In just one year, the social acceptance of prostitution in the Valencian Community has fallen 9 points, going from 37% (according to a 2021 study) to 25.7%, according to the report presented yesterday by the Minister of Justice and Public Administration , Gabriela Bravo. Despite the fact that the figures, in Bravo's opinion, represent "a halo of hope because a change in mentality can be appreciated", the truth is that there are 31.6% of those surveyed who would "agree or totally agree" in legalizing and regulating the conditions for the exercise.
It is true that the option that is gaining the most support is the one that is being promoted by the PSPV: 38.1% agree or totally agree with "prohibiting prostitution and sanctioning clients and intermediaries, but not prostitutes" ". There are also those who think that women should also be punished.
A complex debate that this legislature has generated strong tensions within the Valencian government that could be reproduced if the Socialists choose to include in the last plenary session of the legislature two legislative modifications to move towards the "abolition of prostitution", one of their flags feminists.
In this context, Minister Bravo yesterday presented a new study on the social perception of prostitution in the Valencian Community directed by the professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at the Miguel Hernández de Elche University and director of the Criminal Center of the academic institution, Fernando I look.
Investigators from the Centro Crimina have already carried out, commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, the first sociological study on the degree of acceptance of prostitution in the Valencian Community, which was presented last year within the framework of the work of the Valencian Forum for Abolition of Prostitution promoted by the department directed by Bravo.
The study revealed that Valencian society in 2021 perceived prostitution as acceptable by 37.2% regardless of the sex of the person who practices it. In 2022, on the other hand, the acceptability percentage drops to 28.1 percent. Regarding the moral unacceptability of prostitution, the percentage in 2021 was 43.1 and in 2022, 52.5%. In 2021 the percentage of the sample that did not take a position on the matter was 20.1% and in 2022 it was 18.6%.
Despite the fact that the moral acceptability of prostitution has decreased in the last year, men continue to accept the practice of prostitution to a greater extent than women (30.6% in the case of men compared to 25.7 in the case of case of women). In 2022, the group between 55 and 64 years old (57.2%) was the one that showed the most rejection towards prostitution, and the group between 45 and 54 years old (37.8%), the one that showed the most acceptability.
Of course, as happened last year, there is a broad social rejection of any form of prostitution that involves sexual exploitation, human trafficking, the mediation of third parties or streaming pornography. The rejection of coercive pimping continues to be almost unanimous (99% of the people surveyed).
The image of women who consider that, if they could choose, they would not engage in prostitution is 55.20% in 2022. Regarding the percentage of people who believe that women do not have control over how they engage in prostitution in the 2022 is 38.10%. Regarding the percentage that she considers that the dignity of women is damaged by prostitution in 2022, the percentage is 54.70%.
After presenting the data, Bravo stressed that the data reveals that it is possible "to change the collective imagination so that prostitution is recognized as an attack on the dignity of women and human rights." However, the minister regretted that there is still "great ignorance of the problem", for which she has advocated continuing to work in the legislative, educational and social spheres.
In this sense, Gabriela Bravo explained that the amendments to the Entertainment Law and the Highway Law will be approved shortly "to increase our sanctioning capacity" while continuing to make "municipalities aware of the importance of approving abolitionist ordinances." . There will be if he gets enough votes because his partners have already told him that they will not support him.
