Prostitution

Magic rituals and Nigerian prostitution: the experience of an anthropological consultation for an Italian court of law.
International Conference: “Life on Ioan: work, debt, dependence”, Certosa di Pontignano (Siena) september, 24th to 26th 2004.
The paper illustrates a part of the results which emerged during the research I carried out on behalf of Bergamo Law Court, in my capacity as technical adviser in the field of cultural anthropology. This type of consultation is far from commonplace in Italy. The magistrates who, in pioneering fashion, commissioned the report, needed to arrive at a better understanding of the claims of young Nigerian women who reported their pimps (“madams”), also Nigerian women, to the police. The crimes the latter  are accused of (the trial is still under way) are reduction into slavery; aiding and abetting and living on the earnings of prostitution; and aiding and abetting illegal immigration. The accounts of the accusers featured references to the use of magic rituals (commonly referred by the mass media to as “voodoo ceremonies”) as well as to forms of violent intimidation. Moreover, searches carried out by criminal police in the houses where the accusers and the accused cohabited revealed organic and inorganic materials, which appeared to bear out the supposition that magic rituals had taken place. The petition for an anthropological consultation regarded the cultural contextualization of these practices through a comparison with existing ritual practices in Nigeria. The report did not so much aim to confirm the credibility of the accusers’ claims, but rather to provide a cultural context useful for understanding the circumstances recalled. The work used the testimony of young Nigerian women, victims of the trade (some of these were interviewed personally), documentation provided by the court and numerous ethnographical texts on Nigeria. The work was first delivered in the form of a written report and then presented in court during a hearing.
The ritual practices Nigerian women involved in the activity of prostitution in Italy claim they have been subjected to by the madam are divided into two types, which we have examined separately: the first performed by an adept back in Nigeria, and the second performed in the madam’s house in Italy.
As far as the ritual performed in Nigeria is concerned (despite the heterogeneity of the young women’s descriptions probably owing to the fact that the adepts who carry out the ritual come from different traditions), we can find accounts of similar acts in ethno-anthropological literature on the “magical-therapeutic” rituals of the populations of the south of Nigeria The ritual the girls are subjected to often assumes the form of a sort of oath-curse through which the girls are enjoined, under threat of death, to settle their “debt” (that is to pay back the sum they are told was loaned to pay for their journey) and not to report the madam.
The ritual practices performed in Italy by the madam require  more extensive and detailed research. However, from studies carried out so far it is clear that these practices consist in removing organic substances (nails, hair, body hair, blood and menstrual blood), clothes or personal objects from the victim, as well as in parcelling them up. This with the threat that the material will be used in rituals which might lead to death, rituals which the girls normally do not see and which they are therefore unable to describe. In some cases the threat is that the material will be sent to the same native-doctor who performed the ritual in Nigeria.
Whether it is carried out or not, the madam’s threat to perform (or to have somebody  perform) the ritual at the girl’s expense appears to appeal to a shared native cultural substratum, pertinent to the existence in Nigeria of magic-medicinal practices. Indeed, these practices are widespread and familiar in Nigeria, though not always accepted by worshippers of various religious faiths. In the case of young Christian girls- though scarcely aware of details concerning the adepts and the techniques and the materials they use- it emerges that they at least know of the existence of these practices and some of their aims. I am especially alluding to the very much feared practice of the curse.
To sum up, we can affirm that we are actually dealing with two types of ritual. The first  is the oath-curse performed in Nigeria by which the girl’s escape would betoken her death. This appears to be central. The second is the removing of organic substances carried out in Italy, which appears to act as a call to order, done as a precaution, or at critical moments (when the girl fails to obey the madam), involving the threat of performing a magic ritual and/or the evoking of the magic ritual previously performed in Nigeria.
On the other hand, oaths and curses performed by ritual adepts are  recorded at length in anthropological literature, just as Nigerian legal literature testifies to rituals performed to subjugate an individual (Penal Code and Criminal Code). The aims expressed or threatened by the madam’s rituals do not appear to be an entirely new phenomenon. Subjugating someone, cursing them, preventing them from speaking or reacting, are the aims of some types of ritual which are described in ethnographic literature as often as they are found in the evidence given by Nigerian women in Italy. A peculiar element of the rituals commissioned by the madam consists in their methodical, organised and large-scale nature (indeed they do not act on a single “enemy”). This enables us to interpret these rituals as a criminal “recycling” of traditional “magic-medicinal” knowledge and techniques.
Regarding the ritual performed in Italy, the marked preponderance of human organic materials compared with the numerous other ingredients (vegetal, mineral, etc..) listed in ethnographical literature on Nigerian rituals, is striking. This preponderance is observed both in victims’ accounts –where the extraction of organic substances appears to be fundamental- and in the criminal police’s descriptions of materials seized.
Between rituals belonging to Nigerian tradition and those performed within the context of the trade there appear to be both divergences and parallels concerning the purposes, techniques, or materials employed. Besides these divergences or parallels, what matters most of all is that- by virtue of common references to the madam and her victims to a universe of practices existing in Nigeria- there is clearly some form of blackmail taking place. Organic substances are extracted, appealing to the deep feelings and emotions these trigger, as they are associated with the victim’s individuality, with the aim of frightening the victims of the trade. Other objects or materials represent specific cultural references. These seem to have the purpose of directly and explicitly evoking magic practices (principally curses) current in Nigeria. Being organic substances, these objects and materials either foreshadow a future act of magic, or are genuinely used in a ritual, their principal role appearing to be explicitly, within the context of the madam/victim relationship , that of threatening the latter, and preserving and representing on a physical and sensorial level the relationship of total subjugation to the madam.

