Prostitution in the Netherlands
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Prostitution in the Netherlands is legal. However, prostitutes must be at least 18, while for non-commercial sex the age of consent is 16. Clients must be at least 16. Violation of either age limit is a crime for the other party, and possibly for a pimp. Prostitutes pay taxes and are otherwise treated like any other self-employed tradesperson. Advertising their services is likewise tolerated. The women are usually self-employed, though not always. Health and social services are readily available, but the women are not required to undergo regular health checks. A recent study found that despite health rules, about 7 percent of Dutch prostitutes have HIV/AIDS. [link]
Current situation
Prostitution has long been tolerated in the Netherlands under the gedoogbeleid (policy of tolerance) with the reasoning that the worlds 'oldest profession' has proven impossible to ban by any government. Indeed in where it is banned it is usually the prostitute who is the victim and, as the easiest target the one who suffers criminal prosecution instead of the client or pimp. In an effort to stop the exploitation of sex workers, prostitution in brothels was legalised in the Netherlands in October 2000. This also gave the government the opportunity to tax prostitution and for prostitutes to pay social security and receive benefits and pensions. By legitimising prostitutes as workers, it is viewed that this will help remove control from the criminal element and make it easier to clamp down on exploitation.
Window prostitution is the most visible form, though only takes up about 20% of the entire sex industry in the Netherlands. Windows are rented for 8 hour shifts for some 60-150 euro (depending on the time and place), which includes closed-circuit security. Fifteen to twenty minutes of sex cost about 40 to 50 euro (though prices can go both higher and lower according to the service). Despite the legalization, some of the working women are still illegal immigrants. These prostitutes cannot work in the windows, since a European Union passport is required to rent one.
Some municipalities in the Netherlands would like a "zero-tolerance policy" for brothels on moral grounds, but by law this is not possible. However, regulations, including restrictions in number and location, are common. Whether a zero-tolerance policy on urban planning grounds is allowed is still unclear.
There are twelve red-light districts with window prostitution in the Netherlands. A thirteenth (Spijkerkwartier in Arnhem) was closed down in 2005.
The largest and best-known is De Wallen in Amsterdam, also known as Walletjes or Rosse Buurt.
Not to be outdone, Utrecht also boasts an impressive red light district, centered around the area north of the famous Rode Brug (red bridge), containing more than one hundred canal boats and also a smaller city center street called Hardebollenstraat.
An article in Le Monde in 1997 found that 80% of prostitutes in the Netherlands were foreigners and 70% had no immigration papers, suggesting that at least some were victims of sex trafficking, forced prostitution. [link] [link] The Netherlands is one of a number of destination countries in Europe for trafficked women (many of whom are led to believe by organised criminals that they are being offered work in hotels or restaurants or in child care and are forced into prostitution with the threat or actual use of violence).
In an effort to crack down on forced prostitution, a campaign [link] was launched in 2005 in magazines through posters put up around the red-light districts encouraging clients to report signs of coercion. The poster has an eyecatching silhouette of a spikehealed prostitute with long hair leaning back but on closer inspection another picture reveals a gun being held to the female's head. The caption reads "Have you seen the signals? Fear, bruises, no 'pleasure' in the job." It then goes on to offer a phone number which clients can call anonymously.
In 2004 the Norwegian government published a report comparing two opposite choices in dealing with prostitution, the Dutch one and the (prohibitionist and criminalizing) Swedish choice. It turned out that, although there are still some unsatisfactory issues, the Dutch approach seems to be much more effective than the Swedish one in ruling prostitution and fighting crime. An English abbreviated version can be found at: [link] .
Prostitution population
A study by the Dutch Ministery of Foreign Affairs in 2000 estimated that there are a total of between 20.000 and 25.000 prostitutes in the Netherlands on a yearly basis. Approximately 32% are Dutch, 22% are Latin American, 19% are Eastern European, 13% are African (south of the Sahara), 6% come from other countries from the European Union (aside from the Netherlands), 5% come from Northern Africa and 3% are Asian. Approximately 5% of the prostitutes are male, and another 5% are transsexual. However with new legislation from 2001 that prohibits migrants from outside the European Union to work legaly, demographics most likely has shifted.
