by Las Horizontales . During this period, prostitution was also very prominent in the Barbary Coast, San Francisco as the population was mainly men, due to the influx from the Gold Rush . One of the more successful madams was Belle Cora , who inadvertently got involved in

12416-467: The numbers to be at least three times higher. The relation between violence against women and marriage laws, regulations and traditions has also been discussed. Roman law gave men the right to chastise their wives, even to the point of death. The US and English law subscribed until the 20th century to the system of coverture , that is, a legal doctrine under which, upon marriage, a woman's legal rights were subsumed by those of her husband. Common-law in

12544-465: The older men, these young brides act as symbols of masculinity and accomplishment. Child brides endure forced sex, causing health risks and growth impediments. Primary education is usually not completed for young girls in forced marriages. Married and pregnant students are often discriminated against, expelled, and excluded from school. The Law of Marriage Act currently does not address issues with guardianship and child marriage. The issue of child marriage

12672-634: The other hand, prostitution generated much national revenue in South Korea, hence the military government encouraged prostitution for the U.S. military . Beginning in the late 1980s, many states in the US increased the penalties for prostitution in cases where the prostitute is knowingly HIV-positive. Penalties for felony prostitution vary, with maximum sentences of typically 10 to 15 years in prison. Violence against women Violence against women ( VAW ), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence ( SGBV ),

12800-559: The phenomenon of prostitution, they rarely attempted to define what a prostitute was because it was deemed unnecessary "to specify exactly who fell into that [specific] category" of a prostitute. The first known definition of prostitution was found in Marseille's thirteenth-century statutes, which included a chapter entitled De meretricibus ("regarding prostitutes"). The Marseillais designated prostitutes as "public girls" who, day and night, received two or more men in their house, and as

12928-461: The pimp temporarily selling his slave to her client, who then returned the ownership of the slave after intercourse. The Islamic Law formally prohibited prostitution. However, since Islamic Law allowed a man to have sexual intercourse with his slave concubine , prostitution was practiced by a pimp selling his female slave on the slave market to a client, who returned his ownership on the pretext of discontent after having had intercourse with her, which

13056-478: The prostitute to repent ." The Church was forced to recognize its inability to remove prostitution from the worldly society, and in the fourteenth century "began to tolerate prostitution as a lesser evil." However, prostitutes were to be excluded from the Church as long as they practiced. Around the twelfth century, the idea of prostitute saints took hold, with Mary Magdalene being one of the most popular saints of

13184-672: The purpose of ill-gotten gains". Although historically it was suggested that peoples of the Ancient Near East engaged in sacred prostitution based on accounts of ancient Greek authors like Herodotus , the veracity of these claims has been seriously questioned due to a lack of corroborating evidence. Amongst the oldest reliable references to prostitution in ancient Greece comes from the Archaic era poet Anacreon ( c.  575 – c. 495 BC) in his poem about Artemon, which references "whores by choice". The record of prostitution in

13312-426: The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at

13440-606: The reign of emperor Caligula , a taxation on prostitution was implemented. Roman slave owners were able to include the ne serva prostituatur covenant as part of slave sale contracts, which prohibited the slaves being forced to prostitute themselves by their owners after being sold. Throughout the Middle Ages the definition of a prostitute has been ambiguous, with various secular and canonical organizations defining prostitution in constantly evolving terms. Even though medieval secular authorities created legislation to deal with

13568-601: The same description for the Comintern , saying that the chief aim of the Bonapartist clique of Stalin during the preceding several years "has consisted in proving to the imperialist 'democracies' its wise conservatism and love for order. For the sake of the longed alliance with imperialist democracies [Stalin] has brought the Comintern to the last stages of political prostitution." Besides targeting political figures,

