Talk:Prostitution in Europe

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 11 January 2021 and 7 May 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Kassiebridges.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 07:19, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Stylistic uniformity

Both the following expressions recur.

In ... prostitution is legal

In ... prostitution is not illegal

It'd be better if the words 'legal' and 'illegal' were used and double negatives avoided.

Prostitution in the Vatican

No article on prostitution in the vatican? I'm disappointed! ;) 74.78.116.93 (talk) 14:38, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

I guess the male citizens of the Vatican would cross the border to Italy when such needs would rise ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.210.121.77 (talk) 11:58, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Actually there is prostitution in the Vatican. Call-boy rings and so forth. It's just that the good people running this article won't let anyone add that to the article.

There is a WP article about the 2010 Vatican employee sex scandal. The main issue preventing its incorporation here would appear to be that this article focusses on the legal situation regarding the sex industries of various European nations, whereas the Vatican story appears to describe a single incident. - Polly Tunnel (talk) 11:48, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Romania

Romania on the map should be changed to blue or green Prostitution in that country is decriminalized earlier this year 174.91.155.111 (talk) 16:16, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

An English language ref would be useful. If (as the map claims) it is illegal to buy sex, then prostitution is illegal - not decriminalised. Jim Michael (talk) 17:35, 4 April 2015 (UTC)

Slovenia

The information about prostitution in Slovenia is sooooo outdated! It's legal with accordance with The Court of Justice of the European Communities —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nenir (talk • contribs) 03:54, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Prostitution is illegal in Slovenia, but the police often turn a blind eye. I once got busted in a raid on a brothel, the Police let me go in exchange for paying for them to have sex as well. 77.234.159.97 (talk) 11:27, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

---

Prostitution in Slovenia is legal but not regulated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.77.182.228 (talk) 00:30, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I come from Slovenia and know that prostitution is decriminalised. Prostitution is legal, pimping is illegal. Police can not put prostitutes in the jail, so please, put the blue colour on the map. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.212.162.89 (talk) 17:18, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Greece

Prostitution is not "NOW" legal and regulated in Greece. It was always legal and regulated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.66.30.182 (talk) 20:26, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

why is Crete blue in color? it's part of Greece thus bares the same laws 91.140.89.75 (talk) 22:13, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

You are correct. I've updated the table --John B123 (talk) 19:56, 16 June 2018 (UTC)

Russia

Prostitution is not a crime but administrative offence in Russia (like walking nude on the street, drink beer in public place or publicly using derogatory words). Prostitution article has been removed from Russian criminal code.--MathFacts (talk) 13:39, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Ukraine

more than 50 percent of women support their children and families through sex work - I think the source is misinterpreted. That is more than 50% of prostitutes support their families, not of all women.--MathFacts (talk) 13:55, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

"Criminal administrative offence"

There is no such thing in Russian law. Offense is either criminal or administrative. The US state department invented this term to further their agenda on human rights violations in Russia. Please stop citing US government on issues of Russian law.--MathFacts (talk) 09:47, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Kazakhstan = Europe?

Kazakhstan is Central Asia, whoever add Kazakhstan on the article is not smart enough to be a 1st grader. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.54.68.114 (talk) 12:07, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Do you think Uralsk is not European city?--MathFacts (talk) 14:10, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

There is a small part of the country that lies within Europe (just like in e.g. Turkey). --Oddeivind (talk) 09:23, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Latvia

"In 8 European countries (Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Hungary and Latvia) prostitution is legal and regulated." That means that Latvia should be green on the map. It's not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.29.77.101 (talk) 20:47, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

• The map is wrong.--Hebbes No1 (talk) 22:35, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Spain

The information about Spain is incorrect, and the citations don't say what they are supposed to. Brothels are legal in Spain, as evidenced by several recent articles about a giant brothel in La Jonquera near the French border called "Paradise," like here and here.

I can't find any information about exactly what the law is there, but I'm changing the text in Spain to at least acknowledge what I can verify.

Can someone change the map?

Cranialsodomy (talk) 01:55, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Split

I think if we split it as suggested someone may do some serious work on it Michael Goodyear 19:25, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Map

I think the map is misleading - regulatory systems don't fit into neat categories - after all what does "illegal" mean? Michael Goodyear (talk) 16:35, 16 February 2011 (UTC) The map also does not reflect the current reality that Belgium has decriminalized prostitution as of June 2022 Desmond Ravenstone (talk) 17:00, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

Poland

I think we have enough material to start a separate page Michael Goodyear (talk) 22:24, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

File:Prostitutes in the street of Reeperbahn.jpg Nominated for Deletion

An image used in this article, File:Prostitutes in the street of Reeperbahn.jpg, has been nominated for deletion at Wikimedia Commons in the following category: Deletion requests September 2011 What should I do? Don't panic; a discussion will now take place over on Commons about whether to remove the file. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion, although please review Commons guidelines before doing so. If the image is non-free then you may need to upload it to Wikipedia (Commons does not allow fair use) If the image isn't freely licensed and there is no fair use rationale then it cannot be uploaded or used. This notification is provided by a Bot --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 13:52, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Prostitution in Europe template

The template in the bottom of the article is not correrct. For example "Prostitution in the Netherlands" do not work. I am not a established user, so I can not edit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.89.34.82 (talk) 10:53, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

• Can anyone get this fixed? 88.91.90.34 (talk) 11:50, 8 October 2011 (UTC)

Clarification about Slovenia?