Prostitutes in the Netherlands work in several types of prostitution. The most common form is in sex clubs and private houses. Approximately 45% of the prostitutes work in this type of prostitution.(Private houses are brothels where prostitutes are directly introduced to the clients in a separate room, there is no bar and the client is not confronted with other clients). Approximately 20% works in window prostitution, 15% in the escort, 5% on the streets and 5% in their own homes. An estimated 10% works in other types of prostitutes, like massage parlours, sexshops, sex theaters and bars. (Numbers based on estimates in 1998-1999[link])
Human trafficking in the Netherlands
The Netherlands is a primary country of destination for victims of human trafficking. Estimates of the number of victims vary from 1000 to 7000 on a yearly basis.[link]The victims mainly originate from the Netherlands, Africa and Eastern Europe, particularly from the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. Most police investigations on human trafficking concern legal sex businesses. All sectors of prostitution are well represented in these investigations, but particularly the window brothels are overrepresented.[link][link]
History
During the middle ages prostitution was not prohibited. The attitude of the worldly and religious authorities towards prostitution was pragmatic. Many cities tolerated prostitution to protect chaste female citizens from rape and defilement. There were however a number of conditions imposed on prostitutes and their clients. Prostitutes were not allowed to be married. And married and Jewish men were prohibited from visiting prostitutes.
Prostitution was a dishonorable profession, however. This meant that they were not supposed to conform to sexual rules, but also that the law did not need to take them into account. The concept of “honor” was very important in early modern Dutch society. Honor had a social meaning, it said something about having a good name, but it also had legal aspects, honorable persons had more rights than dishonorable persons. Until the late sixteen century honor - aside from citizenship - was the most important criterion for the stratification of society.
Despite the fact that prostitution was seen as indispensable, city governments tried to separate the “dishonorable” prostitution from the honorable world. Until the fifteenth century Dutch cities tried to keep prostitution outside of the city walls. Later on, city governments tried to reserve certain areas of the city for prostitution. Prostitution businesses were driven to streets and alleys near the city walls.
During the sixteenth century attitudes about sexuality changed under the influence of the rising protestantism. Sexual relations were only tolerated within marriage. Church and state were not separated and what was defined by the church as a sin was defined as a crime by the government. Prostitution and procuration were viewed as a sin and therefore prohibited. The city of Amsterdam started to regulate prostitution. It was decided that only the police and the bailiff and his servants could keep a brothel in the Pijl- and Halsteeg (currently the Damstraat). Prostitutes who practized their trade in other parts of the cities where arrested and clients where fined. In this way prostitution was a lucrative trade for the bailiff’s servants as well as the city treasury. In 1578, the city of Amsterdam left the Spanish side during the uprising and converted from Catholicism to Calvinism. The city then stopped regulating prostitution.
The Calvinistic morals were mirrored in the government policies of the seventeenth century. Important goals were suppressing illicit sexual behavior and promoting the Christian lifestyle. Measures were being taken against titillating activities like dancing, fairs and prostitution. This moral didn’t however correspond with the views and customs of the people. During the Golden seventeenth century sexuality was openly displayed in paintings and in literature. The image of the prostitute in literature was very negative. Prostitutes were being portrayed as unreliable, impudent, lazy and often ugly and dirty. In the art of painting the image of the prostitute was more positive. Brothel-scenes were an important subject and prostitutes were painted as beautiful young women. The clients however were portrayed as fools who allowed themselves to be deceived. In both literature and on paintings the madams were portrayed as evil profiteers. The authorities couldn’t uphold the laws against prostitution and tended to leave brothels alone if they didn’t cause nuisance.
During the eighteenth century the moral preached by the church and government became more in line with certain developments within Dutch society. There was a growing middle class which tried to distinguish itself by a strong work ethic working and self-control. By restrained sexual behavior the middle class could separate itself from the 'loose' lower class as well as the indecent nobility. Rich and poor also began to separate geographically. Prior to this period different social classes lived side by side, but now lived in separate neighborhoods. The image of woman also changed. The image of the sexually insatiable woman was replaced by the chaste, sensible and sexually passive guardian of family and morality. The image of lower class women however was still negative. Working women were viewed by middle class men as potential whores.
The working conditions of prostitutes were very poor. There was no proper birth control, condoms were not widely available and there were no effective cures against venereal diseases. Prostitutes often became pregnant and due to the contraction of many venereal diseases they eventually became infertile. This situation only improved during the twentieth century.
There was not much sexual variation which the prostitutes themselves allowed. The only sexual position which was tolerated was the missionary position or standing upright, face to face. Anal sex, kissing and oral sex were strictly taboo.
