Prostitution

Prostitution

The term prostitution refers to the act of having sexual intercourse, or performing other sexual acts, for other motivations than the biological sexual drives (being lust and/or love), this without being physically forced to perform such acts. This excludes any form of rape from the definition. A prostitute can be motivated in many ways, the most common of which is financial compensation (University of Texas). Most prostitutes are women who offer their services to men, although there are male prostitutes as well. Organizers of prostitution are typically known as pimps (if male), madams (if female).

Prostitution is often described as "the world's oldest profession" (gURL). It has been thought prostitution cannot have emerged before money. However, prostitution in exchange for goods or services could have been going on for thousands of years and could date to early man. Additionally, prostitution has been noted in a few species of Animals such as types of monkeys and penguins. Until the age of industrialization the world was basically agrarian, so goods and services were almost always obtained by barter (Wikipedia).

In the 19th century, legalized prostitution became a public controversy. Originally, prostitution was mostly legal in the U.S.A. Prostitution was made illegal in almost all states between 1910 and 1915 largely influenced by the Women's Christian Temperance Union. This was also a major force in the banning of drugs and in the prohibition of alcohol (Wikipedia). In 1917 the legally defined prostitution district of Storyville in New Orleans was closed down by the Federal government over objections by locals. Prostitution was still legal in Alaska until 1953 (though still not a US state), and is still legal today in some counties of Nevada (gURL).

In the 1970s some religious groups were found to be practicing religious prostitution. In the late 1980s, a lot of states raised the penalties for prostitution in cases where the prostitute is knowingly HIV-positive. These laws, were known as felony prostitution laws and required anyone arrested for prostitution to be tested for HIV, and if the test comes back positive, the suspect is then informed that any arrests in the future for prostitution will be a felony instead of a misdemeanor. Penalties for felony prostitution