The US State Department source given in note 91 says: "Prostitution is illegal but decriminalized". What the hell does this mean? Is this not contradicting itself? Is the act of selling and buying sex illegal or not? -- Darthdyas (talk) 23:19, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

I come from Slovenina and know that prostitution in Slovenia is decriminalized, only pipmpin and borthels are illegal. So you have to mark picture as blue, not red! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.212.162.89 (talk) 17:14, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Scandinavia vs. Eastern Europe

Quote: In Sweden, Norway, and Iceland it is illegal to pay for sex, but not to be a prostitute (the client commits a crime, but not the prostitute). In Eastern Europe, the anti-prostitution laws target the prostitutes, because in these countries prostitution is condemned from a moral\conservative viewpoint.

There is a bias towards the scandinavian model here. I would claim the reason in these countries are also a moral / conservative viewpoint. Therefore this remark, should be removed. AnderzJensen (talk) 20:43, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

I agree with mr. Jensen. It could definitely be argued that the Scandinavian cases also represents a conservative viewpoint. As the article reads at the moment, it clearly presents a point of view. About the east european cases, there is no info abt the customers. The article does not state whether the customer commits a crime in this countries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.210.127.117 (talk) 16:53, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

Concubine Helvetica

The article is false, it is not true that Switzerland has already banned underage whoredom! To this day there are thousands of hungarian females working as immigrant pleasure dolls in CH and hundreds of them are mere 16-18 year old, many not volunteers, but trafficked. Allegedly, an average of 2-3 hungarian prostitutes are found murdered in CH every week and sometimes they are minors!

The EU has refused to permanently de-Schengenize Switzerland, even though strict border guard controls could stop the influx of minor "chick meat" into the swiss sex market. The citizen security problem is so severe for Hungary and the swiss are so cheeky, that some even recommended trying to invoke NATO 5th articles on this issue!

There is some support from US christian-cons. circles to block Gripen jet engine transfers unless the swiss comply in the red district, but they have to keep low profile, because the outrages of .CH protitution are much similar to .IL prostitution and poiticians from W. DC can't touch the latter topic, obviously. 87.97.100.112 (talk) 20:43, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Argentina ?

New edit lists argentina as a location where sex workers are traffic'd to. This is on europe. should we leave that in ? --RichardMills65 (talk) 04:10, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Map problems

The island of Bornholm belongs to Denmark and therefore should be blue, not pink. Malta should also be blue, as prostitution is legal but unregulated. Whoop whoop pull up ^{Bitching Betty | Averted crashes} 01:37, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Reorganization

All Prostitution by Region pages have been reorganized to be consistent - using UN region classification. Some template entries may need editing (redirect)--Michael Goodyear (talk) 02:39, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Contradictions between table and map

Blue on map = legal, but still listed as "not legal" in table. Countries with contradictions are e.g. France, Denmark, Finland, etc.. Could someone with background fix this? Otherwise I'd rather remove both from the page until the problem is resolved. --80.141.14.54 (talk) 17:06, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

It is hard to consider. One can draw accurate conclusions about legality from current image. OccultZone (Talk) 02:53, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

I removed the table. It is unsourced, and not fully correct. (procuring is illegal in Hungary) 2A02:2F0A:508F:FFFF:0:0:50C:91C1 (talk) 05:02, 15 October 2014 (UTC)

Brothels legal in Spain

Are you crazy? Look at that map. Brothels are legal in Spain and there's plenty of them. My uncle runs one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.33.60.75 (talk) 18:56, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

What does "illegal" mean?

Sometimes in the article it is only written that prostitution is illegal, without sufficient explanation. For instance in Lithuania it is written that it is illegal to sell sex, but it says nothing about whether it is illegal to pay for sex. In Sweden it is illegal to pay for sex, but not to sell sex. Are both illegal in Lithuania? The article is not clear on this. --Vitzque (talk) 09:19, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

Pimping is NOT legal in Germany!

According to the table in the article pimping is legal in Germany, but this is not true.