In the beginning of the nineteenth century the armies of Napoleon started to regulate prostitution in the Netherlands (in 1810) to protect their soldiers against venereal diseases. Prostitutes were forced to register and were subjected to mandatory medical examinations. Registered prostitutes were handed a red card which was a sort of work permit. If they were found to be infected, their red card was taken and they were given a white card instead while they were prohibited from working and were only allowed to work when declared fit. After the French occupation the Dutch government stopped regulating prostitution, but during several decades slowly began to regulate prostitute again in the same style as under the French occupation. Many scientist during the nineteenth century believed that sexual abstinence for men was unhealthy. In their eyes it was unavoidable that a number of women had to sacrifice themselves and spare the rest of the women to prevent destruction of an even more revolting kind. The women who had to sacrifice themselves were supposed to be lower class. Prostitutes themselves however were still despised and portrayed as disgusting creatures. Also lower class people themselves detested prostitutes. Prostitutes stood outside society.
During this period sexual moral became stricter and a counter movement arose against regulating prostitution. In the beginning this movement consisted of wealthy orthodox-protestant Christians but later got support from other movements like Catholics, socialists, feminists and progressive liberals. They attacked the idea that men could not abstain from sex. Clients were viewed as low, dirty lechers, and the clients were not the young unmarried men prostitution was meant for, but were often well-off middle-aged married men. They also attacked the mandatory medical examinations which were deemed degrading and ineffective to stop the spread of venereal diseases. Many also saw prostitution as white slavery. Many prostitutes lived in the brothels and were bound to the madams by debts to pay of expensive working clothes. Prostitutes were often sold among madams, were subjected to fines, could only leave the brothel under supervision and medical expenses were added to their debt. Brothel keepers throughout Europe sold women among each other. The abolitionists (as the opponents of prostitution were called) gained ground and during the last decades of the nineteenth century city governments slowly started to abolish regulated prostitution until finally in 1911 the living on profit of prostitution was prohibited by law. Prostitution itself was not prohibited.
In the first half of the twentieth century sexual moral was still very strict. The prostitute herself was viewed as a victim. The anti-prostitution movements focused on rehabilitating and resettling prostitutes. During the sixties of the twentieth century there was a revolution in thinking about sex and sexuality. Sexual morals became looser and women were thought to have sexual feelings as well. Many people no longer saw prostitution as a sin and many people tolerated prostitution because it was supposed to “always be there” and it would be better if some men visited prostitutes instead of harassing ordinary girls. Feminists were divided about the issue of prostitution. Some feminists saw it as a right for women to work as prostitutes, just as women should be allowed to control their womb. Other feminists couldn’t imagine that women could voluntarily choose prostitution and saw prostitutes as victims of patriarchy, who ought to be saved. The first group gained ground and partly under the influence of pressure groups like the De Graaf Foundation (which previously was abolitionist) and the Red Thread, prostitution became legalized at the turn of the 21st century.
Until the seventies of the twentieth century, prostitutes in the Netherlands were predominantly white lower-class poor women from the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Northern Germany. During the seventies, in the wake of the sex trips to South-East Asia by Dutch men, the sex operators brought in women from Thailand and the Philippines [link]. In the eighties there was a second wave from Latin America and in the nineties, after the fall of the Soviet Union, women came from Eastern Europe. Many foreign prostitutes are very poor, trafficked, and/or under the control of pimps. Also some Dutch prostitutes are trafficked. In 2005 23% of the persons registered at the Dutch foundation against women trafficking was a Dutch citizen. Starting from the nineties most prostitutes in the Netherlands are foreign.
References
- "In het leven - Vier Eeuwen prostitutie in Nederlands" (1997), Marieke van Doorninck, Margot Jongedijk
- "Het Amsterdams hoerdom: prostitutie in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw" (1996), Lotte van der Pol
- [Human trafficking in the Netherlands] Website by the Dutch foundation against women trafficking (in Dutch)
External links
- [the "Prostitution Information Centre" in Amsterdam]
- [press releases of the Dutch Ministry of Justice on prostitution]
- [Trafficking in Human Beings, First report of the Dutch National Rapporteur], [Second report], [Third report], and [Fourth report]
- [Research based on case studies of victims of trafficking in human beings in 3 EU Member States, including The Netherlands.]
- [TAMPEP, Transnational AIDS/STD prevention among migrant prostitutes in Europe, September 2000/February 2002, Final Report]
- [TAMPEP report, June 2002-June 2004, part 1], [part 2]
- [Human trafficking in the Netherlands 1997-2000, in Dutch]
- [Mobiliteit in de Nederlandse prostitutie 1998-1999, in Dutch]
- [Mensenhandel in Nederland 1997-2000, in Dutch]
- [Amsterdam XXX | The Walletjes], a comprehensive guide to Amsterdam that includes prostitution discussion and reviews for the Netherlands
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