Prostitution in Serbia in the period from the First Serbian Uprising to the Second World War: A legal-historical view

The main subject of the research in the paper is the analysis of the models used by Serbian government in dealing with prostitution as a social and medical problem in the period from the First Serbian Uprising to the Second World War. Within the analyzed period of time, the state used different models, from the one that criminalized prostitution to the one that tolerated it as a "necessary evil"; while remaining the longest on the regulatory approach - the opening of brothels was allowed and prostitution was increasingly regulated. Moreover, in the Belgrade area, for a short period of time, even the so-called clandestine prostitution was allowed, provided that female prostitutes are regularly examined by doctors. After the First World War, in the territory of Serbia, the government tried to abolish brothels, but it did not succeed until 1930, when the state (again) turned to the prohibitionist model. Throughout the analyzed period, existential reasons most often led women to prostitution, although, after the First World War, it was noticeable that young women also indulged in prostitution because of their "passion for adorning oneself with jewelry and beautiful clothes", because they "needed" an additional source of income. All in all, whichever method of reaction to prostitution the state had chosen, the effects were weak, illegal, clandestine prostitution still existed, as well as venereal diseases. Therefore, the state's reaction seemed to be reduced only to the tendency to make prostitution as less visible as possible.