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Abstract
This study analyzes the causality of the social phenomenon of prostitution, showing that its origins are not limited to economic factors.
Keywords : prostitution, causes, motivation, mentality.
JEL Classification : E01, E20, Y90
The economic motivation of prostitution is, generally speaking, one of the most frequent ideas presented when analyzing the causality of this contemporary social phenomenon found in all countries. I personally appreciate that prostitution is determined by 3 factors :
- first, the moral and cultural pattern of the prone person, which is generated, above all, by the cultural, family, and relational environment (see the rare frequency of this practice in the educated, ultra-religious, environments, and in small communities where social control is more intense);
- secondly, the economic motivation required for the practice of this occupation (the sex industry is concentrated in the rich states);
- to a lesser extent, the risks generated by the negative social reaction of communities where the practitioner works, the extent of social control and the tolerance toward such practice of the community members (for example, the social tolerance within numerous communities in Spain or Holland and partially in Germany).
The economic motivation is not the main cause, since prostitution is extremely frequent in developed states such as : the United States, China, Japan, the UK, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Israel etc. But also very frequently, the practitioners originate from the neighboring poor states. Such practitioners tend to a greater extent to develop their activity in states where prostitution pays well, is legal, and eventually not discourages (Germany, UK, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey). I skeptic towards the appreciations that indicate poverty as the essential cause of prostitution.
Practicing prostitution depends on the individual's mentality and morality, while he regulation of such occupation is related to the evolution of mentalities, the social tolerance the pragmatism and targets of the political power. In some states (for instance in Romania, India, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, Kazakhstan, some African and Latin American states), poverty seems nevertheless to be a determining factor.
Even here there is a historic and cultural line that is specific to each people. To a great extent, the social tolerance covers nearly the...