It is commonly said that prostitution has existed always and everywhere.  That statement is far from correct.  A kind of amateur prostitution is occasionally found among savages, but usually it is only when barbarism is fully developed and is already approaching the stage of civilization that well developed prostitution is found.  It exists in a systematic form in every civilization.

What is prostitution?  There has been considerable discussion as to the correct definition of prostitution.[121] The Roman Ulpian said that a prostitute was one who openly abandons her body to a number of men without choice, for money.[122] Not all modern definitions have been so satisfactory.  It is sometimes said a prostitute is a woman who gives herself to numerous men.  To be sound, however, a definition must be applicable to both sexes alike and we should certainly hesitate to describe a man who had sexual intercourse with many women as a prostitute.  The idea of venality, the intention to sell the favors of the body, is essential to the conception of prostitution.  Thus Guyot defines a prostitute as “any person for whom sexual relationships are subordinated to gain."[123] It is not, however, adequate to define a prostitute simply as a woman who sells her body.  That is done every day by women who become wives in order to gain a home and a livelihood, yet, immoral as this conduct may be from any high ethical standpoint, it would be inconvenient and even misleading to call it prostitution.[124] It is better, therefore, to define a prostitute as a woman who temporarily sells her sexual favors to various persons.  Thus, according to Wharton’s Law-lexicon a prostitute is “a woman who indiscriminately consorts with men for hire”; Bonger states that “those women are prostitutes who sell their bodies for the exercise of sexual acts and make of this a profession";[125] Richard again states that “a prostitute is a woman who publicly gives herself to the first comer in return for a pecuniary remuneration."[126] As, finally, the prevalence of homosexuality has led to the existence of male prostitutes, the definition must be put in a form irrespective of sex, and we may, therefore, say that a prostitute is a person who makes it a profession to gratify the lust of various persons of the opposite sex or the same sex.

It is essential that the act of prostitution should be habitually performed with “various persons.”  A woman who gains her living by being mistress to a man, to whom she is faithful, is not a prostitute, although she often becomes one afterwards, and may have been one before.  The exact point at which a woman begins to be a prostitute is a question of considerable importance in countries in which prostitutes are subject to registration.  Thus in Berlin, not long ago, a girl who was mistress to a rich cavalry officer and supported by him, during the illness of the officer accidentally met a man whom she had formerly known, and once or twice invited him