Prostitution

Prostitution is often called “the oldest profession,” but this characterization is somewhat inaccurate. While prostitution indeed has a long history, it has taken many forms over the centuries. Moreover, the law has rarely recognized prostitution as a profession; more commonly, prostitution has been treated as deviant or criminal behavior.

Prostitution is usually understood as the exchange of sexual services for money between a female prostitute and a male customer. Although most prostitutes are women, male prostitution also exists. Nearly all customers of both female and male prostitutes are men, but heterosexual couples occasionally hire prostitutes, as, more rarely, do women. Prostitutes find customers, and vice versa, through personal solicitation on the street or at bars, nightclubs, strip clubs; at truck stops; through advertisements in telephone books, classified ads in magazines and newspapers, and flyers and cards distributed on the street; and via the Internet. Where prostitution is legal, it may also be advertised on television and billboards.

Prostitution is illegal in most countries in the world. In the United States, prostitution is primarily a matter of state rather than federal law, resulting in some variation in criminal statutes. While laws once defined the prostitute as a woman who sold sexual services, today most American laws are gender neutral.

Adult prostitution is often categorized as one of a few “victimless crimes.” Unlike most crimes, both parties willingly participate in prostitution, so there is no victim-complainant in the usual sense. For this reason, some argue that laws against adult prostitution represent a futile attempt to legislate morality. (Because children [Page 1286]lack emotional, intellectual, and sexual maturity, however, child prostitutes are truly victims of prostitution, even if they seem to engage in prostitution voluntarily.) Indeed, law enforcement's categorization of prostitution as a vice offense reflects the historical view that prostitution is more sin than crime.