Prostitution in Italy

History

Prostitution thrived in Italy in the Middle Ages. The city of Venice declared in 1358 that brothels were indispensable, and courtesans achieved high social status in Venice, particularly in the 17th century.

Regolamentazione

The Regolamentazione, or the regulation system of prostitution, was established in 1861, with Italian unification, modeled on the French Napoleonic system of Réglementation and the Bureau des Moeurs (a government office tasked with regulating vice, which included officially registering prostitutes). An 1859 decree, by Count Camillo Benso di Cavour to aid the French army which supported the Piedmontese in their fight against Austria, authorized the opening of houses controlled by the state for the exercise of prostitution in Lombardy. On 15 February 1860, the decree was signed into law (referred to as Legge Cavour) with the enactment of the "Regulations of the Security Service on Prostitution".

A further law (Legge Crispi), adopted on 29 March 1888, prohibited the selling of food and drinks, and parties, dances, and songs in brothels, and banned such establishments near places of worship, schools, and kindergartens. It also provided that the shutters should always remain closed, which is the origin of the Italian expression "closed houses" (case chiuse). A further amendment was the Legge Nicotera of 1891. Under this system, prostitution in Italy was fully legal in private houses. A system of sifilicomi (hospitals for people/women in prostitution) was also set up, under the belief that they were the main sources of spreading venereal diseases.

Although prostitutes found this regulated system oppressive, they developed ways to resist it. During the Fascist rule (1922–1943), more restrictive measures were gradually introduced in 1923, 1933, and 1940.

Overall, the system was considered a failure, and as in other European countries with Réglementation, movement for its abolition started to grow from the late 19th century, supported by leftist and feminist groups. This abolitionism of the time is often considered confusing, since it has been applied to both the abolition of regulations restricting prostitution and the abolition of prostitution itself. However, these forces led to the introduction of a new system in Italy that abolished regulation, but not prostitution as such.

Legge Merlin (1958)

The Legge Merlin (L75/1958) (the Merlin Law, named after its main author, the Socialist Party member of parliament Lina Merlin), came into power on 20 September 1958. This law, still in force today, with very little changes, revoked the regulation system, banned brothels, and established a new criminal offence called "exploitation of prostitution" (sfruttamento della prostituzione), with the aim to punish procuring of sexual services. Specifically, article 3.8 provides penalties for "any person who, in any way, promotes or exploits the prostitution of others" (chiunque in qualsiasi modo favorisca o sfrutti la prostituzione altrui). Article 3.3 lists a number of public places where prostitution is prohibited, such as houses, hotels, dance halls, and entertainment clubs. Article 5 prohibits solicitation (libertinaggio) "in a public place, or place open to the public, or soliciting in a scandolous or disturbing manner, or follows a person and invites them by acts or words". Article 7 prohibited registration and mandatory health checks for prostitutes.

Theory

The Merlin Law follows the standard abolitionist (abolishing regulation) view of prostitution control policy, prohibiting trafficking, exploitation, and aiding and abetting of prostitution. What remained legal was street prostitution, or independent prostitution done by a prostitute in their own home. The law was promoted as an equality measure liberating women, but despite its good intentions to give more rights to prostitutes otherwise dependent on pimps, it was, and still remains to this day, a subject of intense debate. Among other points, the text of the law specifically refers to women (donne).

Result

The effect of the law was to push women out into the streets, which made them more visible, and into private homes. The law remained a subject of intense debate, with its defence being seen as a feminist issue, as some Marxists and most Catholics support it. The Christian Democrats repeatedly sought the repeal of the law since 1973, and they were joined in 1998 by the Democrats of the Left. Repeal of the law would have re-opened brothels. At the same time, conservative women's groups such as Federcasalinghe pushed for more regulation, including as health checks, but these propositions were opposed by feminists. However, surveys consistently suggest that there is considerable public support for re-opening the case chiuse.

Following the founding of the Comitato (see Advocacy, below), attempts to change the law continued, with 22 bills introduced in the 1996-2001 legislative assembly.

