Historiography and Sources

Despite its long history, the historiography on Amsterdam prostitution is imbalanced, as is shown by the fact that the Middle Ages and early modern period have been little researched. One history of prostitution in Amsterdam is the well-known book by Lotte van de Pol which gives interesting insights into the role of prostitution in the seventeenth and eighteenth century port economy of the city. However, no recent academic work has focused on the early modern period although various sources exist which could be used to study prostitution in the city in depth. ² Confessie boeken (sentencing records which include the testimonies of parties accused of crimes) and the other judicial archives which were extensively used by van de Pol offer various details about prostitutes’ lives in the port city. These sources can be complemented with a study of the literature of the time. Indeed, both Dutch and international travellers wrote about the harbour district of Amsterdam and complimented (or wrote scathingly about) the entertainments available and the presence of prostitutes on the streets and in public houses. ³ For example, Het Amsterdamsch Hoerdom was published in 1681 and reprinted nine times. Translated into French and German, it was used as a template for London Jilt (1683). These works of fiction followed a literary trend which started at the end of the seventeenth century and exploded in the eighteenth century with a proliferation of novels featuring prostitutes as their main characters, and sometimes the books verged on pornography. ⁴ Though the various adventures of the main protagonists are fictitious, many authors seemed to have relied on their personal experiences when they described the places their characters inhabited, allowing for a more nuanced representation of seventeenth-century music houses and eighteenth-century brothels. Prostitutes and brothel scenes were also often painted by Dutch artists in the seventeenth century, despite the Calvinist influence on artistic creation. Although the representations did not correspond to a realistic depiction of prostitution, elements in the paintings give information about the environment surrounding exchanges with prostitutes. ⁵

The few studies on prostitution in early modern Amsterdam have focused on the representation of prostitutes but the relations between the authorities, inhabitants, and prostitutes have not been studied in depth (with the exception of the work by van de Pol). This lack of a reflection on social control is somewhat counterbalanced by studies on prostitution in nineteenth-century Amsterdam. Indeed the moral and legal status of prostitutes changed after the French invasion of 1806. The French system of municipal regulation was put in place by French officials in garrison towns and to a certain extent also in Amsterdam during the French presence. However, the municipal authorities in Amsterdam were not keen on strictly regulating prostitutes and the French system was quickly abandoned, although other Dutch cities such as The Hague kept it in place. The existing historiography has tended to focus on the relations between the municipality, the police, and prostitutes; indeed, despite the lack of official regulation, the police kept an eye on prostitutes. ⁶ Petra de Vries has published various studies on the discrepancies between legal municipal systems and how they influenced the development of the abolitionist movement in the Netherlands. De Vries’ works also show how concerns about the white slave trade (linked with the abolitionist movement) led to the closure of Amsterdam’s brothels in 1897 and state-wide prohibition on brothel-keeping in 1911. Studies have shown that both officials and the population in general were not in favour of the harsh treatment of prostitutes and the authorities tended to apply the regulations loosely; the closure of brothels (Bordelenverbod) has been seen by historians as a measure to prevent trafficking without criminalizing prostitutes. ⁷ Research on the ban on brothels has shown how men and women adapted to this regulation and how certain places, such as cigar-shops, became façades for brothels. ⁸

Contemporary Amsterdam is a particularly useful ground for anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, and researchers working in the fields of criminology and law. ⁹ Since the early debates in parliament on the legalization of prostitution in the Netherlands, which was officially enacted in 2000, both the national government and the city of Amsterdam have commissioned various research projects about the pros and cons of the legalization of prostitution and brothels from human and economic perspectives. ¹⁰ Contemporary research has often been based on interviews, and photographs, documentaries, films, and biographies have also been used to collect information on prostitution in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Official data has been collected by the city council, the government, and independent researchers, but it is still difficult to analyse and compare certain findings, notably on human trafficking. The number of women trafficked in the Netherlands is not definitively known, but the main issue with studies on trafficking relates to the various definitions and methodologies used to calculate the extent of trafficking; for example, certain studies published before the legalization of prostitution in the Netherlands considered most foreign women as having been trafficked even though they went to the Netherlands willingly. ¹¹ These discrepancies in definitions (trafficking can also involve local women) make it difficult for researchers to give a clear picture of the reality, all the more as the media have been known to relay misleading information. ¹²

Indeed, some researchers have been interested in demystifying certain ideas that the media have reported about human trafficking, coercion in prostitution, and pimping. The Dutch character known as the “loverboy”, for instance, came into being at the beginning of this century as the result of the unease caused by young Dutch girls falling under the “spell” of young men (usually, but not always, a second or third generation child of immigrants) who would then force them into prostitution. However, such so-called “loverboy” practices are not in any way different from other pimping methods, nor have cases of forced prostitution increased over time. ¹³ It should also be noted that researchers’ interviews with prostitutes and pimps have produced results that contradict the aims and missions of municipal projects.

Though contemporary prostitution in Amsterdam is well known, the main subject(s) of research have been the women working behind the windows, which is a specific type of prostitution, as well as women working in registered brothels and adult entertainment venues where live sex acts are performed. These women are part of the legal area of prostitution and therefore are more accessible to the police, social workers, and researchers but unregistered prostitution is the fastest growing type in Amsterdam and research on these women remains difficult. ¹⁴ Through registration with the Chamber of Commerce (Kamer van Koophandel—KvK) women have been granted the status of independent workers and employees, and they are taxed; while women working at licensed houses were compelled to register, a study carried out in 2005 showed that 70 per cent of the women working at licensed houses were not registered with the tax office. ¹⁵ Moreover, these figures do not include women who worked with escort services or from home, as these forms of prostitution were not covered by the lifting of the ban on brothels in 2000. This issue is now covered by new legislation that was enacted in 2014 (see below). Although there are some figures on street prostitutes, women working as escorts and independently outside the red-light areas, as well as former prostitutes, have not been the subject of academic research yet. It is unclear how women working without being registered and registered women working in the windows compare. The links between different working spaces deserve further analysis; ¹⁶ for example, how do women move from one working space to another and how do they think of them? Changing work patterns and environments are most likely a career choice and the extent of prostitutes’ agency in this regard is difficult to evaluate. The most recent report on prostitution in Amsterdam states that social mobility between working spaces can be quite high (for instance between brothel prostitution and window prostitution), but more academic research on this topic would be welcome, ¹⁷ as would work on the issues of segregation by age, gender, and nationality, and further studies on prostitutes’ life-cycles in any given period should be encouraged.

What Defines Prostitution in Amsterdam?

