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 for 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, we analyzed data on 860 individuals to examine the predictors of policy preferences for legalizing prostitution. We considered individual-level socio-demographics and household-level indicators such as the presence of children and migrants, as well as socio-cultural beliefs and behaviors related to social liberalism and religiosity. The findings suggest that male gender and higher education are strong predictors of preferences for 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 toward 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 presence of children under 18 in the household and respondents’ occupational status also revealed a significant effect. Such findings are relevant in order to correctly develop and orient prostitution policy in a way that works for citizens.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the journal’s editor and two anonymous referees for their insightful comments on the earlier draft of the manuscript. Likewise, the authors are thankful to Romanian NGO Centrul Filia for making available the data from the Romanian Gender Barometer (2018) realized jointly by IMAS-Marketing and Surveys the Institute in cooperation with the Centre for Curriculum Development and Gender Studies: FILIA, and the Centre for Support and Training for Development of a Society of Equity.

Data Availability Statement

We wish to acknowledge the support provided by Romanian NGO Centre FILIA to make available the dataset of Gender Barometer 2018, available here https://centrulfilia.ro/barometru-de-gen-romania-2018/

Additional information

Funding

The first author acknowledges the support provided by the Hasso Plattner Excellence Research Grant (LBUS-HPI-ERG-2020-05), financed by the Knowledge Transfer Centre of the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu.