Prostitution

By Biljana
  • Nov 20, 1158

    Barbarossa, German king, decides to eliminate prostitution

    In 1158, Barbarossa, then German king sought to eliminate prostitution completely.
  • Nov 20, 1500

    Epidemic of syphilis in Europe

    Church reacted by forcing diseased prostitutes to leave brothels and populate the streets introducing the illness to the populus residing outside of the restricted areas
  • Nov 20, 1546

    Henry VIII, King of England, decides to banish it completely

    In 1546, Henry VIII, then king of England, made a monumental decision to restrict and end tolerance for prostitution, shifting the paradigm of seeming acceptance to that of moral definition, punishment and shame

  • Other European countries follow Barbarossa's decision

    By the 15th century, faced with inability to completely banish it, European countries resorted to attempts to isolate places of prostitution, limiting their geographical scope and influence

  • Boston's law to punish "common nightwalkers"

    Boston enacted a law in 1699 punishing “common nightwalkers” – women walking the streets at night in search of immoral purposes

  • Prostitutes accompany the Continental Army soldiers; known as "camp followers."

    .Late 18th century finds these women in roles of “camp followers” who provided wound care, cooking, household services as well as sex to soldiers of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary war

  • Boston and New York experience growth of prostitution practices

    By the early 1800’s, seaport cities of Boston and New York saw tremendous growth of prostitution practices where the trade thrived among soldiers and sailors

  • Prostitutes, "soiled doves," thrive in the Old West

  • Female Moral Society established in NY City

    The Female Moral Society, was established in 1834 to address “licentiousness” or behavior lacking moral restraints.

  • The Comstock Law

    Congress passed in 1873 the Comstock Law to regulate not only obscene literature but also birth control.

  • The Page Act of 1875

    The Page Act of 1875, addressed involuntary immigration into the United States of Chinese but touched only briefly on prostitution by making it illegal to “transport any women into the United States for purposes of prostitution."

  • Progressive Era (1895-1925) This era introduced the concept of a “white slave” to describe an otherwise virtuous woman who would not “become a whore unless she had first been raped, seduced, drugged or deserted.”

  • 1910 Mann’s Act

    1910’s Mann’s Law made it illegal “to transport women across state lines for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose"

  • Caminetti v. United States

    The first case to question the legality and breadth of the Mann Act in light of the constitutionally guaranteed rights to privacy.

  • The Standard Vice Repression Act of 1919

  • By 1925, every state that has passed legislation criminalizing the act of prostitution

  • May Act of 1941

  • The Model Penal Code overhaul

    In 1962, The American Law Institute set out to overhaul and unify criminal law in general and as a result, The Model Penal Code appeared as one of the most important documents of the criminal justice system.

  • Prostitution made illegal in Iraq

  • Griswold v. Connecticut

  • Bowers v. Hardwick

    In 1986, in the case of Bowers v. Hardwick, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not protect “the right of gay adults to engage in private, consensual sodomy."

  • The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000

  • The Netherlands officially legalizes brothels and their operations.

  • Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003

  • Lawrence v. Texas

    The Model Penal Code was cited as justification in the opinion of Justice Kennedy in Lawrence v. Texas as making it clear that it “did not recommend or provide for ‘criminal penalties for consensual sexual relations conducted in private.” It justified its decision on three grounds: (1) The prohibitions undermined respect for the law by penalizing conduct many people engaged in; (2) the statutes regulated private conduct not harmful to others; and (3) the laws were arbitrarily enforced and thus i

  • Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005

  • Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008