Prostitution has never been a uniform, clearly defined business. Over time its definition has changed, influenced by external and internal factors. Prostitutes themselves differentiate between amateurs and professionals, and historically a hoer (whore) was a woman who had sexual intercourse outside of marriage but not for money. ¹⁸ Fornication and adultery were considered degrading behaviours and as such were frowned upon by the community. The exchange of money was not the main concern of the authorities in the early modern period; however, it is under the terms hoer and hoererij that prostitutes can be found in the Amsterdam archives. Van de Pol noticed a semantic shift in the expressions used by the court and in prostitutes’ testimonies over the years. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, prostitution started to be considered a livelihood distinct from immoral behaviour and adultery. ¹⁹ The uniqueness of Amsterdam in comparison to other cities such as Paris or Florence was its strict Calvinist culture which forbade sexual relations between unmarried people; prostitutes could therefore be arrested for having sexual encounters without being married but the exchange of money was not the decisive factor. As such, we can find them in the judicial archives but as the Amsterdam municipality had a very limited “police force”, restraining the growth of prostitution appears to have been very difficult. ²⁰

The term prostitute will be used in place of “whore” (hoer) and sex worker in this chapter, although all of them can be seen as being anachronistic. The term “prostitute”, which was not in use in official regulations until the nineteenth century, refers to a more neutral term than “whore”, whereas the expression “sex worker” reflects a postmodernist idea of prostitution as a form of labour to which rights and regulations can be applied. Contemporary sex workers, some of whom are union members, demand labour rights and defend their way of earning money. The notion of the “pressure group” is often associated with the expression “sex worker”; they consider themselves, as do the state or state authorities for example in the Netherlands, Germany, and Nevada where prostitution is legal, to be a particular group of workers. Such a characterization in the early modern period was more or less absent. Historically, while some prostitutes defended their right to work, there were no large national or international pressure groups as is the case today. Admittedly, the French system of regulation created a new category of workers based on the authorities’ perceptions of prostitution, but we do not know to what extent this change of attitude also applied to these women; did they consider themselves to be members of one specific group of workers or did they keep defining themselves as seamstress, washerwomen, or milliners? The absence of the proof of a common reference between nineteenth-century prostitutes or of a pressure group led by prostitutes makes “sex worker” look like an anachronism when applied to periods before the end of the twentieth century.

The basic understanding of the prostitutional exchange since the nineteenth century has involved the exchange of money for a sexual act and in this study that is taken up within the scope of such acts between men and women. This demarcation unfortunately leaves aside men and transgender individuals working in the sex industry, as well as the people whose initial work contracts did not include sexual relations with a client, such as strippers and other performers. ²¹ The sexual encounter is often preceded by an act of soliciting by which a person accosts someone in order to offer sexual services. While selling one’s body for sex has never been legally condemned in Amsterdam, soliciting has often been targeted by legislators, notably within the framework of “disorderly behaviour”. This distinction is based on moral considerations; the act of soliciting is understood to be an interaction visible to the public and occurring in the public sphere. The sexual intercourse and the exchange of money that follow soliciting are deemed to be private matters that are usually kept out of the public eye. ²² Because of this distinction, sexual exchanges for money cannot be supervised as effectively as the processes that occur before sexual intercourse and payment.

Definitions of prostitution also vary according to the location of the prostitutes. In contemporary Amsterdam the working spaces of prostitution took and still take multiple forms, from street work to private clubs and homes. The international reputation of Amsterdam for prostitution led to the diversification of entertainment venues open to both tourists and locals. Live sex shows, strip clubs, massage parlours, and theme nights in brothels cater for all types of customers. According to the woman’s status and her labour relations, she is more or less mobile in the city and can use one working space to solicit and another to have sexual intercourse. The working space often defines the type of prostitutional exchange offered, or in other words, the sexual services provided. These range from a hand job to a full night with a “girlfriend experience” which appends emotions to an otherwise impersonal sexual encounter.

Different categories of prostitutes existed in Amsterdam throughout the centuries. Streetwalking has always been considered to be the lowest type of prostitution; these women solicit on the street and either go to a hotel or have sex in the client’s car. In earlier times, they used parks, alleys, and empty buildings, as it may still happen nowadays. There is no fixed time limit but quick sexual encounters mean more clients in one day/night. The prices are lower than in other settings as no rent is involved (less than €50). Streetwalking is forbidden in Amsterdam but it is known that a few women (around 45 women in 2009) still work the streets. ²³ It is not always known if they are independent or working for a pimp. A window prostitute solicits and provides her services in the same working space; that seems to be the most desirable place of work for prostitutes as, once they move from private clubs to window prostitution, they tend to never go back to the brothels. ²⁴ As Sabat explains, window prostitution is “enabled by contemporary economic values that simulate efficiency, productivity and fast consumption”; a “suck and fuck” costs €50 for twenty minutes and is the most common service provided. ²⁵ Some other forms of sexual activities can be bought from window prostitutes for a higher fee but not every woman offers those services; in general, sexual intercourse is performed with a condom. The rent of a window for a day’s work (usually an 8-hour shift) varies from €80 to €150 (2014 prices), depending on the day of the week, the time of the day, and the location of the window. Ashworth et al. have pointed out the similarities between “shoe shopping” and choosing a prostitute; the display and atmosphere surrounding the women improve the customers’ experience and commodify, to the extreme, the bodies of the women (and men) behind these windows. ²⁶ The concept of the window display has been in existence since the late 1950s, a time when brothels were officially banned, although already between the two World Wars prostitutes could be seen loitering near their doors and windows. ²⁷ Since the 1950s, the well-known windows have offered the ambivalence of public and private spheres in Amsterdam. The women are visible to the public whilst being in a private environment. Despite being on display, they remain in control of their interactions with the public and can choose to ignore customers and other pedestrians. The windows can be seen as a dual environment that is both private and public but which remains the prostitute’s own space. Ideally, she has total control over who is allowed to enter her room. Under the terms of the regulation enacted in the year 2000, window prostitutes were required to be registered with the municipality (not the police), but that did not bring pimping to a halt (see below). ²⁸

Women working at brothels tend to solicit in the bar area (if there is one) before moving to a private room with a client or they can be on display in an anteroom for the customer to choose. Brothels or contemporary “private clubs” are defined as establishments where men can meet prostitutes and perform sexual acts, usually in a private room. When a woman works in a totally enclosed environment such as a brothel, she is most likely under the supervision of a third party and therefore compelled to give away some of her wages (to her employer or protector). This also means that she cannot make the working space her own. Early modern taverns, inns, and other non-licensed places referred to as bawdy-houses (and some music houses) served as the precursors of brothels. The meaning of “brothel” became restricted over time; the process of the privatization of prostitution over the centuries meant that brothels came to systematically offer rooms to their customers. Live-in prostitutes were common in the nineteenth century as part of attempts to regulate prostitution and supervise establishments where prostitution occurred, but in the early modern period “fetched whores” counted for a fifth of the arrests in brothels. ²⁹ Nowadays in Amsterdam, brothels are clubs or privéhuis where men can meet prostitutes and have sexual intercourse in one of the rooms of the house. A man, a woman, or a couple can be in charge of the establishment; prostitutes themselves are rarely the owners (except when they own a privéhuis, a house shared with other prostitutes), but they can work as employees or independent workers, in the latter case paying a fee to use the premises. Brothel owners tend to employ women as independent workers in order to avoid paying taxes. Current legislation is meant to give sex workers sufficient autonomy but research has shown that some women often have to surrender much of their independence to the owner; this is particularly the case for non-EU nationals or minors who are working as prostitutes illegally without a work permit. ³⁰ These women are often dependent on their employers as they need protection from the police and the risk of deportation.

In the upper levels of the prostitution hierarchy there are escorts who work independently or are employed by an agency to cater to specific clients. Their work tends to be less regular than women working in the windows and in sex clubs but their wages are often higher; they meet fewer clients than the other prostitutes and offer their company as well as sexual services. Their working spaces vary and they are much more mobile during their shifts than a window prostitute or streetwalker (their services can include accompaniment to a dinner, party, or room). It can be more difficult for them to refuse certain sexual acts and they are often more vulnerable than window prostitutes, as they are working in environments which afford them less social control; in the same way, their mobility within the city can make their encounters with clients unsafe, as they might not be able to choose the meeting place. However, working in the upper hierarchy of prostitution has its advantages in the sense that the women are often less subject to the control and supervision of the authorities and police. In Amsterdam before the legislation enacted in 2014, some escorts working with unregulated agencies or prostitutes based from home worked in a grey area with looser social ties; indeed these women were not working in a regulated environment and therefore had less contact with the authorities. Although they were required to register as independent workers for tax purposes, few of them complied. Independent workers were advised to register with the KvK under the title “prostitute”, “erotic service provider”, or “personal service provider”; since the KvK registers are public, prostitutes were also advised to register under a professional name as their home address was also available to the public. ³¹ Such employees must be registered with the tax office and in this way they can enjoy the same rights as other workers (including retirement pension, sick leave, and unemployment benefits). However, this lack of privacy explains why many single women have worked as independent escorts or worked from home; in that way, they could ensure that their privacy was respected and no trace of their profession was registered in official documents. However, the new legislation promulgated in 2014, the aim of which was to change this situation, stated that these women have to register with the tax bureau. This change in the legislation was meant to cover this area of prostitution which was not regulated and thus leaves women open to certain risks (in terms of dependence on a third party).

Mapping Amsterdam’s Prostitution over the Centuries

The geography of prostitution in Amsterdam is particularly interesting as we can follow, to a certain extent, the spatial development and regression of many districts in relation to prostitutes’ working spaces. Indeed there exists a link between the prostitutional spaces and socio-economic development of the districts, especially before the invention of cars, which led to a dispersion of prostitutes in the urban landscape. In 1925, Burgess et al. defined the specificities of urban spaces where “vice” developed and stated that these were most likely zones of transition where social and economic development came to a halt and a clear decline was experienced both structurally and morally with increasing rates in crime, poverty, degradation, and disease. ³² However, Amsterdam’s areas of prostitution have not experienced the same socio-economic evolution and it appears that the relationship between prostitution and urban space is more complex than a mere correlation between a zone of transition and the development of prostitution. Red-light districts in Amsterdam have not been displaced according to the transitional zone theory. On the contrary, we see in Amsterdam a historical continuity in the use of urban space for purposes related to selling sex; thus, the notion of spaces of transition, though relevant in certain periods, cannot be considered to be a fundamental element of the location of red-light districts in Amsterdam. Prostitution grew in the city centre (from the Middle Ages to today) in the newly built residential district of the Pijp (especially from the end of the nineteenth century onwards), or more recently in 1996 around the new harbour. As will be seen below, many variables need to be taken into account if we want to understand the locations of prostitution. Confinement has never been strongly imposed by the municipality, although the authorities tried to maintain certain boundaries between the districts. However, for these boundaries to be respected prostitutes have to implicitly agree with the municipality’s legislation; indeed from an economic point of view, it is unlikely that women would agree to move if this meant losing customers.

Starting at least in the Middle Ages, prostitutes could be found in the city centre near the port. First, only two streets were allocated to prostitution but the trade quickly expanded at the same pace as the maritime trade and economic development of the city. Catering for mariners was a lucrative affair, so these women remained close to the port in what is now known as the red-light district of De Wallen (including Zeedijk Street, which nowadays is more reputed for its bars and restaurants than for prostitution). But the trade also extended towards the Dam, Rokin, and the Nieuwe Stadhuis in the seventeenth century, and the Kalverstraat, which adjoins the Dam square, became a cruising lane by the twentieth century. Indoor prostitution in the nineteenth century was concentrated in these areas but with the closing of the brothels in 1897, prostitution moved to new districts, as well as to hotels and cover-up businesses. As de Wildt and Arnoldussen explain, spatial dispersal and the use of non-specific premises meant that prostitution blended into the everyday urban landscape. ³³ At the end of the eighteenth century, the newly-built Plantage district saw a rise in outdoor prostitution, whilst the northern part of the Pijp became another red-light district when new social housing was built in the mid-nineteenth century. Rembrandt and Thorbeckeplein could be visited at night although streetwalking had been forbidden starting in 1889. The presence of a park in this district meant that prostitutes could bring their customers there, which was impossible in the old city centre as it was overcrowded and had few quiet dark alleys suitable for sexual intercourse. The geography of prostitution in Amsterdam confirms Symanski’s argument; he showed how the geography of prostitution is based on the proximity of customers (economic opportunities) and the working space available, with disused buildings, parks, and abandoned spaces being particularly attractive for streetwalkers. ³⁴

Despite an increase in car ownership in the 1950s and 60s, streetwalkers did not move outside the city but remained inside the Singels around Leidseplein and Utrechtsestraat and also behind the train station. In the meantime, the relative indifference of the authorities and the local community in the de Wallen and Nieuwmarkt districts meant that prostitution continued to develop in this environment. ³⁵ In an attempt to regulate streetwalking, the Amsterdam municipality opened a tippelzone (streetwalking zone) in 1996 near the new port, in the West-Eilanden district and on Theemsweg, which was reserved for streetwalkers and their clients who picked them up by car. Due to its limited success in terms of control and safety, it was closed in 2003. Street prostitution is officially illegal in Amsterdam although researchers found that in 2007 around fifty women were still practicing streetwalking (this figure dropped to forty-five in 2009). The decrease of streetwalking is linked with the development of the internet and new technologies which make it possible for women to find clients online and get in touch with them in a less visible way. Many of the street prostitutes went to work either in the escort business or worked from home and dispersed around the city. ³⁶

Window prostitution can be found in the de Wallen district in the Pijp (behind the Rijksmuseum) and de Singel (between Raadhuistraat and Centraal Station) whilst brothels are spread all over the city. Each urban space offers specific services and is used in a different manner; the old city centre, close to the train station and constant streams of tourists, promotes window displays and wild, often homosocial entertainment. Though sex workers are spread around the city, the de Wallen district remains the main red-light district and is considered nowadays to be a very safe area: the police patrol the streets on a regular basis and renewed social control has emerged, and it has been nurtured by the sex-workers themselves, the men they employ for their safety, the inhabitants of the district, and the people working in this district but not in sex work (for example at pubs, coffee-shops, and other such establishments). To a certain extent, this form of social control resembles the atmosphere in the 1950s and ‘60s, ³⁷ although the crowds, displays, and working conditions have changed. The most famous brothels which cater for a more distinguished clientele have moved out of the red-light district and can be reached by car or taxi. While streetwalkers and window and brothel prostitutes are linked to specific urban spaces, escorts are more mobile than other sex workers and they have unlimited access to the urban space. The geography of Amsterdam prostitution is therefore defined by three variables: the proximity of customers (or ease of access), the type of customers targeted, and the type of prostitution offered. These elements explain the concentration, or on the contrary the spread, of prostitution in the urban environment and must be taken into account by the authorities when they try to implement new laws targeting the location and development of prostitution.

