Support for Prostitution Legalization in Romania: Individual, Household, and Socio-cultural Determinants

Abstract

Romania is a major source country of labor migration to other EU countries, being commonly perceived as a source country of sex workers operating in more prosperous economies. However, very little is known about population attitudes in relation to prostitution in Romania. Based on nationally representative data from the Romanian Gender Barometer (2018) survey, this study analyses data on 860 individuals to examine the predictors of policy preferences for legalizing prostitution. We consider individual-level socio-demographics, household-level indicators such as the presence of children and migrants, and also socio-cultural beliefs and behaviors related to social liberalism and religiosity. The findings suggest that gender and education are strong predictors of preferences towards the legalization of prostitution. However, living in a household with migrants and attending church regularly were negatively associated with the legalizing policy option.Moreover, social liberalism expressed as both favorable attitudes towards the introduction of sex education in school curriculum, and as a rejection of traditional gender roles, increased the odds of supporting the legalization of prostitution. The interaction between household composition and respondent's occupational status also reveals a significant effect. Such findings are relevant in order to correctly orient prostitution policy in a way that works for citizens.

Predicting Attitudes Towards the Exchange of Sexual Services for Payment: Variance in Gender Gaps Across the Nordic Countries

“…The available research on individual-level attitudes towards the exchange of sexual services for payment is limited but growing. In explaining differing degrees of acceptability, studies have ascribed varying importance to age, education, gender, and attitudes towards conservatism, liberalism, feminism, gender equality, women in general, immigration, privacy, and religiosity, as well as general sexual behavior (Basow & Campanile, 1990;Cosby et al, 1996;Hansen & Johansson, 2022;Jonsson & Jakobsson, 2017;Kuosmanen, 2011;Lo & Wei, 2005;May, 1999;Peracca et al, 1998;Powers et al, 2023;Räsaänen & Wilska, 2007;Valor-Segura et al, 2011;Vlase & Grasso, 2023;Yan et al, 2018). Scholars have also looked at the relationship between legal approaches towards trading sexual services and public attitudes (Powers et al, 2023;Immordino & Russo, 2015;Jonsson & Jakobsson, 2017;Kotsadam & Jakobsson, 2014).…”

“…A timely research topic in this context of conflicting trends is public attitudes towards the exchange of sex for payment. This is a limited research field with few existing studies, several of which date many years back and do not account for important societal changes (Escot et al, 2022;Hansen & Johansson, 2022, 2023Johansson & Hansen, 2023a, b;Power et al, 2023;Vlase & Grasso, 2023;Yan et al, 2018;Jonsson & Jakobsson, 2017;Immordino & Russo, 2015Valor-Segura et al, 2011;Räsaänen & Wilska, 2007, Lo & Wei, 2005Basow & Campanile, 1990;Cotton et al, 2002;May, 1999;Peracca et al, 1998;Cosby et al, 1996). Public attitudes towards morally and politically delicate issues like the exchange of sex for payment are important to understand for several reasons.…”

“…Most of the existing studies looking at individual-level attitudes towards the exchange of sex services for payment are based on survey questions using the term "prostitution" (Basow & Campanile, 1990;Cosby et al, 1996;Escot et al, 2022;Hansen & Johansson, 2022;May, 1999;Peracca et al, 1998;Räsaänen & Wilska, 2007;Valor-Segura et al, 2011;Vlase & Grasso, 2023;Yan et al, 2018), with a few exceptions (Hansen & Johansson, 2023;Johansson & Hansen, 2023a, b;Powers et al, 2023;Jonsson & Jakobsson, 2017;. Here, we use prostitution when directly discussing the survey question and the results, but also deploy alternative terms, e.g., "sex work," "commercial sex," and "the trade in sex.…”