13696-620: The services or acts performed are typically not sexual. For instance, in the book The Catcher in the Rye , Holden Caulfield says of his brother ("D.B."): "Now he's out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute. If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies. Don't even mention them to me." D.B. is not literally a prostitute; Holden feels that his job writing B-movie screenplays is morally debasing. The prostitution metaphor, "traditionally used to signify political inconstancy, unreliability, fickleness,

13824-486: The sex industry or whose work is of a sexual nature and is not limited solely to prostitutes. A variety of terms are used for those who engage in prostitution, some of which distinguish between different types of prostitution or imply a value judgment about them. This terminology is hotly contested among scholars. Common alternatives for prostitute include escort and whore ; however, not all professional escorts are prostitutes. The English word whore derives from

13952-617: The situation where women are forced into prostitution or sexual slavery by an occupying power. During World War II, the Japanese military established brothels filled with " comfort women ", girls and women who were forced into sexual slavery for soldiers, exploiting women for the purpose of creating access and entitlement for men. Rape during the Bangladesh Liberation War by members of the Pakistani military and

14080-563: The sole women allowed to sing in public or act in theatrical performances. In the 19th century, legalized prostitution became the center of public controversy as the British government passed the Contagious Diseases Acts , legislation mandating pelvic examinations for suspected prostitutes; they would remain in force until 1886. The French government , instead of trying to outlaw prostitution, began to view prostitution as

14208-617: The stigma was too great and that the police told them they deserved it and were reluctant to follow police policy. Decriminalizing sex work is argued to help sex workers in this aspect. In some countries, it is common for older men to engage in "compensated dating" with underage girls. Such relationships are called enjo kōsai in Japan and are also common in Asian countries such as Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. The WHO condemned "economically coerced sex (e.g. school girls having sex with "sugar daddies" ( Sugar baby in return for school fees)" as

14336-533: The subject. Other definitions of VAW are set out in the 1994 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women and by the 2003 Maputo Protocol . In addition, the term gender-based violence refers to "any acts or threats of acts intended to hurt or make women suffer physically, sexually, or psychologically, and which affect women because they are women or affect women disproportionately". Gender-based violence

14464-590: The term gender-based . In Recommendation Rec(2002)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the protection of women against violence , the Council of Europe stipulated that VAW "includes, but is not limited to, the following": These definitions of VAW as being gender-based are seen by some to be unsatisfactory. These definitions understand society as patriarchal, signifying unequal relations between men and women. Opponents of such definitions argue that

14592-475: The term is used in relation to organizations and even small countries, which "have no choice but to sell themselves", because their voice in world affairs is insignificant. In 2007, a Russian caricature depicted the Baltic states as three "ladies of the night", "vying for the attentions of Uncle Sam, since the Russian client has run out of money". Usage of the "political prostitute" moniker is by no means unique to

14720-473: The use of the word prostitute without specifying a sex may commonly be assumed to be female; compound terms such as male prostitution or male escort are therefore often used to identify males. Those offering services to female customers are commonly known as gigolos ; those offering services to male customers are hustlers or rent boys . Organizers of prostitution may be known colloquially as pimps if male or madams if female. More formally, one who

14848-414: The victim's own family and relatives. Violence or intimidation of the victim may be perpetrated by the rapist or by friends and relatives of the rapist, as a way of preventing the victims from reporting the rape, punishing them for reporting it, or forcing them to withdraw the complaint; or it may be perpetrated by the relatives of the victim as a punishment for "bringing shame" to the family. Internationally,

14976-407: The victims of rape, usually perpetrated by men known to them. The rate of reporting, prosecution, and convictions for rape vary considerably in different jurisdictions and reflect, to some extent, society's attitudes toward such crimes. It is considered the most underreported violent crime. Following a rape, a victim may face violence or threats of violence from the rapist and, in many cultures, from

15104-725: The women were subjected to serious forms of abuse, such as physical or sexual violence, that affected their physical and mental health. Forced prostitution is prostitution that takes place as a result of coercion by a third party. In forced prostitution, the party/parties who force the victim to be subjected to unwanted sexual acts exercise control over the victim. Single women and women who are economically independent have been vilified by certain groups of men. In Hassi Messaoud in Algeria in 2001, mobs targeted single women , attacking 95 and killing at least six and, in 2011, similar attacks happened again throughout Algeria. Stalking

