Context of Practice: February 2015

Prostitutes are marginal only if society places them on the margin (Karras,1996)
Perpetuating a falsely positive perception of global sex industries, and contend that this constitutes a form of symbolic violence'(Bourdieu,1990)
Prostitution exists today because women are objectified sexually, and because it is considered more permissible for men than for women to have purely sexual experiences.

(ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER, "On Women," Studies in Pessimism)
Nowhere is woman treated according to the merit of her work, but rather as a sex. It is therefore almost inevitable that she should pay for her right to exist, to keep a position in whatever line, with sex favors. Thus it is merely a question of degree whether she sells herself to one man, in or out of marriage, or to many men!... The economic and social inferiority of woman is responsible for prostitution. (BARBARA MEIL HOBSON, Uneasy Virtue)
When prostitution is a crime, the message conveyed is that women who are sexual are “bad,” and therefore legitimate victims of sexual assault. Sex becomes a weapon to be used by men.
(KATE MILLETT, Sexual Politics)

“Two thirds of female prostitutes had experienced client violence.” (Barnard,2012)
The average age of entry into prostitution is 13 years (M.H. Silbert and A.M. Pines, 1982, "Victimization of street prostitutes, Victimology: An International Journal, 7: 122-133) or 14 years (D.Kelly Weisberg, 1985, Children of the Night: A Study of Adolescent Prostitution, Lexington, Mass, Toronto)
90% of prostituted women interviewed by WHISPER had pimps while in prostitution (Evelina Giobbe, 1987, WHISPER Oral History Project, Minneapolis, Minnesota).
Estimates of the prevalence of incest among people in prostitution range from 65% to 90%: The Council for Prostitution Alternatives, Portland, Oregon Annual Report in 1991 stated that: 85% of prostitute/clients reported history of sexual abuse in childhood; 70% reported incest.
A Canadian Report on Prostitution and Pornography concluded that girls and women in prostitution have a mortality rate 40 times higher than the national average. ( Special Committee on Pornography and Prostitution, 1985, Pornography and Prostitution in Canada 350.)

1780 BC - Hammurabi's Code Six of Hammurabi's 282 codes specifically mentioned the rights of a prostitute or child of a prostitute.
1617 - Japan Creates Red-Light Districts
July 29, 1864 - Britain's Contagious Diseases Act

"The 1864 [Contagious Diseases] Act was followed in 1866 by a second Act which made the system permanent, and a third Act in 1869 which extended the system although still confining it to towns of military and navy use."

This legislation allowed the police to arrest prostitutes in ports and army towns and bring them in to have compulsory checks for venereal disease. If the women tested positive they were hospitalized until cured. It was claimed many of the women arrested were not prostitutes resulting in forced medical examinations and hospitalizations. The law was repealed Mar. 26, 1886.
1932 - Japan's "Comfort Women"
1985 - World Whore Congress

"...[T]he International Committee for Prositutes' Rights held its first congress in Amsterdam in 1985." This was the first international meeting of prostitute's rights groups.
Aug. 26, 2013 - Zurich Launches Drive-in "Sex Boxes"