Prostitution

Prostitution is the exchange of sexual services for payment or other material benefit. It takes different forms and is treated differently across legal systems and societies.

Sex work: A broad term for consensual adult work involving sexual services or performances. This broader framing emphasizes labor and agency, while prostitution names a specific exchange.
Street prostitution: Prostitution arranged through public solicitation in streets or other outdoor locations. This visible form differs from indoor arrangements in exposure, safety, and policing.
Sacred prostitution: A disputed historical category alleging sexual services performed as part of religious rites. Ancient claims of ritual sex show how historians have debated prostitution's religious past.
Legalization of prostitution: A policy approach that permits prostitution under a defined regulatory framework. Licensing and regulation are common proposals for governing commercial sex.
Nordic model of prostitution: A policy approach that criminalizes purchasing sex and third-party exploitation while decriminalizing sellers. Its effects on safety and market conditions remain central to policy disputes.
Human trafficking: The recruitment or movement of people through coercion, fraud, or abuse of vulnerability for exploitation. Trafficking involves exploitation and coercion; prostitution can also involve consensual adult arrangements.
Indoor prostitution: Prostitution conducted in private or commercial indoor settings, including homes and brothels. Indoor settings change how clients are found and how work is monitored.
Courtesan: A socially prominent companion, often supported by wealthy patrons and sometimes providing sexual services. Courtesans illustrate forms of compensated intimacy distinct from street-based prostitution.
Decriminalization of sex work: The removal of criminal penalties for consensual adult sex work, while retaining general labor and safety laws. It contrasts with systems that permit sex work only under special licensing rules.
Prostitution and human trafficking: The contested relationship between consensual commercial sex and trafficking for sexual exploitation. Researchers and policymakers dispute how strongly the two phenomena overlap.

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