{{Short description|Soliciting prostitution from a public place}} {{Use British English|date=December 2023}} {{redirect|Streetwalker|the film|Streetwalker (film)}} thumb|An illustration depicting a prostitute soliciting a potential customer '''Street prostitution''' is a form of prostitution in which a prostitute solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, benches, etc. The street prostitute is often dressed in a provocative manner. The sex act may be performed in the customer's car, in a nearby secluded street location, or at the prostitute's residence or in a rented motel room.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Harcourt|first1=Christine|last2=Donovan|first2=Basil|title=The Many Faces of Sex Work|url=https://prostitution.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000096|journal=Sexually Transmitted Infections|access-date=24 February 2018|date=June 2005|volume=81|issue=3|pages=201–206|doi=10.1136/sti.2004.012468|pmid=15923285|pmc=1744977}}</ref>
==Legality==
Street prostitution is often illegal, even in jurisdictions that allow other forms of prostitution.<ref name="homeoffice" />
It is estimated that only 10-20 percent of sex workers are working on the streets; however, it is also estimated that 90 percent of the arrests of prostitutes are of street workers.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lucas|first1=Ann|title=Race, Class, Gender, and Deviancy: The Criminalization of Prostitution|journal=Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice|date=September 2013|volume=10|issue=1|pages=48–49|url=https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1115252|doi=10.15779/Z38758N}}</ref>
In some jurisdictions where prostitution itself is legal, such as in the United Kingdom, street prostitution has been made illegal.<ref>S. 1(1) of the Street Offences Act 1959 as amended by [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/26/section/16 section 16] of the Policing and Crime Act 2009</ref>
Some jurisdictions also outlaw kerb crawling, slowly driving around with the intent to procure the services of a prostitute.
In Australia, in New South Wales it is legal to solicit on the streets, except in some areas (such as near schools).<ref>{{cite Legislation AU|NSW|act|soa1988189|Summary Offences Act 1988}}.</ref> The other Australian states and territories prohibit street solicitation,<ref>{{cite Legislation AU|SA|act|soa1953189|Summary Offences Act 1953}}.</ref> although some of these jurisdictions allow licensed brothels.<ref>{{cite Legislation AU|Vic|act|swa1994129|Sex Work Act 1994}}.</ref>
Street prostitution is legal in New Zealand.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2003/0028/latest/DLM197815.html|title=Prostitution Reform Act 2003|website=legislation.govt.nz|access-date=12 March 2016}}</ref> In Germany it is allowed too, but cities can restrict it to certain areas or hours (regulations vary widely from place to place).<ref>{{cite web|last1=Gunter|first1=Joel|last2=Ben|first2=Clissitt|title=Welcome to Paradise|url=http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/welcome-to-paradise/|website=Telegraph|access-date=24 February 2018}}</ref>
In the United States, street prostitution is illegal in all 50 states; 49 of the states outlaw all forms of prostitution. Nevada allows licensed brothels, but only in some rural areas, not in the major metropolitan areas (only eight counties have active brothels and prostitution outside these brothels is illegal throughout the state).
In four towns in the Netherlands, a special zone (''tippelzone'') is designated for legal street prostitution.<ref name="soaaids" /> The zone is often in a business park to avoid inconvenience for residents and can include a sex drive-in (afwerkplek).<ref name="1986-one">(18 August 2008). [http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1039/Utrecht/article/detail/2180195/2008/11/18/Onderzoek-naar-ruimere-afwerkplek.dhtml Onderzoek naar ruimere afwerkplek], ''Algemeen Dagblad'' (in Dutch) (article states prostitutes are reporting that the stalls in the Utrecht facility are too small for some luxury cars and SUVs, as the facility has remained mostly unchanged since its construction in 1986)</ref> In most of the zones, the prostitutes need a licence.<ref name="soaaids">{{cite web|title=Street prostitution|url=https://www.soaaids.nl/en/prostitution/in-the-Netherlands/workplaces/street-prostitution|website=Soa Aids Nederland|access-date=24 February 2018}}</ref>
==Risks and research== Street prostitutes are extremely vulnerable to physical and sexual assaults, as well as to muggings by clients and pimps.<ref name="who">{{cite web|title=World Health Organization|url=https://www.who.int/gender/documents/sexworkers.pdf|website=World Health Organization|access-date=24 February 2018}}</ref>
The World Health Organization reported that a study in Bangladesh found that between 50% and 60% of street-based prostitutes had been raped by men in uniform, and between 40% and 50% had been raped by local clients.<ref name="who" />
Melissa Farley's study of 854 prostitutes in nine countries—Canada, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United States, and Zambia—found that 95% of prostitutes had been physically assaulted, and 75% had been raped. 89% of the women interviewed stated that they wanted to leave prostitution.<ref name="farley">{{Cite journal|last1=Farley|first1=Melissa|last2=Cotton|first2=Ann|last3=Lynne|first3=Jacqueline|last4=Zumbeck|first4=Sybille|last5=Spiwak|first5=Frida|last6=Reyes|first6=Maria E.|last7=Alvarez|first7=Dinorah|last8=Sezgin|first8=Ufuk|title=Prostitution and Trafficking in Nine Countries|journal=Journal of Trauma Practice|volume=2|issue=3–4|pages=33–74|doi=10.1300/j189v02n03_03|year=2004|s2cid=153827303}}</ref> However, the methodology and neutrality of Farley's studies has been criticised by other academics such as Ronald Weitzer.<ref name=weitzer1>{{cite journal|last=Weitzer |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Weitzer |title=Flawed theory and method in studies of prostitution |journal=Violence Against Women |volume=11 |issue=7 |pages=934–949 |date=July 2005 |doi=10.1177/1077801205276986 |pmid=16043578 |s2cid=29745148 }} [https://web.archive.org/web/20090612131628/http://www.woodhullfoundation.org/content/otherpublications/WeitzerVAW-1.pdf Pdf.]</ref> Weitzer has also said that Farley's findings are heavily influenced by radical feminist ideology.<ref>Weitzer, R. "Flawed theory and method in studies of prostitution" (above-cited); :"''The articles in question are by Jody Raphael and Deborah Shapiro (2004), Melissa Farley (2004), and Janice Raymond (2004). At least two of the authors (Farley and Raymond) are activists involved in the anti-prostitution campaign. [...] The three articles are only the most recent examples in a long line of writings on the sex industry by authors who adopt an extreme version of radical feminist theory—extreme in the sense that it is absolutist, doctrinaire, and unscientific.''"</ref><ref>{{cite web | last1 = Jordan | first1 = Ann | title = Letter to Ambassador John Miller | publisher = Center for Health and Gender Equity | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090117134544/http://www.genderhealth.org/pubs/LtrMillerTrafficking.pdf | archive-date = 17 January 2009 | url = http://www.genderhealth.org/pubs/LtrMillerTrafficking.pdf | date = 21 April 2005 | page = 4 |display-authors=etal }}</ref>
In a 2008 study of Chicago, USA street prostitutes, economists Steven D. Levitt and Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh found that women working without pimps work for an average hourly rate of about $25, and those working with pimps make 50% more. This is roughly four times the wage of other jobs available to them. Prostitutes are arrested once for every 450 encounters and every 10th arrest results in jail time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagobooth.edu/capideas/apr09/4.aspx|title=Trading Tricks: The Economics of Prostitution|author=Steven D. Levitt|date=April 2009|publisher=The University of Chicago Booth School of Business|access-date=14 April 2016|archive-date=22 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322164821/http://www.chicagobooth.edu/capideas/apr09/4.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 2004, a study in the UK showed that up to 95% of women in street prostitution were problematic drug users, including around 78% heroin users and rising numbers of crack cocaine addicts.<ref name="homeoffice">{{cite web|title=Paying the Price: a consultation paper on prostitution|url=https://prostitution.procon.org/sourcefiles/paying_the_price.pdf|publisher=UK Home Office|access-date=24 February 2018|date=2004}}</ref>
==Impact of COVID-19== During the COVID-19 pandemic, contact professions (which includes prostitution, amongst others) had been banned (temporarily) in some countries. This has resulted in a local reduction of prostitution.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nswp.org/es/news/impact-covid-19-sex-workers-europe|title=Impact of COVID-19 on Sex Workers in Europe|date=6 July 2020|publisher=Global Network of Sex Work Projects}}</ref>
== Modern terminology == In recent years there has been a movement to redefine the way that prostitution is talked about. Instead of "prostitution", "sex work", and "sex workers", are the more preferred terminology.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weitzer |first=Ronald |date=2009-08-01 |title=Sociology of Sex Work |url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-120025 |journal=Annual Review of Sociology |language=en |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=213–234 |doi=10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-120025 |issn=0360-0572|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This movement began in the late 1970s and is still an effort. Sex work is not specifically associated with prostitution, but rather any type of work that is sexual in nature.
==See also== {{Portal|Prostitution}} * Solicitation
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons category}} * [http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/mime/open.pdf?Item=285 ''Street prostitution''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031129140058/http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/mime/open.pdf?Item=285 |date=2003-11-29 }} by Michael S. Scott, US DOJ Problem-Oriented Guides for Police Series, No. 2 (PDF file)
{{Prostitution}}
Prostitution Category:Prostitution