Approaches to Prostitution and Sex Trafficking

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the historical movements, legislative models, international protocols, and key organizations involved in the governance of prostitution and sex trafficking.

Contagious Diseases Acts (CDAs)

19th-century British legislation (enacted in 1864 and expanded) aimed at regulating prostitution and combating venereal disease through compulsory medical inspection and detention of women, repealed in 1886.

Josephine Butler

Leader of the Ladies National Association (founded in 1869) who campaigned against state regulation of prostitution and led the successful movement to repeal the British Contagious Diseases Acts in 1886.

London Lock Hospital and Asylum

A specialized London institution treating venereal diseases that also maintained a 'Rescue Home' asylum for women wishing to give up prostitution.

White Slavery

A historical term from the late 19th and early 20th centuries used to describe the coercion, kidnapping, and trafficking of women into commercial sex.

Palermo Protocol

A United Nations protocol drafted in the 1990s that established international definitions of trafficking, ruling that consent does not matter for minors but is considered for adults, while allowing individual countries to determine their own national prostitution policies.

Religious / Conservative Approach

A prohibitionist policy stance that views prostitution as a moral evil that directly fuels trafficking, demanding uncompromising law enforcement and criminalizing all parties involved, including buyers, sellers, and third parties.

Public Morality Approach

An abolitionist framework that leaves the buying and selling of sex legal while criminalizing third-party exploitation and public nuisances, such as pimping, brothel-keeping, public soliciting, and kerb-crawling.

Radical Feminist Approach

A neo-abolitionist perspective asserting that prostitution is an inherent form of male violence and patriarchal oppression in which women cannot freely consent, demanding the criminalization of sex buyers while decriminalizing sex sellers.

Sex Purchase Act (1999)

Swedish legislation adopting the neo-abolitionist model by criminalizing the purchase of sex and third-party facilitation while fully decriminalizing the selling of sex and offering state exit services.

Liberal Approach

A regulatory framework accepting prostitution as an inevitable reality and legitimate choice, legalizing sex work under state supervision and labor codes to promote harm reduction, public health, and tax collection.

Lifting the Ban on Brothels (2000)

Dutch legislation implementing the liberal approach by legalizing registered brothels and granting resident adult sex workers labor benefits, union rights, and health insurance, while mandating registration and taxation.

Sex Worker Approach

A human rights framework advocating for the full decriminalization of prostitution, viewing sex work as legitimate labor that should be protected under standard employment laws rather than treated as a crime.

COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics)

A sex worker advocacy organization founded in San Francisco in 1973 by Margo St. James to fight for the rights of sex workers and campaign for the decriminalization of prostitution.

Margo St. James

An activist and former sex worker who founded COYOTE in San Francisco in 1973 to pioneer the modern sex workers' rights and decriminalization movement.

1975 French Prostitute Strike

A milestone collective protest in Lyons, France, where approximately 200 sex workers occupied the Church of Saint-Nizier to protest police harassment, excessive fines, and violence.

International Committee for Prostitutes' Rights (ICPR)

An international coalition founded in Amsterdam in 1985 that drafted the World Charter for Prostitutes' Rights to champion human rights, civil liberties, and the decriminalization of sex work.

World Charter for Prostitutes' Rights (1985)

A declaration published by the ICPR demanding the decriminalization of all aspects of adult prostitution, the extension of standard human and labor rights to sex workers, and the prohibition of forced zoning.

Prostitution Reform Act (2003)

New Zealand legislation that established full decriminalization of prostitution for adults aged 18 and older, guaranteed labor rights, prohibited forced commercial sex, and banned broadcast advertisements.

Kerb-Crawling

The act of driving slowly through public streets in search of sex workers to hire, criminalized under abolitionist and public morality legal regimes.

Turn Off the Red Light

An Irish lobby group campaigning against prostitution and sex trafficking that advocated for Ireland to adopt the Swedish neo-abolitionist model.

Maine Partial Decriminalization Law (2023)

Legislation enacted in 2023 that made Maine the first U.S. state to adopt a neo-abolitionist model, removing criminal penalties for individuals selling sex while keeping buying sex illegal.