Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Of course, each country has its own laws…and quirks. German sex workers in Frank-
furt rent rooms in multistory “Eros Towers” and essentially run their own businesses. If
a Greek prostitute gets married, she must give up her license to sell sex. Portuguese call
girls can lose custody of their children. Dutch hookers have a union, get a license to prac-
tice their trade, and are required to have medical check-ups to be sure they aren't passing
sexually transmitted diseases. In Iceland and Switzerland, while prostitution is legal, it is
illegal for a third party to profit from the sale of sex. In general, the hope is that when a
prostitute needs help and pushes her emergency button, a policeman rather than a pimp
comes to her rescue.
While that's the ideal, it's not foolproof. There is still sex trafficking and abuse of
women in the sex trade. But Europeans figure with their more progressive, creative, and
pragmatic approach to what they consider a “victimless crime,” they are minimizing viol-
ence, reducing the spread of AIDS and other diseases, and allowing sex workers a better
life…all while generating some additional tax revenue. Social scientists have a term for
this approach: pragmatic harm reduction.
In another example of European pragmatism, Europe's drinking age is typically lower
than the US's. While no country in the world has a higher drinking age than America's,
most European countries allow 16- or 18-year-olds to consume alcohol. European parents
recognize that—no matter how fiercely they moralize against alcohol—their teens will
drink. (Europeans puzzle over why 18-year-old Americans can marry, buy a gun, go to
war, and vote…but not buy a can of beer.)
Around the world, when kids graduate from high school, they party, get drunk, and
some die on the roads. When traveling through Scandinavia in May and June, you'll see
a creative solution to this problem: truckloads of drunk high-school graduates noisily en-
joying a parent-sponsored bash. The parents hire a truck and provide a driver so none of
the students needs to drive. The kids decorate their party truck. Then the whooping and
hollering grads parade through their towns from one family home to the next, where par-
ents each host one stage of the progressive graduation kegger. Just about everyone gets
drunk. But no one lies, and no one dies. While this makes perfect sense to Scandinavian
parents, it would be a tough sell for American parents.