Growing concerns over street prostitution and migration

Migration

Prostitution in Italy became much more visible in the early 1990s with the increase of migration from Western Africa which had begun in the 1970s. The dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Yugoslav Wars, and new immigration policies (such as Legge Martelli of 1990) contributed to a rapid influx of people in prostitution in 1989-1990 originating from former Soviet bloc countries. A second wave of immigrant people/women in prostitution from Nigeria and Peru, arriving to Italy using tourist visas and staying in the country after they had expired (the so-called clandestini) ensued, followed by a third wave from Albania in 1993–1994. The fourth wave in 1995 also came from Nigeria and Albania, while in 1996–1998, even more migrants came from Moldova, Lithuania, and Albania. Italian immigration laws became much more restrictive in 1998, with the enactment of the Legge Turco-Napolitano (40/98).

Among these migrants were women who took up prostitution with varying degrees of voluntarity, with some suffering coercion and debt bondage (human trafficking), including under-aged girls. These issues of foreign nationals, coerced prostitution, and under-aged prostitutes have re-shaped the prostitution debate in Italy, as elsewhere around Europe, in recent years. Descriptions of the conditions of migrant women, particularly young women, on the streets, shifted the debate in the 1990s from the Comitato's perception of prostitutes as independent and assertive women to that of victims of male violence. One response of the local authorities in dealing with the problem was rescinding residence permits issued to foreign women found in the streets, and increased deportations of the clandestini.

Street prostitution

With migration, street prostitution became more visible, the prostitutes being considered to now be mainly foreigners. In turn, this created another force driving public attitudes, which were community groups from urban neighbourhoods where street prostitution was most visible, particularly since the mid-1990s. Municipalities have also tried to police people in prostitution themselves since 1994, which included targeting prostitution clients by sending notices to their home addresses and confiscating their vehicles, although outright charging clients with aiding and abetting was blocked by a tribunal in Perugia in September 2000. Continuing police activity became a national focus following the suicide of a client that year.

Another initiative was to create tolerance zones, such as in Mestre, the mainland of Venice, in 1995. A more tolerant approach has emerged from local authorities, based on the principle of "harm reduction" ("riduzione del danno").

Some municipal authorities have created confusion by erecting signs drawing attention to prostitution occurring in the neighbourhood.

Dealing with immigration

Originally proposed by international agencies, and approved by the European Union in 1996, the cause of protecting migrant prostitutes was taken up in Italy by Maria Paola Colombo Svevo (PPI), President of Irene, an NGO, and by other Catholic and lay NGOs such as Caritas.

While it was always possible to request a residency permit on humanitarian grounds, this was not well known or utilized by foreign people in prostitution. In 1996, Livia Turco, the Minister of Social Affairs, introduced the first "Justice Permit" for trafficking victims who renounced their traffickers, as part of the Prime Minister Lamberto Dini's immigration decree. However, Catholic organizations opposed the denunciation clause. The political initiative to address the situation of women migrants came from Anna Finocchiaro (Democratic Party), the Minister of Equal Opportunities. Giorgio Napolitano (Democrats of the Left), the Interior Minister, announced new measures in 1997 to deal with prostitution as an issue of urban safety, and there was little debate over his proposals, given widespread concerns over human trafficking. The main opposing viewpoint was that residence permits should be granted only on the condition of victims denouncing traffickers. What debate there was, was essentially confined to the position of women. The resulting legislation was the Legge Turco-Napolitano of 1998 (40/98). The position of the relatively weak and scattered women's movement was that victims should not be further victimized by having them expelled to their home country, or by putting them in a possibly life-threatening situation.

Measures adopted by the law included increased penalties for recruiting and trafficking, and allowing victims of trafficking to stay in the country under a "protection permit". The law envisioned that these permits would be administered by local police chiefs (questori) on humanitarian grounds, but this concerned NGOs because of the complexity of the procedures involved and the potential for abuse. The law also required the victim to enroll in training courses organized and by approved NGOs. The law also allocated funds for associations assisting these victims, but did require them to exit prostitution, although they were supposed to denounce it. The requirement for denunciation in the original Dini decree was removed. In advocating this, Turco was influenced by the Commission for Equal Opportunities, whose first president, Elena Marinucci (PSI), had embraced the aims of the Comitato and attempted to legislate this in 1987.

Amongst critics were the Comitato who objected to prostitution as something that women required to be protected from, without addressing stigmatization. However, Catholic organizations dominated the list of approved agencies, and followed this belief. However, the debates did distinguish between forced prostitution and a "free and conscious choice of the individual".

