Prostitution in Spain

Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. An oil painting depicting five prostitutes from a brothel in Barcelona.

Prostitution in Spain is not addressed by any specific law, but a number of activities related to it such as pimping are illegal.

Legal status

Prostitution (Prostitución) was decriminalised in 1995. Prostitution itself is not directly addressed in the Criminal Code of Spain, but exploitation such as pimping is illegal. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}

The only article in the Code dealing specifically with adult prostitution is Artícle 188, which bans pimping:^[8]

1. El que determine, empleando violencia, intimidación o engaño, o abusando de una situación de superioridad o de necesidad o vulnerabilidad de la víctima, a persona mayor de edad a ejercer la prostitución o a mantenerse en ella, será castigado con las penas de prisión de dos a cuatro años y multa de 12 a 24 meses. En la misma pena incurrirá el que se lucre explotando la prostitución de otra persona, aun con el consentimiento de la misma''.

Owning an establishment where prostitution takes place is in itself legal, but the owner cannot derive financial gain from the prostitute or hire a person to sell sex because prostitution is not considered a job and thus has no legal recognition.

Local government

Local governments differ in their approaches to both indoor and outdoor prostitution, usually in response to community pressure groups, and based on 'public safety'. ^[9] Most places do not regulate prostitution, but the government of Catalonia offers licenses for persons "to gather people to practice prostitution". ^[10] These licenses are used by brothel owners to open 'clubs', where prostitution takes place (the women are theoretically only 'gathered' to work on the premises not employed by the owner). Some places have implemented fines for street prostitution. ^{[11] [12]}

Politics

History

Prostitution was tolerated in Spain throughout the mediaeval period, until the 17th century and the reign of Phillip IV (1621–65) whose 1623 decree closed the mancebías (brothels) forcing the women out into the street, a very unpopular decision, but one that remained in place till the 19th century. In the reign of Isabel II (1843–1868) regulation was introduced, firstly in cities, the Disposiciones de Zaragoza (1845) and the Reglamento para la represión de los excesos de la prostitución en Madrid (1847), followed by the 1848 Penal Code. (Guerena 2003, 2008)

In 1935 during the Second Republic (1931-6) prostitution was prohibited. Once the Dictatorship (1939–75) was established, this law was repealed (1941). Spain became officially abolitionist on 18 June 1962, when the 1949 United Nations (UN) Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others was ratified by Spain, and the Decree 168 of 24 January 1963 modified the Penal Code (Código Penal) according to the Convention. In theory, this policy, in accordance with the Convention, regarded sex workers (trabajadores sexuales) as victims of sexual exploitation and advocated punishment of their exploiters rather than the workers themselves, and refused to distinguish between voluntary and coerced sex work. ^[13] However, there were inconsistencies, as the prostitutes were in fact treated more like criminals: under Act 16/1970 of 4 August on social menace and rehabilitation (Ley de peligrosidad y rehabilitación social) prostitutes were declared amongst those classes categorized as social evils, and could be confined to special centres or forbidden to live in specified areas. In practice however, prostitution was quietly ignored and tolerated.^[14]

Although democracy was restored in 1975, it was not till the Penal Code revisions of 1995^[15] that this policy was revisited, and most laws regarding prostitution were repealed, with the exception of those governing minors and those with mental health problems. This included the Act 16/1970. Further revisions in 1999 addressed trafficking, as did the 2000 Immigration Act which followed other European precedents by offering asylum to trafficked victims if they collaborated (Valiente 2003).

In 2012, at Santa Cruz de Tenerife 91% female prostitution and 9% transsexual prostitution^[16]

Public opinion

Opinion remains deeply divided in Spain over prostitution, and law reform has been in a political impasse for a long time. ^[17] Consequently it remains in rather a grey zone of unregulated but tolerated semi-legality. The standard debates exist as to whether it is work like any other work, or exploitation of women as espoused by groups like Malostratos. ^[18] Meanwhile it thrives, and has prompted headlines such as El nuevo burdel de Europa (The New Brothel of Europe). ^{[19] [20]}

Public policy

The key instruments in order of importance are the Penal Code (Código penal) (1822-) ^[21] and the Immigration or Aliens Act (Ley de Extranjería de España) 2000. ^[22]

Plans:

• Plan Municipal de Intervención ante la Prostitución en el municipio 2011-2014, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Migrant workers

According to a 2009 TAMPEP study, 90% of sex workers are migrants. Of all countries studied, only Italy had proportion of migrant workers at comparable level. ^{[9] [23]} About 80% of these were Latin American (mainly from Ecuador, Colombia and the Dominican Republic) ^{[24] [25]} However, the situation is changing rapidly owing to the arrival of Central European migrants (mainly Romania and Bulgaria) who now make up 25% compared to 50% from Latin America, under the context of Immigration to Spain. (There is also considerable cross-border traffic between Spain and Portugal and France. Equally, some 80% of Spanish national workers work outside Spain, mainly from economic necessity. ^[9])

As in other countries in Western Europe, there is concern over the presence of migrant workers on the streets and claims that many of them were coerced. In 2008 the Spanish Government announced plans to aid women who had been trafficked.^[26]

There are organisations working with migrant women, including Proyecto Esperanza^[27] and shelters such as IPSSE (Instituto para la Promoción de Servicios Especializados).

From 2012 to September 2013, 544 prostitutes were identified in 138 inspections in brothels of Asian prostitutes in Barcelona.^[28]

On 30 November, 2012, a woman from Paraguay, 34 years old, was arrested in Cuenca, when she was working in a brothel with her daughter.

Advocacy

Organisations working with sex workers in Spain include APRAMP (Associacion para la Prevención, Reinserción y Atención de la Mujer Prostituida) ^[29] while sex workers' rights organisations include Hetaira (Madrid), ^[30] as well as regional organisations such as SICAR Asturias, ^[31] AMTTTSE (Asociación de Mujeres, Transexuales y Travestis como Trabajadoras Sexuales en España, Málaga) and CATS (Comité de Apoyo a las Trabajadoras del Sexo, Murcia).

Spanish sex workers continue to be concerned about their lack of protection and in July 2011 petitioned the Minister of Health (Leire Pajín). ^[32] A demonstration is planned for November 6, 2011 in Madrid, and a communique has been released setting out sex workers' complaints and demands. ^[33]

Social history

Prostitution in Spain was highly sectored, with at one end the damas cortesanas of high society, ^[34] and the mistresses of the bourgeoisie and barraganas, the concubines of the clergy. (Harrison)

Sex work in Spanish culture

La Maja Desnuda c. 1800, oil on canvas, 98 * 191 cm (38.58 * 75.2 in), Prado, Madrid

Goya (1746–1828) frequently commented on the place of prostitution in Spanish high society ^[35] such as satirising the church's involvement in the trade, for profit. Best known though are his controversial Majas. ^[36] Other examples are Murillo's Four Figures on a Step and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (illustrated).

In literature, Cervantes discusses prostitution in Don Quixote,^[37] and the subject is found throughout 19th and 20th century Spanish literature.^[38]

Sex work celebrities in Spain

La señora Rius (see photograph) is a Barcelona celebrity and Madam who told her story in Julián Peiró's La Sra. Rius, de moral distraída (Comanegra, Barcelona 2008). ^[39]

See also

• List of Spain-related topics
• State feminism

References

Other sources

• Rosemary Barbaret: Victimología y Prostitución UCLM 1995
• Celia Valente: The politics of prostitution: The Women's Movement, State Feminism and Parliamentary Debates in Post-Authoritarian Spain. Queen's University Belfast 2003
• Gemma Nicolás: Planteamientos feministas en torno al trabajo sexual (Jornades Drets Socials i Dones en la Globalització: per una nova ciutadania. Barcelona 2005)
• Rut González: Quality of life and interpersonal needs in prostitution. Sexologia Integral 2006
• A Hart. Buying and Selling Power: Anthropological Reflections on Prostitution in Spain (1998) Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press
• GUEREÑA, Jean-Louis. La prostitución en la España contemporánea. Madrid: Marcial Pons, Ediciones de Historia. SA, 2003, reviewed by Rafael Alcaide González in REVISTA BIBLIOGRÁFICA DE GEOGRAFÍA Y CIENCIAS SOCIALES (Serie documental de Geo Crítica)Vol. IX, nº 508, 5 de mayo de 2004
• Neira, Montse. Una mala mujer: La prostitución al descubierto. Plataforma Editorial SL, Barcelona 2012 144pp. ISBN 978-84-15-11571-7

History

• Lanz, Eukene Lacarra (2002). "Legal and Clandestine Prostitution in Medieval Spain". Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 79: 265–85. doi:10.3828/bhs.79.3.1. 
• ME Perry. Magdalens and Jezebels in counter-reformation Spain, in Culture and control in counter-reformation Spain, Anne J. Cruz (ed.) U of Minnesota Press, 1992, p. 124ff
• Guereña, JL (1998). "Physicians and prostitution: a project to regulate prostitution in 1809: the 'Exposition' of Antonio Cibat (1771-1811)". Medicina e historia (71): 5–28. PMID 11636945. 
• Guereña, JL (1995). "The origins of the regulation of prostitution in contemporary Spain from Cabarrús's proposal (1792) to the Madrid Regulations (1847)". Dynamis (Granada, Spain) 15: 401–41. PMID 11624755. 
• Guereña, Jean-Louis (2008). "Prostitution and the Origins of the Governmental Regulatory System in Nineteenth-Century Spain: The Plans of the Trienio Liberal, 1820–1823". Journal of the History of Sexuality 17 (2): 216–34. doi:10.1353/sex.0.0000. PMID 19260164. 
• Guereña, JL (1997). "Prostitution, the state, and society in Spain. The regulation of prostitution under the monarchy of Isabel II (1854-1868)". Asclepio 49 (2): 101–32. PMID 11636886. 
• Safont, Eva Canaleta; Móra, Joana Maria Pujades (2008). "Medical discourse and municipal policy on prostitution: Palma 1862–1900" (PDF). Dynamis 28: 275–99. PMID 19230342. 
• Harrison, Nikki (2008). "Nuns and Prostitutes in Enlightenment Spain". Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 9: 53–60. doi:10.1111/j.1754-0208.1986.tb00121.x. 

Legal

• Institute of Advanced legal Studies: Spain

Literature

• Carmen Y. Hsu. Courtesans in the Literature of Spanish Golden Age (Kassel: Reichenberger, 2002)

Migration

• L Oso. The new migratory space in Southern Europe: the case of Colombian sex workers in Spain, in Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries: Gender on the move, Umut Erel, Kyoko Shinozaki (eds.) VS Verlag, 2003, p. 207ff
• Oso Casas, Laura (2010). "Money, Sex, Love and the Family: Economic and Affective Strategies of Latin American Sex Workers in Spain". Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36: 47–65. doi:10.1080/13691830903250899. 

External links

• Prostitución: una visión (sub)-objetiva, compleja y global
• Colectivo Hetaira