The Historical Development of Legislation on Prostitution

The growth of Amsterdam in the seventeenth century brought about many economic and social opportunities for city dwellers and migrants, and most likely rates of prostitution increased accordingly. Indeed the urban environment always had a specific allure for migrants because it offered work, opportunities, money, and anonymity. Amsterdam grew steadily from the low Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, and in the first half of the seventeenth century it was considered to be the economic centre of Europe. Maritime traffic brought money to the city and the Dutch East India Company was a constant recruiter of young men for its ships. The territorial and commercial expansion of the Low Countries abroad also led to the expansion of the city; new quays, warehouses, buildings, and canals were built, for which both skilled and unskilled labour were needed. More women were also needed in domestic services such as in the clothing industry but they also worked in food services and as charwomen, as well as in other areas of the informal economy. ³⁸

Favourable economic development encouraged male and female migration from the countryside (usually single young migrants) but that process was not reversed when the economy of the country started to weaken at the end of the seventeenth century. Marked by crises in the textile industry and maritime rivalries with England, the Amsterdam market and international exchange gradually slowed down at the same time as the economic situation in the countryside deteriorated; nonetheless, migration patterns towards urban centres did not follow the same downward trend. ³⁹ Men could still enlist with the Dutch East India Company but for women, their chances of finding work were decreasing and this may well have swelled the ranks of prostitutes. Amsterdam, like many early modern cities, had an unfavourable gender ratio due to the number of men going to sea while women’s migrations ended in the city. It is therefore likely that these socio-economic changes led to an increase in prostitution.

Between 1600 and 2000, the municipality followed a policy of “regulated tolerance”, a term coined by Chrisje Brants. Starting out with a laissez-faire attitude at the end of the Middle Ages, the reformed municipality enacted legislation against prostitution in 1578 which sought to “protect” family honour. However, its impact was limited and despite pressure from the reformed Church to condemn prostitutes, they did not have the financial and administrative means to enforce the law. Except during the time of French control and the period following the closing of the brothels, the city council rarely enforced its own regulations. ⁴⁰ Hubbard and Whowell have noted the importance of legislation in the displacement and re-location of red-light districts in recent history, ⁴¹ but from an historical point of view, this argument has limited relevance as the combined coercive power of the municipality and the police nowadays are not comparable to what authorities could do in the early modern period or even in the nineteenth century. The municipality may have an impact on the locales of prostitution nowadays, as it has sufficient financial means to impose its control, but early municipal authorities never had enough resources to influence the development and distribution of prostitutes around the city. Other forms of social control created at the level of the district by the neighbourhood residents and prostitutes “regulated” where prostitution was practised.

The first real increase in the number of prostitutes getting arrested occurred in 1670, when music halls multiplied and the municipality felt that its international reputation was under threat by the licentiousness that seemed to be common in those establishments. ⁴² However, those efforts were short-lived and after 1710 the municipality decided to focus more on the procuresses and people benefiting from the revenues of prostitution. ⁴³ With the introduction of the French penal code in 1811, only the pimping of minors was criminalized but at the local level the police actively carried out their duties. Starting in 1806, there was an increasing number of French troops in the Netherlands, so the director of the police, Devilliers Duterrage, introduced the French regulatory system to prevent the spread of syphilis, and the registration of prostitutes and medical check-ups were made compulsory. The prostitutes had to be examined by a surgeon and carry a red card which contained their personal details. However, in 1813 the regulation was abandoned in Amsterdam although there was still a drive to find ways to better control prostitutes. ⁴⁴ Officials and the police tacitly agreed that the removal of prostitutes to brothels made it easier for them to keep tabs on the women; to a certain extent, prostitution appeared to be necessary for the city and, more importantly, could not be eradicated. ⁴⁵ While some cities and garrison towns in the Netherlands chose to keep the regulation system, the decision made in Amsterdam to repeal the laws on the regulation of prostitution can be seen as the result of a traditional view of prostitutes and their role in the economy of the city. However, even if the municipal authorities did not impose strict control over prostitutes, the police could arrest and confine prostitutes to a hospital if they appeared to be diseased. ⁴⁶ This form of supervision was implemented in an attempt to reduce the spread of venereal diseases, but by the end of the nineteenth century it became apparent to hygienists and municipal authorities that the system was an overall failure.

The moral panic over the “white slavery” that erupted at the end of the nineteenth century brought a whole new dimension to the issue of controlling prostitutes. ⁴⁷ Josephine Butler and various men’s and women’s associations petitioned governments to end the traffic of (white) women. Drawing upon these fears of white slavery, the Amsterdam municipality followed the advice of the abolitionists and in 1897 the city’s brothels were closed down on the grounds that they encouraged the traffic of women and procuring was heavily punished. The result was that prostitution (prostitutes, pimps, and intermediaries) was driven underground, leading to a new distribution of prostitution in the city. Women started working at cover-up businesses such as massage parlours, cigar stores, and cheap hotels. ⁴⁸ The brothel ban was nationalized in 1911 but prostitution continued unabated and the ban created a grey zone as prostitutes moved to new locations to meet customers and worked in an illegal environment. ⁴⁹ Some women continued to work in the city centre whilst others, possibly under the supervision of ex-brothel owners, moved out to other districts. Prostitution benefitted from a certain degree of indifference on behalf of the municipality after the Second World War, and the 1950s saw an increase in women soliciting from their windows in the de Wallen district. However, the atmosphere of the red-light district started going downhill by the end of the 1970s as organized crime started taking more control of the streets and with the arrival of hard drugs and junkies, some of whom were prostitutes. ⁵⁰ The red-light district became a no-go area and streetwalking increased. ⁵¹ Victims of the aids epidemic and junkie prostitutes became a serious issue for public health. ⁵²

As in many other western cities, the city centre of Amsterdam in the 1980s suffered from pauperization as the middle classes left the decrepit centre for suburban areas. The red-light district, which had previously been inhabited by working class families and was used as a working space for prostitutes in the 1960 and 1970s, gradually fell into disrepute. In parallel with the exodus of families to suburban areas and a decrease of demographic diversity, the level of social control based on neighbourhood ties also declined. The district was gradually taken over by organized crime which invested in the decrepit buildings and turned them into cover-up businesses for prostitution and gambling. Facing such large-scale prostitution and drug crimes, the municipality, in consultation with the police, decided to take action against the illegal business that was carried out in the district. By the mid-1990s, the renewal of licenses for entertainment businesses was restricted and the municipality passed a number of laws which allowed for the repossession of buildings where illegal activities were engaged in, in an attempt to reduce organized crime in the city centre. ⁵³ Similarly, discussions were held to determine how to cut ties between prostitution and organized crime. Since the banning of brothels in 1897, prostitutes had been tolerated as long as they worked “alone” and no procuring was involved. However, pimping and brothels continued to exist and were gradually tolerated by the authorities as well but the police struggled to regulate activities that were officially forbidden. ⁵⁴ The rise of criminality in the 1980s put a strain on the municipality and forced it to revise its position regarding prostitution. By legalizing prostitution and brothels at the end of the 1990s, the city council and the police hoped to supervise the trade and reduce the main-mise of organized crime in the business. The de Wallen district was equipped with cctvs and the police patrolled more often, gradually making the old streets safer for pedestrians and the women working there.

The increase of organized crime and other serious offences in the Netherlands prompted debates in parliament, and the Amsterdam municipality pushed for the legislation to be changed so that the police could take control of the district and reduce the nuisances caused by prostitution and drug markets. One of the first such attempts was the opening of a tippelzone in 1996. The tippelzone offered walled car park spaces and a place for prostitutes to meet and visit social workers and doctors. The municipality wanted to reduce criminal activities in connection with prostitution, in particular streetwalking, such as drug sales, human trafficking, and child abuse. ⁵⁵ The municipality then had to deal with disagreements about how to relocate prostitution; sex workers were not willing to leave the streets and the prostitutes whom the authorities hoped to see relocated in the tippelzone remained in the city centre whilst new prostitutes, often illegal immigrants, came to work in the new official area. ⁵⁶ Registration and the legalization of prostitution in 2000 revealed the extent of illegal prostitution occurring in the tippelzone; the majority of women working in this area were illegal immigrants from outside the eu. Fears of trafficking darkened the image of the tippelzone. While this zoning was meant to improve security for streetwalkers and remove pressure on them from criminal organizations, research showed that improvements in prostitutes’ working conditions had been limited. The failure of this project led to its cessation in 2003.

Official debates and pressure from women’s movements led to the legalization of prostitution at the national level in 2000. Huisman and Kleemans have summarized the assumptions of the parliament that prompted the vote to lift the ban in the following terms: the illegal aspects of prostitution could be reduced if rules were implemented to define what was allowed and the various actors and institutions could become jointly responsible in efforts to improve conditions for prostitution. ⁵⁷ Prostitution was defined as sexual intercourse in exchange for money between two (or more) consenting adults. Brothels were also legalized and women could therefore work legally for an intermediary and be wage earners instead of just self-employed. The legislation also encouraged the registration of prostitutes as a specific type of worker (independent worker or employee) for tax purposes. Members of the eu could work legally as prostitutes, but legalization did not apply to people from outside the eu. The new legislation also granted new rights to prostitutes and instituted new requirements; the windows and rooms in brothels had to be fitted with a minimum of conveniences and a panic button had to be installed. Medical check-ups were encouraged but not compulsory, and free screenings for venereal diseases were offered. In terms of labour rights, women who were registered with the tax office could access social benefits and should, in theory, be entitled to sick leave and unemployment benefits. In practice, researchers showed that the administrative and legal status of prostitutes remained precarious, especially in relation to their employers who often refused to declare them as employees. ⁵⁸ In parallel, the authorities’ requirements concerning the women’s working conditions applied only to window and brothel prostitution (as well as street prostitution before the closing down of the Theemsweg), meaning that much prostitution remained unregulated, such as (some) escort services and home prostitution. Recent figures have shown that these last two forms of prostitution are practised by a third to half of the total number of prostitutes in Amsterdam. ⁵⁹ The lack of control over this type of prostitution led to a revision of the legislation in 2013 and 2014. Along with raising the age of entry into prostitution to 21, the new legislation required that escorts and home-based prostitutes register with the tax office or the KvK to ensure that they have access to social services and give the authorities more control over the women, with the aim of reducing trafficking.

More than a decade after the legalization of prostitution, the authorities managed to come to terms with the failures of some aspects of the legislation. For instance, the working conditions of prostitutes have not improved as expected; pimps are still present in the red-light district and although the women are registered as independent workers, some give a large share of their earnings to pimps. Secondly, as mentioned above, the non-regulated trade encourages the illegal prostitution of minors and illegal immigrants, over which control is relatively hard to impose. Police resources are stretched and although parts of the illegal business were shifted to the unregulated sector, to a certain extent the legalized market remains an informal economy marked by illegal practices. ⁶⁰ Verhoeven and van Gestel’s article on police efforts to gain insights into traffic rings shows that the majority of trafficking cases prosecuted by the police occurred in the regulated branch of prostitution. ⁶¹ Lastly, the discrepancies between the databases and the aims of the police and the KvK/tax office have prevented them from joining forces to fight illegal forms of prostitution.

This short account of the historical changes in Amsterdam’s legislation on prostitution shows how the municipality has tried to impose a certain form of control over prostitutes when their actions or behaviour have had negative effects on the image and reputation of the city. A dialogue was not set up between the prostitutes, municipality, and police, and no single voice stood up for these women prior to the end of the twentieth century. Even the Dutch abolitionist movement remained estranged from the reality of prostitution and what the women really needed and wanted; ⁶² official control was clearly imposed upon them rather than being the product of a consensus between the various actors involved. It was not until the 1970s that sex workers’ unions were created with the aim of working with the authorities to improve the working conditions of prostitutes. In the early 1980s in Amsterdam, the licensing of prostitution was advocated by the de Graaf Foundation to improve sex workers’ working conditions; the idea was well received by the media and the public, and this was followed by parliamentary recommendations. ⁶³ In 1985, the first international meeting of sex workers was held in Amsterdam and this led to the creation of the International Committee for Prostitutes’ Rights (icpr). ⁶⁴ Sex workers, by signing the World Charter for Prostitutes’ Rights, took a public stand to defend their right to work and to receive the same social benefits as other workers; also, they opted for the decriminalization of adult prostitution and encouraged the changing of attitudes towards prostitution in order to lessen the social stigma linked with this form of work. Emphasis was also placed on the freedoms that should be granted to prostitutes so that they can live and work where they wish, and regular dialogues between the authorities, prostitutes, and professionals such as lawyers, doctors, and social workers were encouraged. Nevertheless, the debates between the Amsterdam municipality and prostitutes have not always been successfully resolved and recent policies on the red-light district show a clear negation of sex workers’ voices.

