Lifting the ban on brothels

Abstract

On October 1, 2000 the general ban on brothels in the Netherlands was lifted. The core of the legislation is that those forms of prostitution in which adult prostitutes are voluntarily engaged are no longer illegal. This report is the English translation of the first comprehensive, evaluative report to be published since the new legislation came into force and is based on data obtained from a number of sub-studies commissioned by the WODC. CONTENT: 1. Introduction 2. Amendment of legislation 3. Research methods used in sub-studies 4. The control and regulation of prostitution 5. Protection of the position of prostitutes 6. Punishable forms of prostitution and crime-related marginal phenomena 7. Conclusions and recommendations