Kinsie reports on prostitution – Lisbon

On 5 May 1838, for the first time, there was an official announcement aimed at circumscribing the spatial circulation and economic activity of prostitution (in all its forms) in Portugal. Prostitution was forbidden around temples, avenues and squares. Prostitutes were not able to reside nearby. Despite its shortcomings, the official decree signalled an important moment in the tentative regulation of the sex trade, generating processes of social categorization and analysis. The same year saw another relevant measure: comprehensive regulation, which introduced police and sanitary guidelines and practices, aimed at identifying and dealing with the “iniquities” caused by “public prostitution” on the public’s morals and health (Regulamento Policial e Sanitário para Obviar os Males Causados à Moral e à Saúde pela Prostituição Pública). Authored by Francisco Ignacio dos Santos Cruz, the regulation marked a fundamental milestone in the introduction of a bureaucratic-administrative rationale in the public assessment of prostitution. The need to administrate a “public problem”, mobilizing more than moralizing discourses and interventions, became crucial: typologies of prostitutes, modalities and spaces of prostitution were identified and assessed. In 1858 and 1865, further regulations were created to enhance the public control of prostitution, aiming at its spatial and social circumscription. Formulated to deal with the realities of the capital, Lisbon, they were exported to other important cities, such as Oporto.

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