Marseille

Prostitution in Marseille is indissociable from its history as a port city. Until 1748, the rebel city, which challenged royal power for the whole of the late sixteenth century and beginning of the seventeenth century before it was conquered by Louis XIV, had a military role and was used as a penal colony which also held an important arsenal. Convicts, soldiers, sailors, apprentices, craftsmen and labourers working in the port represented a young and usually single workforce. The city offered job opportunities and attracted seasonal workers and migrants coming from the rural hinterland or from foreign countries which increased their sense of uprooting and the destructuring of their families. Those elements secured the early development of prostitution in the modern era on a large scale. After 1748 and the transfer of the penal colony to Toulon, the commercial role of the city became prominent while the seagoing population remained a potential sizeable eclientele for prostitution that continued to grow.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Gender Equality

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions