Introduction

In Spain, state intervention in the policy area of prostitution has been varied. In 1935, during the first democratic regime of Spanish history, the so-called Second Republic (1931–6), prostitution was prohibited (Decree 28 June). From the mid-1930s to 1975 Spain was governed by a right-wing authoritarian regime headed by Franco which actively opposed women's rights. In 1941, the prohibitionist law of the Second Republic was suppressed by Decree 27 March. Prostitution was tolerated and put under the surveillance and control of the police. On 18 June 1962, Spain ratified the 1949 United Nations (UN) Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. Decree 168 (24 January 1963) modified the Penal Code according to the 1949 UN Convention. Broadly speaking, Spanish legislation on prostitution was abolitionist from 1963. In this view, prostitutes were not legally defined as criminals, in contrast to people who promote the prostitution of others or benefit from it; they are punished accordingly – up to six years in prison (Cebrián Franco 1977: 116; Carracedo Bullido 2001: 151–4). State and society also make serious efforts to help women stop working as prostitutes. Such abolitionist legislation considers prostitution as an affront to people's dignity; it is then irrelevant whether prostitutes voluntarily consent to prostitution or not (Carracedo Bullido 2001: 152–4).