Prostitution in Čačak during 20th Century Cover Image

ПРОСТИТУЦИЈА У ЧАЧКУ ТОКОМ XX ВЕКА
Prostitution in Čačak during 20th Century

Author(s): Miloš Timotijević
Subject(s): History
Published by: Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije
Keywords: Prostitution; organized prostitution in Čačak; Brothels; cafés; disease; moral; the collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia; German occupation

Summary/Abstract: Organized prostitution in Čačak appeared in local cafés in late 19th and early 20th centuries. Waitresses were also prostitutes. The town government newer gave permission for a real brothel to be opened although such attempts were not lacking. When prostitution was effectively outlawed by regulations against transmission of venereal diseases in 1930, prostitutes in Čačak were occasionally arrested, forced to undergo medical examinations and expelled from the town. Street prostitution wasn’t rife, but it did exist. The collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and German occupation didn’t oust prostitution from Čačak. The occupying authorities only issued the decree in summer 1941 that girls under 18 be removed from brothels. When the communists briefl y controlled the town during the uprising, they installed prostitutes in hospitals as auxiliary personnel. This was then used by the quisling press to write about „debauchery” of the partisans in Čačak. After 1945 prostitution was offi cially banned, but it survived illegally, in the form of pimping at private homes, and later on in cafés. In early 1970s particularly prostitution of minors was on the rise, whereas customers were „respectable” citizens. At the same time, pornography, being an indirect way of buying female bodies, experienced speedy increase. Prostitutes from abroad came to Čačak in late 20th century, whereas increasing number of local girls evinced open hedonism and sexual relations for material gains, which were in fact prostitution.

  • Issue Year: 2007
  • Issue No: 1-2
  • Page Range: 170-190
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: Serbian
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