Prostitution in Italy (), defined as the exchange of sexual acts for money, is legal, although organized prostitution, whether indoors in brothels or controlled by third parties, is prohibited. Brothels were banned in 1958. A euphemism often used to refer to street prostitutes in Italy is Lucciole (lit. "fireflies"), while escorts are referred to as Squillo (onomatopoeia referring to the sound of a ringing telephone, making it analogous to "call girl").
History
Prostitution thrived in Italy in the Middle Ages. The city of Venice declared in 1358 that brothels were indispensable, and courtesans achieved high social status in Venice, particularly in the 17th century.Leggi e Memorie Venete sulla Prostituzione. Lorenji, Venice 1872
Regolamentazione The Regolamentazione, or the regulation system of prostitution, was established in 1861, with Italian unification, modeled on the French Napoleonic system of Réglementation and the Bureau des Moeurs (a government office tasked with regulating vice, which included officially registering prostitutes). An 1859 decree, by Count Camillo Benso di Cavour to aid the French army which supported the Piedmontese in their fight against Austria, authorized the opening of houses controlled by the state for the exercise of prostitution in Lombardy. On 15 February 1860, the decree was signed into law (referred to as Legge Cavour) with the enactment of the "Regulations of the Security Service on Prostitution".
A further law (Legge Crispi), adopted on 29 March 1888, prohibited the selling of food and drinks, and parties, dances, and songs in brothels, and banned such establishments near places of worship, schools, and kindergartens. It also provided that the shutters should always remain closed, which is the origin of the Italian expression "closed houses" (case chiuse). A further amendment was the Legge Nicotera of 1891. Under this system, prostitution in Italy was fully legal in private houses. A system of sifilicomi (hospitals for people/women in prostitution) was also set up, under the belief that they were the main sources of spreading venereal diseases. Although prostitutes found this regulated system oppressive, they developed ways to resist it. During the Fascist rule (1922–1943), more restrictive measures were gradually introduced in 1923, 1933, and 1940. Overall, the system was considered a failure, and as in other European countries with Réglementation, movement for its abolition started to grow from the late 19th century, supported by leftist and feminist groups. This abolitionism of the time is often considered confusing, since it has been applied to both the abolition of regulations restricting prostitution and the abolition of prostitution itself. However, these forces led to the introduction of a new system in Italy that abolished regulation, but not prostitution as such.
Legge Merlin (1958) The Legge Merlin (L75/1958) (the Merlin Law, named after its main author, the Socialist Party member of parliament Lina Merlin), came into power on 20 September 1958. This law, still in force today, with very little changes, revoked the regulation system, banned brothels, and established a new criminal offence called "exploitation of prostitution" (sfruttamento della prostituzione), with the aim to punish procuring of sexual services. Specifically, article 3.8 provides penalties for "any person who, in any way, promotes or exploits the prostitution of others" (chiunque in qualsiasi modo favorisca o sfrutti la prostituzione altrui). Article 3.3 lists a number of public places where prostitution is prohibited, such as houses, hotels, dance halls, and entertainment clubs. Article 5 prohibits solicitation (libertinaggio) "in a public place, or place open to the public, or soliciting in a scandolous or disturbing manner, or follows a person and invites them by acts or words". Article 7 prohibited registration and mandatory health checks for prostitutes.3.3 chiunque, essendo proprietario, gerente o preposto a un albergo, casa mobiliata, pensione, spaccio di bevande, circolo, locale da ballo, o luogo di spettacolo, o loro annessi e dipendenze o qualunque locale aperto al pubblico od utilizzato dal pubblico, vi tollera abitualmente la presenza di una o più persone che, all'interno del locale stesso, si dànno alla prostituzione (hotel, mobile home, retirement, canteen, club, meeting rooms dance, or place of entertainment)
Theory The Merlin Law follows the standard abolitionist (abolishing regulation) view of prostitution control policy, prohibiting trafficking, exploitation, and aiding and abetting of prostitution. What remained legal was street prostitution, or independent prostitution done by a prostitute in their own home. The law was promoted as an equality measure liberating women, but despite its good intentions to give more rights to prostitutes otherwise dependent on pimps, it was, and still remains to this day, a subject of intense debate. Among other points, the text of the law specifically refers to women (donne).
Result The effect of the law was to push women out into the streets, which made them more visible, and into private homes.Houses of prostitution closed 50 years ago under" , Merlin Law. Newsahead 20 September 2008 The law remained a subject of intense debate, with its defence being seen as a feminist issue, as some Marxists and most Catholics support it. The Christian Democrats repeatedly sought the repeal of the law since 1973, and they were joined in 1998 by the Democrats of the Left. Repeal of the law would have re-opened brothels. At the same time, conservative women's groups such as Federcasalinghe pushed for more regulation, including as health checks, but these propositions were opposed by feminists. However, surveys consistently suggest that there is considerable public support for re-opening the case chiuse.
Following the founding of the Comitato (see Advocacy, below), attempts to change the law continued, with 22 bills introduced in the 1996-2001 legislative assembly.
Growing concerns over street prostitution and migration
Migration Prostitution in Italy became much more visible in the early 1990s with the increase of migration from Western Africa which had begun in the 1970s. The dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Yugoslav Wars, and new immigration policies (such as Legge Martelli of 1990) contributed to a rapid influx of people in prostitution in 1989-1990 originating from former Soviet bloc countries. A second wave of immigrant people/women in prostitution from Nigeria and Peru, arriving to Italy using tourist visas and staying in the country after they had expired (the so-called clandestini) ensued, followed by a third wave from Albania in 1993–1994. The fourth wave in 1995 also came from Nigeria and Albania, while in 1996–1998, even more migrants came from Moldova, Lithuania, and Albania. Italian immigration laws became much more restrictive in 1998, with the enactment of the Legge Turco-Napolitano (40/98).
Among these migrants were women who took up prostitution with varying degrees of voluntarity, with some suffering coercion and debt bondage (human trafficking), including under-aged girls. These issues of foreign nationals, coerced prostitution, and under-aged prostitutes have re-shaped the prostitution debate in Italy, as elsewhere around Europe, in recent years. Descriptions of the conditions of migrant women, particularly young women, on the streets, shifted the debate in the 1990s from the Comitato'''s perception of prostitutes as independent and assertive women to that of victims of male violence. One response of the local authorities in dealing with the problem was rescinding residence permits issued to foreign women found in the streets, and increased deportations of the clandestini.
Street prostitution With migration, street prostitution became more visible, the prostitutes being considered to now be mainly foreigners. In turn, this created another force driving public attitudes, which were community groups from urban neighbourhoods where street prostitution was most visible, particularly since the mid-1990s.Leonini L.(ed) Sesso in acquisto. Una ricerca sui clienti della prostituzione. Edizioni Unicopli, Milano 1999. Municipalities have also tried to police people in prostitution themselves since 1994, which included targeting prostitution clients by sending notices to their home addresses and confiscating their vehicles, although outright charging clients with aiding and abetting was blocked by a tribunal in Perugia in September 2000."'Name and shame' to combat prostitution" Italy, 29 May 2008Tribunal of Perugia, 2 September 2000 Continuing police activity became a national focus following the suicide of a client that year.Mafai M. Riaprite quelle case. La Republica, 15 September 2000
Another initiative was to create tolerance zones, such as in Mestre, the mainland of Venice, in 1995.Signorelli A, Treppete M. Services in the window: a manual for intervention in the world of migrant prostitution. Asterios, Trieste 2001 A more tolerant approach has emerged from local authorities, based on the principle of "harm reduction" ("riduzione del danno").
Some municipal authorities have created confusion by erecting signs drawing attention to prostitution occurring in the neighbourhood.
Dealing with immigration Originally proposed by international agencies, and approved by the European Union in 1996, the cause of protecting migrant prostitutes was taken up in Italy by Maria Paola Colombo Svevo (PPI), President of Irene, an NGO, and by other Catholic and lay NGOs such as Caritas.
While it was always possible to request a residency permit on humanitarian grounds, this was not well known or utilized by foreign people in prostitution. In 1996, Livia Turco, the Minister of Social Affairs, introduced the first "Justice Permit" for trafficking victims who renounced their traffickers, as part of the Prime Minister Lamberto Dini's immigration decree. However, Catholic organizations opposed the denunciation clause. The political initiative to address the situation of women migrants came from Anna Finocchiaro (Democratic Party), the Minister of Equal Opportunities. Giorgio Napolitano (Democrats of the Left), the Interior Minister, announced new measures in 1997 to deal with prostitution as an issue of urban safety, and there was little debate over his proposals, given widespread concerns over human trafficking. The main opposing viewpoint was that residence permits should be granted only on the condition of victims denouncing traffickers.Finocchiaro A. Prefazione, in Carchedi 2000 What debate there was, was essentially confined to the position of women. The resulting legislation was the Legge Turco-Napolitano of 1998 (40/98). The position of the relatively weak and scattered women's movement was that victims should not be further victimized by having them expelled to their home country, or by putting them in a possibly life-threatening situation.
Measures adopted by the law included increased penalties for recruiting and trafficking, and allowing victims of trafficking to stay in the country under a "protection permit". The law envisioned that these permits would be administered by local police chiefs (questori) on humanitarian grounds, but this concerned NGOs because of the complexity of the procedures involved and the potential for abuse. The law also required the victim to enroll in training courses organized and by approved NGOs. The law also allocated funds for associations assisting these victims, but did require them to exit prostitution, although they were supposed to denounce it. The requirement for denunciation in the original Dini decree was removed. In advocating this, Turco was influenced by the Commission for Equal Opportunities, whose first president, Elena Marinucci (PSI), had embraced the aims of the Comitato and attempted to legislate this in 1987.