The Association of Hungarian Prostitutes has recently conducted a survey in partnership with the FACT institute. This survey was intended to study and understand what the Hungarian people think about the phenomena of prostitution. In addition, the survey investigates what people think about discrimination against prostitutes by the Hungarian authorities. Before analyzing the survey, it is important to know the legal background of prostitution and issues around sex work in Hungary.
The Association of Hungarian Prostitutes has recently conducted a survey in partnership with the FACT institute. This survey was intended to study and understand what the Hungarian people think about the phenomena of prostitution. In addition, the survey investigates what people think about discrimination against prostitutes by the Hungarian authorities. Before analyzing the survey, it is important to know the legal background of prostitution and issues around sex work in Hungary. You can read short background on prostitution in Hungary here.
Аccording to the 1000 people asked, prostitution is only the fourth most problematic issue after crime, poverty and the “Roma issue”. More educated respondents believed that prostitution was a smaller problem than the less educated. The more religious respondents saw the sex-industry as a big problem. Non-religious men without between 18 and 39 did not consider sex work to be a problem. Women tended to reject prostitution in 1.5 more cases than male respondents.
Even though people seemed to know the reasons why people chose prostitution as way of earning money (poverty, lack of opportunities, etc.), there is still evidence of strong stereotypes and prejudices towards this profession. 92.4% of respondents were well aware of the fact that they know only a very little about prostitution. The majority of them (54%) identified prostitution as such with the street prostitution. Those who saw prostitution in a more sophisticated light had less prejudice towards the sex workers and prostitution.
According to the replies of the survey respondents, the media has the biggest responsibility in shaping public opinion about prostitution, but it usually fails to do it fairly, because it is too sensationalistic. It was also noted that those respondents who are more liberal towards prostitution, consume less news in TV and radio.
Those respondents, who haven’t had direct experience with prostitutes, seemed to be more intolerant towards them, than those who have their own experience or heard about experiences from friends. One out of ten people thinks that discrimination towards prostitutes is acceptable. Only a little bit less people think that discrimination by the authorities are also acceptable. Additional one third of the adult population participating in the survey does not care about discrimination by the authorities against prostitutes. There is a significant portion of people in Hungary who either accept or do not care if there is a discrimination toward minority groups.
It should me noted that more than two thirds of the questioned people think that prostitutes are more discriminated by the authorities than the rest. According to the opinions the churches, the court of guardians and the police have the most negative attitude towards prostitutes.
Two thirds of respondents agree that prostitutes can work as entrepreneurs. Three quarters of them think that prostitution as such should be isolated form the society and carried out in brothels. But there is one fifth who replied that they wouldn’t let prostitution exist in any form.
And at last, according to the survey, the average adult population in Hungary believes that ministers and associations, dealing with prostitutes should be responsible to do something about this situation in Hungary.
To access the whole survey report in Hungarian visit the official website of MPEE.
Contact person: András Szabó
More about MPEE
Email: mpeeandras@gmail.com