Regulation of prostitution in Croatia

Prostitution is a complex social phenomenon around which there are numerous controversies, including regarding the most appropriate public policies and legal solutions. Croatia is one of the few European countries where “prostitution” is punishable, and the topic is neglected in science. The recently completed first interdisciplinary qualitative research on prostitution in Croatia showed that the legal framework is one of the key determinants of the experiences of people engaged in prostitution (Radačić and Pajnik, 2017). This, theoretically and methodologically more ambitious project, continues the aforementioned research, focusing on the regulation of prostitution in Croatia and its effects on people engaged in prostitution. The project is interdisciplinary and includes the fields of law, sociology and political science. In a theoretical sense, it continues the feminist and human rights literature that questions regulatory models that rest on the dominant dichotomous understanding of prostitution as work or violence (Scoular, 2015; Munro and Della Giusta, 2016; Marshall, 2016; Larson and Hernandez Truyol, 2006). . The goals of the project are to describe the development of prostitution policies in Croatia, analyze existing laws and judicial practice, and question the compatibility of the Croatian model with standards for the protection of human rights, to investigate the views of experts on prostitution and legal solutions and the experiences of people engaged in prostitution, to propose guidelines for the development of public policies, expand scientific knowledge about prostitution and increase the team’s research capacity. In addition to the analysis of laws, court proceedings and public policy documents, the project also foresees qualitative research with people engaged in prostitution and representatives of relevant ministries, associations and independent institutions for the protection of human rights, as well as experts of the judicial and police systems. The project brings new interdisciplinary knowledge about a poorly researched phenomenon, which is applicable in the creation and implementation of public policies. Project team members: Ivana Radačić, Mirjana Adamović, Raseljka Krnić, Tihana Štojs Brajković, Josip Šipić, Nikola Baketa, Stephanie Stelko, Marija Antić and Antonija Petričušić