Although organized prostitution and brothels are illegal, street prostitution is allowed and estimates suggest there are , prostitutes currently working in Italy.
Under the new rules, repeat offenders would face fresh fines and risk being sentenced to up to a year in prison. While the proposed laws may sound harsh, punishing those who pay for sex has proven to be a simple way of combating the phenomenon of prostitution, without resorting to state legalization or regulation of the industry.
Fines have proved so effective in other countries, that last year the European parliament actively encouraged member states to adopt what it referred to as a 'Nordic model' when combating prostitution. According to figures from the Catholic charity, The Pope John Society, which has taken 7, prostitutes off Italy's streets in the last 25 years, 37 percent of the country's prostitutes are aged between 13 and Thirty-six percent of all Italy's prostitutes are from Nigeria, 22 percent from Romania and 10 percent from Albania.
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