Effect

Although the law was not explicitly targeted at prostitution, its implementation was. Despite gender neutral language, the implementation focused on young female victims of trafficking, which was driven by populist media imagery. The new law did little to stem the debate. When the government led by Massimo D'Alema was elected later that year in October 1998 three women ministers from three political parties (Federation of the Greens, Italian People's Party, and Democrats of the Left) - Laura Balbo (Equal Opportunities), Rosa Russo Jervolino (Internal Affairs) and Livia Turco (Social Affairs) announced they would look at new proposals on battling trafficking and defending the dignity of women.

The result was a new prominence for Anna Finocchiaro's consultative body, the Inter-ministerial Table for the Fight against Trafficking (in February 1998) with wide representation. Finocchiaro had declared "Trafficking in women is a new and very serious problem that we have to combat primarily with the punishment for reduction into slavery, instead of using the Merlin law". In March 1999, the ministers announced new, more severe, penalties for exploitation, and new rules for protecting those who renounced prostitution. Available statistics for 1998 reported 342 known victims, 37 percent of whom were minors, predominantly originating from Albania, Nigeria and FR Yugoslavia. A total of 242 permits were granted in 1999 and 600 in 2000.

Legge Carfagna proposal

Until 2008, although there were no laws against street prostitution, other laws concerning public order and decency could be used to regulate it, and some places had local ordinances enacted against street prostitution. Attempts were regularly made to criminalize outdoor prostitution.

Bill 1079

In 2008, a new bill outlawing street prostitution was introduced by Mara Carfagna, Minister for Equal Opportunities, and approved by the Consiglio dei ministri on 11 September.

Scope

The bill is framed as an amendment to the Legge Merlin of 20 February 1958, No 75 by providing for penalties for the act of prostitution, solicitation, or availing oneself of sexual services in a place open to the public (Art. 1). Article 2 amends article 600 bis of the penal code to provide penalties for recruiting, inducing, promoting, using, managing, organizing, controlling, or profiting from the sexual services of a person under 18, or for those promising any kind reward for a sexual act with a person between 14 and 18. It also provides for repatriation of foreign minors engaging in prostitution. Article 3 deals with organized crime, penalizing conspiracy to exploit prostitution via article 416 of the penal code. Article 4 provides no new resources and repeals article 5 of the Legge Merlin, which it replaces, prohibiting libertinaggio (solicitation constituting offence or harassment) subject to up to 15 days imprisonment.

Legislative history

The bill (S.1079) was introduced into the Senate, where it has been debated in committee in conjunction with a group of related bills (19 March 2009). In interviews with Gente and Panorama, Carfagna stated that she was declaring war on prostitution and criticised opponents who proposed quartieri a luci rosse (red light districts). It remains firmly on the agenda of the Berlusconi government, despite the prostitution scandals that continue to be associated with him. This has been achieved by packaging anti-prostitution measures into security packages, frustrated by the slow passage of the actual legislation. As with previous attempts this has attracted much criticism.

Opposition

The bill is opposed by the Catholic Church, people in prostitution harm reduction advocates feminist groups, human rights and immigrant groups, and lawyers and continues to be a matter of both popular and academic debate. Carfagna believes it is necessary to combat trafficking.

2008 ordinances

The Domestic Security regulations of 24 July 2008 (L.125/08) gave mayors judicial power to declare anything that might endanger the security and decorum of their cities an emergency. Under these powers, people/women in prostitution and clients have been subjected to ordinances that permit municipal police to administer fines. The Public Security Law enables police chiefs to expel persons from a city in which they do not officially reside. EU citizens are subject to fines while non-EU citizens may be placed in detention centres and deported. The Comitato reports a breakdown in relationships between NGOs and authorities and between NGOs and people/women in prostitution, an avoidance of health services and an increase in criminal activity. While enforcement varies by region and over time, the immediate effect has been the expected and desired one of clearing the streets (at least temporarily) and displacing people/women in prostitution to remote areas. Indoors prostitution has increased, and quality of life in general has deteriorated. Unprotected sex has increased due to reduced ability to negotiate. Stigmatization and vulnerability have increased, as has a greater reliance on social services. As noted in other countries, as soon as police activity is reduced, older prostitution patterns reappear. On 7 April 2011, the Italian Constitutional Court with the Sentence n. 115/2011 decided that this kind of Mayors' Ordinances must have time and space limits and urgent conditions to be issued. So, the simple exercise of street prostitution could be no more persecuted by this kind of local bills.