NCJ Number
161660
Date Published
1995
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the increase in prostitution in the Czech Republic following its change from socialism to capitalism in 1989 and suggests the causes for this increase.
Abstract
With the relaxation of social mores in the Czech Republic since 1989, the prevalence of sexual enterprises and advertisement for sexual services has increased and become more open. This has been fueled by a strong public demand for such services under a new sense of behavioral freedom. The primary obstacle to the provision of official institutions where citizens can buy safe sexual services has been a paragraph in the Czech Criminal Code called "the Pimping Law." Consequently, street prostitution has been the primary enterprise for sexual services. Street prostitution has boomed primarily due to the abolishment of paragraph 203 of the Criminal Code, which threatened imprisonment for any person who did not receive income from a legal occupation. Any woman can now enter prostitution and make a good living without initial capital or vocational skills. Not only is voluntary prostitution facilitated under the freedom of the new regime, so is forced prostitution. The opening of the country's borders has brought new possibilities for the export and import of women, and hustlers come across the borders to tempt young girls into prostitution and then force them to continue in the business through violence and threats of violence. This paper also discusses the family backgrounds of girls who go into prostitution, as well as prostitutes' lesbianism, first sexual intercourse, the use of contraception, and former professional careers of prostitutes.