Prostituce v českých zemích: od reglementace k abolici (1852 -1922)
Prostitution in the Czech Lands: from regulation to Abolition (1852 - 1922)

Author(s): Milena Lenderová
Subject(s): Gender Studies, History of Law, Recent History (1900 till today), 19th Century
Published by: Historický ústav SAV
Keywords: Czech; prostitution; regulation; abolition; 19th century; 20th century;
Summary/Abstract: Prostitution or according to a modern definition "having sex with another person for money" has existed since the ancient times. From the Middle Ages up until the 20th century, periods when prostitution flourished followed those when it was forbidden and prosecuted. All these restrictive attempts were doomed to failure and authorities were eventually forced to resign themselves to the existence of the phenomenon. Prostitution can be registered (under the control of police and doctors), clandestine, or tolerated without any legal restriction. There are three key aspects: behaviour of a prostitute/male prostitute that is sexually significant for a client and which leads to the satisfaction of the client s sexual desire, money paid by a client and the third aspect is neutral emotional relation between a prostitute/male prostitute and a client. World of prostitution has all the signs of a marginal society and all the attributes of a social subculture. The attitude of the law to prostitution could take three forms: prohibition, regulation and abolition. Prohibition means that the law criminalized prostitution and prosecuted all those who were involved in it. The author analyses ordinances against prostitution and their effects in a historical perspective - from ancient Rome through the Middle Ages up until the Age of the Enlightenment. On the other hand, regulatory or constrictive policy tolerated prostitution as a necessary evil, but tried to regulate it by creating indispensable boundaries, within which prostitution could take place. It was not legal prostitution, but prostitution that authorities had to put up with. Regulation of prostitution involved setting up new specific institutions, curbing it into certain urban parts or areas and most importantly - getting it under regular police control and medical inspection. Prostitutes were registered at the police and were given health certificates or books, where doctors recorded regular medical examinations. In some countries, these regulations were incorporated into the law. The idea of the modern regulation, the French system, was put into practice for the first time in Paris, shortly before the outbreak of the French revolution. By the end of the 19th century, administrative and medical checkups of prostitutes had been established in most of the European countries. Reaction to the state regulation was the abolition movement, which was against the institutional forms of prostitution. It was based on a false premise that the main guard against prostitution is enlightenment, education, moral principles, alleviation of poverty and better conditions for getting married. The movement developed in the sixties of the 19th century in the Protestant circles in England and Switzerland, together with feminism and spread of women's emancipation One of the proponents of the movement in the Czech lands was Tomas Garrigue Masaryk. In 1919, a parliamentary debate on the bill about prostitution provoked a general discussion. It was the advocates of abolition who emerged victorious from the battle against supporters of state regulation. The law No. 241 called O potirani pohlavmch nem oci (On eradication of Venereal diseases) was passed on l l lhjuly in 1922 as the first abolition law in Central Europe. The problems started when the law was put into practice, because prostitution did not diminish, only became less safe. However inadequate and imperfect the previous police and medical control was, it was better than the complete absence of it. The objective of the law was not fulfilled: the number of people infected by venereal diseases did not decrease as expected, but quite the opposite - the number was on the increase. In the present, the growth of prostitution is the refutation of all the abolitionist arguments Existing situation in the Czech Republic attests to it.

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