Between the gangsters, the beautiful girls, the vibrant nightlife and the gigantic scale of the city itself, full of its diverse millions and their struggles, the lurid and colorful world of Bangkok's notorious nightlife is brought to life in Chris Coles' series of Expressionist-style paintings. Broad sweeping lines and strong contrasting colors dominate in these artworks, portraying a chaotic edgy world of colliding intention and misplaced desire - lives out of balance, male-female compulsion, alienation and disassociation. At once beautiful and frightening, this collection of paintings is a vibrant celebration of the pyschedelic Bangkok Night and its many shades of noir...

Background  Trafficking in women is a widespread human rights violation commonly associated with poor mental health. Yet, to date, no studies have used psychiatric diagnostic assessment to identify common forms of mental distress among survivors returning to their home country. Methods  A longitudinal study was conducted of women aged 18 and over who returned to Moldova between December 2007 and December 2008

To assess the prevalence of sex work and its associations with substance use among female bar/spa workers in the Philippines (N = 498), workers from 54 bar or spa venues in Metro Manila (2009-2010) were surveyed on demographics, drug/alcohol use, abuse history, and sex work. Their median age was 23 years and 35% engaged in sex work. Sex work was independently associated with methamphetamine use (19% vs 4%; adjusted odds ratio [AOR] =2.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.3-6.2), alcohol use with patrons (49% vs. 27%; AOR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.1-3.4), and alcohol intoxication during sex (50% vs. 24%; AOR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.2-3.5), but inversely associated with daily alcohol use (13% vs. 16%; AOR = 0.2, 95% CI = 0.1-0.5). Additional significant covariates included sexual abuse history, younger age, and not having a higher education. Findings suggest that interventions with sex workers in bars and spas should focus on methamphetamine use, alcohol use contexts, and violence victimization, to ...

La prostituta, como personaje literario, fue construida con el objetivo de representar, a través de su conducta y psicología, los males y las calamidades que afligían a las sociedades renacentistas. El género de la picaresca, por ejemplo, utilizó personajes como el de la meretriz para justificar su carácter didáctico ilustrando las vicisitudes de las clases bajas, la inmoralidad de los inadaptados y las consecuencias de las conductas desviadas. Sin embargo, la prostituta que se muestra en la Carajicomedia, poema de carácter burlesco publicado en la edición de 1519 del Cancionero General, propone un modelo del personaje distinto. El arquetipo sugerido por este poema trastoca a la prostituta que, a través de su des-envolvimiento con el texto, celebra la libertad sexual en vez de condenarla. En este ensayo se exploran las diferencias representativas entre el poema y la picaresca con el objetivo de mostrar cómo la servidora sexual de la Carajicomedia incitaba a la despenalización moral del placer sexual, la diversificación del personaje femenino y la expansión de la condición liminal del sexo ilícito.

Although considerable attention has been placed on the role of prostitutes in the AIDS epidemic, little attention has been directed to features of prostitutes' work lives which are relevant to the control of AIDS. This article reviews several aspects of prostitution in the United States which have implications for control of the epidemic. The article first reviews the epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among prostitutes. The legalized system of prostitution in Nevada serves as a basis for comparison to illegal prostitution. This article examines the effectiveness of mandatory testing of prostitutes for monitoring and controlling the epidemic. And finally, a peer education approach as a means to control HIV infection among prostitutes is explored.