Section (§) 180a of the German "Strafgesetzbuch" (German penal code) says:

Exploitation of prostitutes

(1) Whosoever on a commercial basis maintains or manages an operation in which persons engage in prostitution and in which they are held in personal or financial dependency shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding three years or a fine.

(2) Whosoever

1. provides a dwelling or on a commercial basis an abode or a residence to a person under eighteen years of age for the exercise of prostitution; or

2. urges another person to whom he has furnished a dwelling for the exercise of prostitution to engage in prostitution or exploits the person in that respect,

shall incur the same penalty.

http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_stgb.html#p1600

_

Section (§) 181a of the German "Strafgesetzbuch" (German penal code) says:

Controlling prostitution

(1) Whosoever

1. exploits another person who engages in prostitution; or

2. for his own material benefit supervises another person’s engagement in prostitution, determines the place, time, extent or other circumstances of the engagement in prostitution, or takes measures to prevent the person from giving up prostitution, and for that purpose maintains a general relationship with the person beyond a particular occasion shall be liable to imprisonment from six months to five years.

(2) Whosoever impairs another person’s personal or financial independence by promoting that person’s engagement in prostitution, by procuring sexual relations on a commercial basis, and for that purpose maintains a general relationship with the person beyond a particular occasion shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding three years or a fine.

(3) Whosoever commits the offences under subsection (1) Nos 1 and 2 above or the promotion under subsection (2) above in relation to his spouse shall incur the penalty under subsections (1) and (2) above.

http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_stgb.html#p1607

So please correct the table in the article. Thank you. --87.78.9.185 (talk) 23:31, 9 September 2015 (UTC) Arjo

I have taken the liberty to correct it myself. --81.173.186.71 (talk) 16:56, 11 September 2015 (UTC) Arjo

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 3 external links on Prostitution in Europe. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add {{cbignore}} after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080501093606/http://www.tiraspoltimes.com:80/node/653 to http://www.tiraspoltimes.com/node/653
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/20140812103245/http://apfr.ro/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50:de-ce-e-apfr-unica&catid=16:home to http://www.apfr.ro/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50:de-ce-e-apfr-unica&catid=16:home
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080604163042/http://www.iht.com:80/articles/2005/06/26/news/turkey.php to http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/26/news/turkey.php

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 02:26, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 external links on Prostitution in Europe. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add {{cbignore}} after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:

• Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20121021202342/http://www.un.org/.../content/english/CONCLUDING_COMMENTS_ENGLISH/Liechtenstein/Liechtenstein%20-%20CO-1.pdf to http://www.un.org/.../content/english/CONCLUDING_COMMENTS_ENGLISH/Liechtenstein/Liechtenstein%20-%20CO-1.pdf
• Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20080604163042/http://www.iht.com:80/articles/2005/06/26/news/turkey.php to http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/26/news/turkey.php

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 20:30, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to one external link on Prostitution in Europe. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add {{cbignore}} after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:

• Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20080604163042/http://www.iht.com:80/articles/2005/06/26/news/turkey.php to http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/26/news/turkey.php

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

Y An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 22:08, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Corsica?

So according to the map it's illegal to pay for sex in mainland France but leagal in Cosica? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.33.104.238 (talk) 00:34, 12 February 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 5 external links on Prostitution in Europe. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101009212732/http://www.sjoe.at/content/frauen/themen/koerper/article/618.html to http://www.sjoe.at/content/frauen/themen/koerper/article/618.html
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111217020127/http://www.thelocal.ch/1729/20111110 to http://www.thelocal.ch/1729/20111110/
• Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.apfr.ro/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50%3Ade-ce-e-apfr-unica&catid=16%3Ahome
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20121120205441/http://www.selectionclic.com/solidarite-europeenne-de-l-annee-iana-matei-2761 to http://www.selectionclic.com/solidarite-europeenne-de-l-annee-iana-matei-2761
• Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/26/news/turkey.php

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 03:11, 20 May 2017 (UTC)

"Uncertain" status in Spain

The table says that the legality of prostitution in Spain is "Uncertain, but prostitution itself isn't a crime". How can it be "uncertain"? What does uncertain mean? Are clients charged or not? Or it is legal in some parts of the country and not in others? Either way, it can only be legal or illegal - not uncertain. The description should reflect that. Taxodermist (talk) 18:52, 10 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing this out. I've amended the table to be consistent with the content of the article below. - Polly Tunnel (talk) 16:58, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

Remove table

Should the table be removed and replaced by infoboxes for each country as per Prostitution in Oceania? John B123 (talk) 16:45, 26 February 2018 (UTC)

Arrangement by region

Is there a good reason for listing it this way, rather than just alphabetically? Samer (talk) 18:45, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

It was changed from alphabetical to regional in March 2013. Although this was before my time, I think it was to harmonise with other articles. See Reorganization above. --John B123 (talk) 19:49, 22 February 2019 (UTC)