Disorderly or simply ugly? Representations of the local regulation of street prostitution in the Italian press and their policy implications

This article aims to inspect how the Italian national press has represented the local regulation of street prostitution overtime, and to detect whether press representations have had an effect on the national regulation of prostitution, particularly of street prostitution. To these ends, it investigates what have been described as the “problems” posed by street prostitution at the local level, and what have been identified as the main solutions to it over the years, along with the narratives used by the different actors to support the proposed solutions. The results suggest that street prostitution has been considered as a problem when occurring in neighbourhoods attended by middle classes (e.g., residential areas, city centres and historic districts), especially when their liveability is thought to be impaired by the presence of physical and (other forms of) social disorder; in addition, in these same areas the unsightly presence of street prostitutes (particularly, their outfits) has also been problematized. These represented problems have been associated with very punitive solutions: zero-tolerance approaches to clean “degenerated” areas from street sex work (along with other causes of disorder), and administrative fines to sanction indecently dressed street prostitutes. The article concludes by discussing the relation between press representations and the national regulation of prostitution, and by considering the effects of the local enforcement of national punitive regulations on street sex workers and their right to the city.