The majority of young African women involved in prostitution in major European cities today come from Edo State, in Southern Nigeria, where trafficking has become an entire economic model. Despite moral judgment and the stigmatization of prostitutes in Nigeria, sending a girl to Europe represents an opportunity that many families decide to take advantage of, relying on potential financial benefits that would allow collective social climbing. Analyzing prostitution as a family migratory project helps to shed light on the role of parents in the mechanisms that make possible and even reinforce the sexual exploitation of girls in Europe

​Eva-Maria Euchner führt in das Thema der Prostitutionspolitik ein und stellt klassische Regulierungsregime sowie die zentralen Wertekonflikte des Politikfelds vor. Ferner gibt die Autorin einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Regulierungsmodelle in Europa zwischen 1960 und 2010, was auch eine Beschreibung der Herangehensweise in Deutschland beinhaltet. Darüber hinaus analysiert sie die Ursachen des deutschen Wegs. Die liberale Handhabung von Prostitution in Deutschland ist insbesondere auf die Problemdefinition und die Rolle der Partei Bündnis 90/Die Grünen zurückzuführen. Aktuell motiviert eine veränderte Problemwahrnehmung neue regulative Schritte, die aber voraussichtlich keinen Paradigmenwechsel einleiten werden, da ein starker parteipolitischer Agent fehlt.

En las sociedades contemporáneas el consumo de servicios de prostitución, mayoritariamente entre la población masculina, es uno de los indicadores más significativos de una forma de entender, vivir y sentir la sexualidad. España es el primer país europeo en consumo de prostitución, pero la actividad no está regulada, su consumo no está penado, así como tampoco su oferta. Se aborda la construcción de las identidades masculinas en España en relación a la prostitución. Se ha recurrido al análisis de 18 entrevistas a clientes de servicios de prostitución, dos a trabajadores de prostíbulos y un grupo de discusión con clientes y no clientes. Se han descubierto cuatro <em>ethos</em> de consumidores de prostitución (misógino, mercantilista, amigo crítico). A pesar de las masculinidades emergentes (amigo-acompañante) frente al modelo tradicional de masculinidad (padre-protector) ambas posibilitan una lógica en la que el consumo de servicios de prostitución tiene plena vigencia y ...

Bondage, Prostitution and Human dealing are the most shocking violations within recent memory. In the present current time there are numerous individuals who are stuck as slaves and are creating gigantic measure of cash for their dealers. Human dealing sabotages the security of each individual in a state since it is a sorted out wrongdoing and adulterated. Human privileges of dealt individual are disregarded as they are not given the poise which our Indian constitution ensures. They are misused, assaulted or frequently slaughtered. This has been the subject of worldwide security since the last part of the 90s. Dealing for sexual design is more across the board than constrained labour. In the previous stages nations perceived sexual abuse yet never thought to be constrained work as misuse. Criminal law centers on these three viewpoints for example subjection, prostitution and human dealing. Prostitution and subjugation is a sort of current servitude secured under dealing of individual for business reason. These three are the wrongdoings which are required to be checked or in any case will influence the human life. Individuals are debasing themselves for cash. The principle purpose for deliberate prostitution and subjugation is the deficiency of cash. More often than not they are not financially stable for which they offer their bodies to other people. For such expanding rate everyone will be instructed and all around enrolled with the goal that money related issues can be decreased.

Initiatives aimed at behaviour change of key populations such as the female sex workers (FSWs) are pivotal in reducing the transmission of HIV. An 8-year implementation research to establish the predictor factors of behaviour change among FSWs in Kenya was initiated by the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) with Sida and DfID support. This cross-sectional survey interviewed 159 female sex workers (FSWs) identified through snowball procedure. The measurement of behaviour change was based on: the consistent use of condoms with both regular and non regular clients, reduced number of clients, routine checks for STIs, and involvement in alternative income generating activities. The adjusted odds ratios at 95% confidence interval computed during binary logistic regression analysis were used to determine the behaviour change predictor factors. Most FSWs (84%) had participated in AMREF's integrated intervention programme for at least one year and 59.1% had gone through behaviou...

