The Politics of Prostitution

The most effective way to deal with prostitution has always been hotly debated by governments and women s movements alike. Feminists want it abolished or regulated as sex work; governments have to safeguard public health and order. This book shows how women s movements in Western Europe, North America and

Using an interdisciplinary approach and incorporating sources from across the entire European continent dating from the early Middle Ages to the sixteenth century, this book examines the phenomenon of prostitution in a variety of contexts and highlights the extent to which the institution mattered for both the higher and the

The book offers a detailed analysis of the design and implementation of prostitution policy at the local level.

This study of prostitution addresses issues of female agency and experience, as well as contemporary fears about sexual coercion and the forced movement of girls/women, and police surveillance. Rather than treating prostitutes solely as victims or problems to be solved, as so often has been the case in much of

Eva-Maria Heberer provides an overview over the history of prostitution in Germany, in which she discusses changes in legislation, in society and its view on prostitution, as well as in the market for commercial sex since 1846. Two different models describing a woman’s decision to engage in sex work are