One of the most recent initiatives to control prostitution is called Project 1012. It was launched in 2007 and it aims to gentrify the red-light district; as part of this, the municipality promotes events distinct from sex work such as fashion displays and art exhibitions. ⁶⁵ These events are held in building windows bought by the municipality on nearby streets. The officials’ goal was to close down 40 per cent of the 482 windows open in 2007; currently 290 of them are still open. ⁶⁶ It appears that the municipality has succumbed to the laws of the global market and the need to present to the world “a varied and high quality image for the city approach area”, which happens to be the district close to the station and the city centre. ⁶⁷ This has led to a reappraisal of prostitution’s position in the urban environment and the municipality has started to regard window prostitution as an aesthetic and “moral” issue. Indeed the association between the display of scantily clad women with the global image of the city goes against the municipal promotion of familial tourism. To back up their concerns about the aesthetic display of window prostitutes, officials looked into the extent of the relation between human trafficking and prostitution, and fears of organized crime came flooding back. Recent researchers’ appraisals of the situation tend, however, to highlight the municipality’s debatable assumptions and encourage more in-depth dialogues with the district’s main workers. ⁶⁸ Prostitution is not always linked with criminality, nor does it create a criminogenic environment. This division between prostitution and criminality had already been highlighted by Reckless in 1926 and was stated again by Ashworth et al. in 1988. ⁶⁹ Likewise, a recent study on crime rates in and around the tippelzone when it was still open shows that although fears about criminality rose, criminality itself did not increase; on the contrary, the closure led to an increase of offences in the neighbourhood. ⁷⁰ The art and fashion initiatives were launched to bring a new public to the district and to recreate social diversity, but this process has had a direct impact on prostitutes’ working spaces and conditions; the rents of the windows have increased and it has become more difficult to find available windows. Prostitutes who were not able to meet the new requirements were forced to leave the district and start streetwalking or work from home. By gentrifying the district, the municipality is excluding some of its workers and forcing them to work in a risky environment, a situation that the municipality initially wanted to avoid when they agreed to legalize prostitution. By marginalizing some prostitutes, they are also fuelling the non-regulated market of prostitution, which is, unsurprisingly, the most difficult market to control and the fastest growing sector of prostitution in Amsterdam. ⁷¹ As Deinema explains, Project 1012 affects the visibility of prostitution and attacks its aesthetics but does not have an impact on the excesses of illegal prostitution and human trafficking. ⁷²

Social Profiles of Amsterdam Prostitutes

Single women always represented the majority of prostitutes in Amsterdam but widows and sailors’ wives, more commonly called “grass widows”, must not be forgotten when looking at the early modern period. Prostitution became a part of female economic strategies early on ⁷³ and since two-thirds of the sailors on East Indian Company ships never returned, it can be assumed that many married women suffered from early widowhood. ⁷⁴ Turning to prostitution in the early modern period was often part of poor women’s economy of makeshift. The ease of entering and leaving the sex trade meant that poor women could rely on it when in distress. Indeed women’s access to the labour market in the early modern period in the Netherlands was relatively free compared to other European countries and this facilitated entering and leaving prostitution. Prostitutes came mainly from the poorest classes, as is the case nowadays, and single female migrants in Amsterdam could be in a precarious situation as well-paid jobs were reserved for burghers’ wives and daughters. Entering domestic service was the wisest choice but without letters of recommendation or contacts, it was difficult for women to settle in the city; in addition, wages for prostitution were higher than what could be earned with unqualified jobs, especially for women. When Amsterdam started industrializing in the mid-nineteenth century, the work offered to women remained poorly paid compared to men’s work. Families tended to be more secure financially than single women, as long as both parents were employed, leaving unemployed single women in a precarious situation.

Prostitution was also a last resort job for women left by their husbands or lovers. ⁷⁵ Prostitutes both in the early modern period and nowadays in Amsterdam have tended to come from disrupted family environments marked by the death of one or both parents, violence at home, remarriage, abandonment by the husband, and unwanted pregnancies, and any combination of these can be a trigger to enter prostitution. Van de Pol and Kuipers noted that unwanted pregnancy was a serious push factor for women migrating to Amsterdam in the early modern period. ⁷⁶ Women could receive some financial help and deliver their infants safely at no cost but complicated circumstances may have pushed them to find money in prostitution or, if they were already prostitutes, to continue their trade in Amsterdam. The situation is similar for contemporary Dutch prostitutes who are often victims of violence and flee abusive relationships; with few resources, they enter prostitution as a quick means to earn some money to survive. ⁷⁷ It is interesting to compare the familial environments of migrants with Dutch prostitutes. Women from Africa or eastern Europe do not always come from a disrupted familial environment but do suffer from poverty. Family contact can be very frequent and a system of remittances may be put in place or they can serve as an intermediary for taking up prostitution, which is less often the case with native prostitutes. ⁷⁸ The few Dutch women who in recent decades entered prostitution because of their difficult situation as single mothers usually try to hide it from their children. ⁷⁹ Foreign women may also have children of their own whom they left behind in their countries of origin. Some women went to western Europe knowing they would become prostitutes, ⁸⁰ whilst others ended up working in the trade because they could not find another job. However, their entry into the prostitution market often reveals a different economic approach to the job; while prostitution is often a last resource for indigenous women, foreign women may choose to do it as an economic springboard to escape a difficult economic environment.

Contemporary legal prostitution in Amsterdam facilitates the setting up of fixed-term contracts with brothel owners or window renters, and prostitution is carried out on a full- or part-time basis for a fixed amount of time. As with any other employee, if the woman stops working before the end of her contract she will not be entitled to unemployment benefits but will receive the help of a social worker to find a new job in another sector if she so desires. Although employment contracts are legal, women tend to be registered as independent workers as a “compromise” between brothel owners and prostitutes. This is often part of an economic strategy which is based on earning the maximum amount possible in a short time. It also shows what these women think in general of this form of work: they do not wish to pursue it after a few years and they see it as transitional, although it may also reflect contemporary views on beauty and sex appeal. Rarely did older prostitutes earn much, nor do they today. The less “attractive” a woman becomes, the less likely she is to get customers. ⁸¹ Nevertheless, relationships can be formed over the years between regular customers and prostitutes and to some extent these can compensate for a decrease in the number of a woman’s customers. Ageing prostitutes also tend to practise prostitution differently, for example leaving a window to rent a flat and using small ads (or specialist agencies) to find customers. In the early modern period, ageing prostitutes tended to fall into the lower classes of prostitutes, such as streetwalkers, or they became domestics in the brothel in which they used to work. Also, getting married was often an opportunity to get out of prostitution (as it is today). The development of the welfare state may have helped create a way out of prostitution for ageing prostitutes or single mothers, although in many cases prostitution may offer a better income than social welfare.

Prostitution and Health

As in any early modern city, Amsterdam prostitutes suffered greatly from venereal diseases, as did their customers. From the start of the epidemics of syphilis onwards, the municipality took charge of those who were afflicted by sending them to the Pesthuis. ⁸² We know now that early modern remedies were ineffective and tended in the long run to weaken the immune system of the patient. However, the treatment offered by this institution was considered to be better than what was sold by quack doctors, and people from the entire Dutch Republic went to Amsterdam to be cured. Different establishments were used to accommodate the diseased, though at the beginning of the seventeenth century no strict distinctions were made yet between the patients; some were sent to the Spinhuis and others to the Aalmoezeniershuis (both workhouses). ⁸³ The Spinhuis was for women only and many prostitutes went there to be cured. The authorities were concerned with the spread of the disease as many sailors and soldiers had contracted it or risked getting it in the taverns on the Zeedijk. In the French period (early nineteenth century), the authorities sought to control the illness by requisitioning a hospital to treat the diseased. ⁸⁴ Only with the discovery of penicillin in the twentieth century did syphilis start to regress, however. Still, it was not long before the sex trade was plagued with the epidemic of aids that began in the 1980s in correlation with an upsurge in hard drug consumption. aids contamination through sexual encounters and by sharing infected needles had serious consequences on prostitutes’ health in the two last decades of the twentieth century. ⁸⁵ Campaigns to promote the use of condoms and clean needles were set up by the municipality, and counselling, medical help, and condoms were dispensed freely to prostitutes. Nowadays, the majority of legal prostitutes use condoms and the risk of catching a venereal disease is extremely low. However, it is known that some prostitutes agree to have sex without protection for varying reasons such as to earn more money, or because they do not know that they can refuse non-protected sex or are prevented from doing so by a third party.