This chapter explains how the sixteenth-century Protestant reformer, John Calvin, transformed the Western theology and law of sex, marriage, and family life. Understanding marriage as a divine covenant with distinct and discernible goods and goals, Calvin gave new grounds to old rules prohibiting illicit sexual unions, polygamy, adultery, prostitution, concubinage, premarital sex, and non-marital cohabitation. But Calvin also set out new teachings on the proper treatment of religious differences between spouses, sexual dysfunction, post-menopausal sex, and the right to separate and divorce for adultery or family desertion. These new grounds for old teachings and new teachings from old grounds were applied not only in formal theological tracts but also in the many statutes and cases that Calvin shaped for sixteenth-century Geneva. This chapter, introducing a multi-volume series on sex, marriage and family life in early modern Geneva, reveals the debt Western theology, jurisprudence, and political theory owes to Calvin.

The phenomenon of closing the red-light district become a huge campaign in few past years, one of the exist red-light district areas was in Sarmi-Madiun. The presence of The Female sex workers (Fsws) can't be separated from the existence of the sexual services need. Finding data on the number of people with HIV/AIDS that continued to increase until 2018 (Zuraya, 2018). It's indicates a rapid transmission of the virus. The information needs about health are an important part of Fsws, because working environment of redlight district for the Fsws have a high risk not only physically but also mentally. Socialization is one of the important things to do to process acquire the knowledge, social skills and value to conform to the norms and roles required for integration into a group or community, so the opportunity to understand the depth of the contents of the conversation with Fsws will be measurable, but these activities it's held on once in a 3 months and the rest of that just giving the contraception. The rest of the socialization for the Fsws was aimed at the group leader to share information with other members of the Fsws every day. 15 women were involved in the vortex of prostitution, some of them were on 35-40 years old which means it's the limit term of the digital immigrant generation. In-Depth Interviews were conducted to 9 informants who are the residents of in Sarmi-Madiun.

Este livro é sobre lutas de movimentos sociais. Sobre como os grupos de pessoas organizadas politicamente têm potencial para mudar não só a ordem social, mas também a ordem institucional, e que tem por base as teorias críticas dos direitos humanos sob uma perspectiva feminista interseccional, o que significa pensar o direito em seu potencial transformador e não se prender à sua função de regulação das relações sociais.
Tenho por foco os movimentos sociais pela despatologização das identidades de pessoas transgêneras e pela regulamentação da prostituição. Além de falar desses movimentos sociais, trago uma diferente proposta de metodologia, baseada nas teorias e práticas feministas interseccionais, que desafiam os princípios modernos de universalidade do sujeito jurídico, de abstração e generalidade do discurso de direitos.
As teorias feministas aqui usadas desafiam até mesmo a essência da “categoria mulher”, apontando que universalizar é gerar exclusão e dominação.
Trata-se de um trabalho que acompanha as propostas de mudança da forma como enxergamos e conhecemos o mundo. Proponho uma epistemologia diferente, uma outra forma de produção de conhecimento que rompa com o formalismo da escrita acadêmica para que as teorias e os conhecimentos (re)produzidos nas universidades sirvam às lutas dos movimentos sociais, à ampliação do conceito de humanidade e emancipação.
Trago como exemplos do potencial transformador dos movimentos sociais os Projetos de Lei João W. Nery (reconhecimento de identidade social) e Gabriela Leite (regulamentação da prostituição), para contribuir em dar visibilidade a essas lutas. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é provocar inquietações que levem ao engajamento em políticas e práticas contra-hegemônicas.

Pode ser adquirido completo em: https://editoramultifoco.com.br/loja/product/potencia-das-ruas/

Este trabalho tem o propósito de discutir analiticamente, com fundamento na Constituição da República e nos demais comandos infralegais, o sistema que rege a atuação dos profissionais do sexo, identificando propostas coerentes ao sistema legal brasileiro com vistas a despertar um entendimento mais moderno do Direito
do Trabalho englobado pelos direitos humanos fundamentais, não só em razão da complexidade do assunto, como também pelo aspecto jurídico de grande referência social do Projeto de Lei “Gabriela Leite”, elaborado por mulheres prostitutas organizadas politicamente, que tem como objetivo legalizar a prostituição e assegurar a efetivação dos direitos fundamentais dos profissionais do sexo. Para que a presente
missão adquira os contornos do possível, far-se-á uma breve digressão a respeito da amplitude da proteção das normas previdenciárias nos dias atuais, bem como os aspectos abordados pelo referido projeto de lei, por meio do método dedutivo, a partir de pesquisas bibliográficas sobre o tema. Descortina-se como finalidade a discussão sobre aspectos previdenciários de uma categoria não abarcada pelo Sistema de Seguridade Social.