15232-405: The word Hure (whore) since they feel that prostitute is a bureaucratic term. Those seeking to remove the social stigma associated with prostitution often promote terminology such as sex worker , commercial sex worker (CSW) or sex trade worker . Another commonly used word for a prostitute is hooker . Although a popular etymology connects "hooker" with Joseph Hooker , a Union general in

15360-460: The world, contribute to this practice. A forced marriage is also often the result of a dispute between families, where the dispute is 'resolved' by giving a female from one family to the other. The custom of bride kidnapping continues to exist in some Central Asian countries, such as Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the Caucasus, or in parts of Africa, especially Ethiopia. A girl or woman

15488-515: Was a legal and accepted method for prostitution in the Islamic world. This form of prostitution was practiced by for example Ibn Batuta , who acquired several female slaves during his travels. According to Shia Muslims, Muhammad sanctioned fixed-term marriage — muta'a in Iraq and sigheh in Iran—which has instead been used as a legitimizing cover for sex workers, in a culture where prostitution

15616-514: Was also used to "strengthen the criminal law" system of the sixteenth-century secular rulers. Canon law defined a prostitute as "a promiscuous woman, regardless of financial elements." The prostitute was considered a "whore … who [was] available for the lust of many men," and was most closely associated with promiscuity. The Church's stance on prostitution was three-fold: "acceptance of prostitution as an inevitable social fact, condemnation of those profiting from this commerce, and encouragement for

15744-459: Was going on at the time, most prostitutes remained in cities. Cities tended to draw more prostitutes due to the sheer size of the population and the institutionalization of prostitution in urban areas which made it more rampant in metropolitan regions. Furthermore, in both urban and rural areas of society, women who did not live under the rule of male authority were more likely to be suspected of prostitution than their oppressed counterparts because of

15872-938: Was made illegal by the Street Offences Act 1959 . These laws were partly repealed, and altered, by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the Policing and Crime Act 2009 . Since the break up of the Soviet Union , thousands of eastern European women end up as prostitutes in China, Western Europe, Israel, and Turkey every year. Some enter the profession willingly; many are tricked, coerced, or kidnapped, and often experience captivity and violence. There are tens of thousands of women from eastern Europe and Asia working as prostitutes in Dubai . Men from Saudi Arabia and

16000-710: Was made illegal in 1991. The views of Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century jurist, published in The History of the Pleas of the Crown (1736), stated that a husband cannot be guilty of the rape of his wife because the wife "hath given up herself in this kind to her husband, which she cannot retract"; in England and Wales, this would remain law for more than 250 years, until it was abolished by the Appellate Committee of

16128-528: Was nonetheless common. The economic decline brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union led to increased prostitution in many current and former Communist countries. In 1956, the United Kingdom introduced the Sexual Offences Act 1956 . While this law did not criminalise the act of prostitution in the United Kingdom itself, it prohibited such activities as running a brothel. Soliciting

16256-559: Was published by William Acton in 1857, which estimated that the County of London had 80,000 prostitutes and that 1 house in 60 was serving as a brothel. Leo Tolstoy 's novel Resurrection describes legal prostitution in 19th-century Russia. The leading Marxist theorists opposed prostitution. Communist governments often attempted to repress the practice immediately after obtaining power, although it always persisted. In most contemporary communist states , prostitution remained illegal but

16384-486: Was usually designated as a color of shame in the Hebrew communities. These laws, however, proved no impediment to wealthier prostitutes because their glamorous appearances were almost indistinguishable from noble women. In the 14th century , London prostitutes were only tolerated when they wore yellow hoods. Although brothels were still present in most cities and urban centers and could range from private bordelages run by

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