The phenomenon of commercial sex has gone, during the past two decades, through significant changes due, firstly, to the expansion of the market of commercial sexual practices and, secondly, to the diversification of prostitution typologies, practices and available places. This expansion is also linked to the emergence, on a large scale, of migrant women in the sex business circuits of most European countries.
In line with the need to overcome a reductionist approach that views the foreign prostitution phenomenon as a mere economic or criminal issue, this article aims at shedding some light on the subjective dimension of some of its main actors: in particular prostitutes and, where possible, clients. These include the exploitation modalities adopted by pimps and exploiters, the management approaches used within the various prostitution sectors, as well as the national and international policies adopted in order to regulate the phenomenon.
These studies have also underlined the need to understand sexual-economic exchanges within the globalization processes, which are inseparable from economy, culture, politics, labor relations and, last but not least, gender relations, both in the origin and in the destination countries.
However, considering the need to overcome a reductionist approach which views the prostitution phenomenon as a mere economic issue, this article aims at shedding some light on the subjective dimension of some of its main actors: prostitutes in particular and, where possible, clients.
It could be interesting to note that during the project two other associations based in Italy, which bring together prostitution clients, were identified through the web. Although one of them had a short existence and no longer exists, the research team managed to interview one of its members who preferred not to be recorded during the interview.