The impact of prostitution on women’s physical health has been studied for a long time but the psychological effects have only recently been looked at. The importance of studying psychological effects in prostitution relates to the question of the integrity of the body in a work context. ⁸⁶ Recent research in other contexts (where prostitution is not legal) has shown that a large number of prostitutes (between 67 per cent and 72 per cent) suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder due to the violence they face quite regularly (from their pimp or clients, stressful situations at work, and confrontations with the police). ⁸⁷ The long-term psychological effects of prostitution have not been studied enough and more research in this field is necessary so that we can understand if the legalization of prostitution has a positive effect on working conditions and the mental well-being of the women. Indeed, in relation to psychological pressure, the impact of social stigma on this type of work has not been eliminated yet despite the legalization of prostitution in Amsterdam. Analyses on the cultural representation of prostitution also need updating to better define the evolution of public mentalities and attitudes since legalization. The debates in the 1980s and recent research have shown that the Dutch population generally supports the legalization of prostitution but this does not mean that prostitution is accepted as a career; in short, the legalization of prostitution has not made it a respectable job. Many women working behind the windows confess to living a double life, as their families are unaware of their job. ⁸⁸ Hiding their profession has a direct impact on their mental well-being; prostitutes have themselves internalized this social stigma and want to “protect” their families against the shame that would befall them if they and the community found out. Long-term psychological studies looking at the women’s perspectives on their occupations and their lives in and out of prostitution would greatly benefit our understanding of prostitution’s impact. Indeed it is not well known what women think of their past lives after getting out of prostitution and how they reflect upon their experiences. The constant exchanges over the years between society’s perceptions of prostitution and women’s own judgements about their jobs need to be better understood to reveal the internalization process at stake in (former) prostitutes’ minds.

Migration, Recruitment and Trafficking in Amsterdam

As mentioned earlier, the development of Amsterdam into a major international port in the seventeenth century led to a major migration influx not only from the countryside but also from neighbouring countries such as England, the southern Netherlands, Germany and Norway. Therefore prostitutes’ ethnicbackgrounds were not homogenous, and women of many nationalities took part in Amsterdam’s prostitution market. In the early modern period, on average 30 per cent of prostitutes were from abroad. ⁸⁹ Stachhouwer noted that in the first third of the twentieth century only 17.5 per cent of them were foreigners, ⁹⁰ but the recent opening of borders and the improvement of transportation has led to an increase of the number of women who migrated to the Netherlands. These days the number of Dutch prostitutes working behind the windows has fallen to under 16 per cent. ⁹¹

The origins of prostitutes changed according to the process of globalization happening at the time, ease of transportation, and the opening of borders. Prostitutes moving to Amsterdam could be sent there by a procuress, and the mobility of prostitutes in the early modern period attests to the mobility of female migrants in general. ⁹² While European women were the main immigrants in the early modern period (notably German women), migration patterns changed after the Second World War. South American women and women from the former Dutch colonies of Indonesia and Surinam, as well as other countries in South East Asia, migrated to Amsterdam, followed in the 1980s by West African women. ⁹³ After the fall of the Berlin wall, the number of women coming from the former ussr exploded and since the legalization of prostitution in 2000, European women are allowed to register as prostitutes in the city; when Romania and Bulgaria entered the European Union in 2007, two countries that have gdps which are relatively low compared to other eastern European countries, women migrated to Amsterdam from those countries and they are now the largest group of prostitutes in Amsterdam. ⁹⁴ Women from outside the eu can still work as prostitutes, but they need to have a work permit which can be obtained only under certain conditions, such as knowledge of the Dutch language. Without having official papers and a secure place to stay, migrant prostitutes are more likely to work for a third party with little social and economic independence. ⁹⁵ The diversity behind the windows is striking and a representative picture of the globalization process in action.

The issue of trafficking is inherently linked with the study of female migration, and the legality of prostitution has made the city an important migration destination for eastern European women who can easily enter the Dutch labour market as members of the eu. Because of these major influxes of young women, human trafficking issues were raised at the municipal and international levels. Human trafficking is defined by the un as “the recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person by such means as threats or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud or deception for the purpose of exploitation; exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.” ⁹⁶ This definition is broad and encompasses a wide range of crimes, from coercion to fraud and bodily exploitation.

Trafficking in the sense that women are moved from one place to another and forced to work as prostitutes for someone else can also be found in earlier periods, although evidence of large-scale criminal networks has not yet been demonstrated. Van de Pol described the first brothel owner to be put on the scaffold in Amsterdam in 1706; she was a German “bawd” who had held a Danish girl prisoner and forced her to have sex with a Jew. ⁹⁷ Testimonies of prostitutes being held against their will or being deeply in debt with their “bawds” and therefore unable to leave the brothel show up occasionally in early modern judicial archives but they are individual stories, not the result of international criminal organizations.

At the end of the nineteenth century, new light was cast upon the threat of trafficking in women. Abolitionist movements in the Netherlands sought to eradicate all forms of prostitution and they started a national campaign against brothels. In 1903, 3,000 people gathered in Amsterdam in front of the Paleis voor Volksvlijt to condemn brothels as an essential component of the white slave trade. ⁹⁸ The image of the prostitute and the white slave merged and the moral panic that arose at the turn of the century had a major impact on the population of Amsterdam as it was relayed by the press of the time. Although brothels had been banned in Amsterdam since 1897, it quickly came to light that prostitution (and brothel owners) had merely relocated to more neutral and less stigmatized places. To what extent women were trafficked to and from Amsterdam is unknown; testimonies of sordid arrangements between intermediaries were recorded by the police or by men sent by various institutions (abolitionist associations, religious associations, and governments) to investigate the reality of forced prostitution in Amsterdam; a report dating from 1901 written by a policeman named Balkenstein for instance mentioned underage French girls being sent to Amsterdam with fake documents to work in a brothel. ⁹⁹ As a consequence, these reports and references in the newspapers to captive women fuelled anger against brothel owners, leading to the national legislation of 1911 which was against brothels and the trafficking of women. Notably, in the six months following the ban only one case of trafficking was prosecuted. Rather than being indicative of large international criminal networks organizing the trafficking of women, the reported cases seemed to concern relatively small numbers of women from neighbouring countries.

The rate of trafficked women in Amsterdam nowadays is still difficult to gauge; the legislation in place is meant to prevent the registration of women who do not want to work as prostitutes; however, it is unclear how the authorities ascertain that pressure or if threats have been made. Although more women than previously thought willingly choose to enter the prostitution market, the social networks built up by prostitutes remain dependent on the labour relations into which the prostitutes have entered; cases of migrant prostitutes having very little contact with their colleagues or the outside world because of confinement imposed by their pimps are not rare, even in Amsterdam. ¹⁰⁰ Various investigations about the trafficking of women working in the legalized market have been carried out; the Sneep case of 2007 for instance involved a Turkish gang accused of running a prostitution ring in Belgium and the Netherlands (including Amsterdam), and Verhoeven and van Gestel mention three other cases of trafficking and exploitation, all of which occurred in Amsterdam. ¹⁰¹ All these cases of trafficking happened within the scope of the legal regulated market of prostitution behind the windows. ¹⁰² Criminal organizations use the legal framework to commit crimes, often successfully as suggested by the low number of busts that are made. In addition, numerous women do not register with the tax office and therefore have little contact with the authorities. Another issue concerns the underground prostitution carried out by non-registered women. ¹⁰³ Not every non-registered prostitute is a victim of trafficking but our lack of knowledge of this milieu leaves us without answers regarding the scale of trafficking in a country where prostitution is legal. Ethnicity, levels of education, and legal status are factors that influence women’s ability to secure safe working conditions; the building-up of a network is often a strong element in the improvement of prostitutes’ working conditions

One of the limitations of the definition of “trafficking” in the case of prostitution relates to the fact that some women choose voluntarily to enter the prostitution market and use smugglers to cross borders. The fact that they choose to work in prostitution has been documented in various studies; an early study showed that 50 per cent of the women who were recruited in central Europe knew they were going to work in prostitution. ¹⁰⁴ Highly educated women from the former Soviet Union were interviewed in 2004 and they all claimed to be travelling voluntarily to the Netherlands to work as prostitutes, as did almost all of the thirty Dominican and Colombian women interviewed by Janssen. ¹⁰⁵ Siegel also studied the horizontal and vertical mobility of foreign prostitutes in the Netherlands; she claims that the choice of prostitution as a career path, the “attraction of sex work in Europe”, has been too often dismissed for a more acceptable discourse on women’s trafficking. ¹⁰⁶ This of course does not mean that the psychological effects of prostitution are less strong for migrant women but from an economic point of view, prostitution offers more opportunities than most of the other jobs available to them either in their native countries or even in Amsterdam.

Foreign women entering the prostitution market are often helped by third parties and although the literature usually refers to the contemporary pimp or trafficker as a male figure, the role of women in recruiting must not be ignored. The concepts of trafficking and traffickers do not really encompass what the women who willingly became prostitutes go through; migrant smuggling in certain cases could be a more adequate definition of the crime committed by the third party. Siegel and de Blank worked on women intermediariesin the Netherlands before and after the legalization of prostitution and they showed that women could also be at the head of traffic scandals, though most of the women involved in procuring or sexual offences were either “supporters” or “partners in crime” together with a man. ¹⁰⁷ For instance, in the 1980s Nigerian women who migrated to the Netherlands and eventually became prostitutes convinced male “supporters” to help them smuggle women into the Netherlands by lending them money. ¹⁰⁸ Van de Pol showed a similar interaction between the sexes in the early modern period: both men and women were involved in the running of brothels, although it was easier for men to have access to capital, credit, and living spaces. ¹⁰⁹ Both sexes have been and are involved in prostitution and this puts into perspective the gender differentiation that is often made in studies on prostitution: there exists a dialogue between men and women in this trade in which power relationships are not unidirectional and evolve according to attitudes and economic rationales.

Conclusion: Prostitution in Amsterdam, Urban Spaces, and Global Images

Prostitution develops to a greater extent in urban areas than in rural environments for different reasons: the proximity and number of potential customers who reside in or visit a city; the anonymity offered to urban citizens and the resulting disappearance or diminution of the feeling of shame; the ease with which prostitutes create new and parallel networks; and, the higher wages that can be earned in a city.

Working space is, as mentioned earlier, one of the main elements of the definition of prostitution. By changing places and swapping spaces of work, prostitutes must contend with varying sets of working conditions and labour relations but they must also deal with different types of danger. The risk/benefit ratio varies according to the type of space they are working in. As a result of the communication revolution, prostitutes can more easily work independently from their homes or by meeting customers in hotel rooms. The internet and before that small ads in newspapers and sex shop windows mean that there is no need for an intermediary between the woman and the client. Working under such conditions nevertheless has its own dangers: the social control and security that exists among window prostitutes in the red-light district and in well-run brothels is absent when working alone and it is important for the woman to create and maintain links and contacts with friends to avoid being stuck in a dangerous situation with a customer.

State and municipal legislation pertaining to prostitution must be based on thorough research about the interactions between working spaces and the above-mentioned variables so that prostitutes can have a safe working environment. Over the centuries, soliciting became more and more privatized; while early modern prostitutes would solicit in public by walking on the street or by standing at the door of a tavern, this practice changed towards the end of the seventeenth century with the opening of music houses, and this pattern re-emerged in the mid-eighteenth century and later on in more or less regulated brothels. These places became linked with the presence of prostitutes. Even if they were primarily intended to offer musical entertainment and to encourage male sociability, customers in these houses knew that the women present were potential prostitutes; their behaviour in this specific space was also an indication of their availability. Via ear-to-mouth dissemination of information (particularly effective, as the reputation of Amsterdam music houses crossed borders), soliciting gradually moved indoors.

This also means that in this earlier era entertainment, homosociality, and sexuality’s boundaries were blurred; not everyone entering a tavern in de Wallen in the seventeenth century was looking for a prostitute or went there for female company. The division was not as clear as today, when people entering certain bars in the de Wallen district go there aiming to enjoy a performance of a sexual nature. Homosociality can be, and often still is, a component of the establishments’ atmosphere but it differs from seventeenth century inns which could be sporadically, according to its clientele and probably the time of the day, characterized as a brothel. The sexual component of certain establishments was not as obvious and visible as in today’s red-light districts.

The same process of privatization and specialization became visible after the attempt to regulate prostitution in nineteenth-century Amsterdam. The women were then linked to a specific space and therefore their working practices changed. This does not mean that streetwalking and outdoor solicitation disappeared; poor or casual prostitutes could still be seen on the streets, as was the case in the red-light districts in the 1980s or nowadays along Amsterdam’s old docks. Working space clearly defines prostitutes’ categories and it affords them more or less agency in refusing customers, keeping their earnings, or avoiding the police.

Quite early on compared to other European cities, Amsterdam’s officials recognized the importance of prostitution and the economic advantages it provides. But in contemporary Amsterdam, the dialogue between prostitutes and the municipality still seems to be inexistent, despite the financial gains it provides for the city. Hubbard argues that the red-light district in Amsterdam is “by no means a typical red-light district.” ¹¹⁰ This is true in the sense that sex is not advertised to such an extent in other European cities, nor is it a distinct part of tourists’ “must-see” experiences, except perhaps for Pigalle in Paris. But even if the landscape and global imaginary linked to Amsterdam’s red-light district of De Wallen is somewhat different, the prostitution market is very similar to what can be seen in other settings. What appears to be the same is the distinction between spaces and within that scope there are variations based on where a woman (or man) works, the existing labour relations, working conditions, and the risk/benefit ratio. Space and location therefore have a direct impact on prostitutes’ experiences and must be taken into account when new policies are introduced. The closing down of windows by the municipality and to a certain extent the gentrification of the red-light district run counter to prostitutes’ needs and right to security; new legislation should do more to ensure that these women are able to work in a safe environment.