Prostitution in urban and rural areas of Zambia : a comparative study

Abstract

This is an exploratory study of prostitution in Lusaka, Ndola and Mufulira which are three of Zambia's urban areas.The study examines: back grounds of prostitutes; social, economic, educational and familial: methods of operation by prostitutes which included areas of operation, types of solicitation, types of customers, specialties and home preference: customers' and ex-customers' attributes, their reasons for patronizing- prostitutes and their methods of operation. The study also examines the non-participants' general attitude towards prostitution and those who participate in it and tested the alleged link between prostitution and the incidence of venereal diseases in Zambia.By the use of non-probability sampling, 108 respondents were studied. These consisted of 42 prostitutes, 36 customers and ex-customers and non-participants,who were studied through the case study, observation and questionnaire techniques, The study was carried out over a period of two months.Among the findings of the study are the following: prostitution in Zambia is largely of an incipient nature and is more of the bar type: prostitutes in Zambia do not have distinctive -attributes from those who do not engage in prostitution. This was found to be true even in the case of customers and non customers. Further the study shows that prostitution in Zambia is largely a manifestation of the type of change taking place at both societal and individual levels and that there is no ample evidence to link prostitution and venereal diseases in Zambia.