Drive in Sex

The drive-in "sex boxes" as they are being called, will be officially opened on August 26, 2013 as part of a drive by authorities in Zurich to regulate prostitution, combat pimping and improve security for sex workers.

The nine garage-style structures, located in a former industrial zone in the west of the city, have been organized with typically Swiss precision.

Drivers will have to follow a clearly marked route along which up to 40 prostitutes will be stationed.

Once they have chosen one of the women and negotiated a fee, they will drive into one of the wooden sheds, which are hung with posters advocating the use of condoms and warning of the risk of Aids.

The sex boxes are equipped with alarms which the prostitutes can activate if they feel in danger from a client.

The site is only open to drivers of cars – pedestrians and men on motorbikes are not allowed – and will operate from early evening until 5am each day.

The sex boxes are one of several measures intended to reduce the large numbers of prostitutes plying their trade in residential areas and in the city centre, including a ban on soliciting along the Sihlquai river embankment.

Men who solicit street workers outside three new approved zones, including the cluster of sex boxes, will face fines of up to 450 francs (£310).

"We want to regulate prostitution because until now it was the law of the jungle," said Michael Herzig, from Zurich's social welfare department, when the initiative was announced.

"It was the pimps who decided the prices, for instance. We are trying to reach a situation which is better for the prostitutes themselves, for their health and security and also for people who live in Zurich."

The £1.4 million project was approved by voters in Zurich last year in a referendum.

While prostitution is legal in Switzerland, sex workers have to pay a tax of five Swiss francs (£3.50) each night that they work.

Zurich authorities said the number of prostitutes working in the city had increased markedly in recent years, with many of them coming from Eastern Europe, particularly Hungary.

Prostitution is the business or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and is a kind of sex worker, and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms. 

Prostitution is one of the branches of the sex industry. The legal status of prostitution varies from country to country, from being permissible but unregulated, to a punishable crime or to a regulated profession.

Estimates place the annual revenue 

generated from the 

global prostitution industry 

to be 

over $100 billion.

Is prostitution really the world’s oldest profession?

It depends how you define it. Humans have exchanged money and goods for sex for thousands of years, and indeed it seems that any society that begins to develop material wealth soon develops some form of prostitution. The Bible depicts many Israelites as having large numbers of concubines, who could be viewed either as prostitutes or as wives of a lesser status. According to 1 Kings 11:3, King Solomon had “700 wives … and 300 concubines.” 

In ancient Rome, it seems you could hand over a token at a brothel in return for a specific sexual favor. However, the common image of prostitutes as a special group of outcasts walking the streets may not have arisen until the Victorian era, when health officials blamed them for the spread of venereal diseases. In the 21st century, prostitution occurs across cultures and political systems, even operating in socialist societies.

The originator of the phrase “the world’s oldest profession” was Rudyard Kipling. His 1888 story about a prostitute begins, “Lalun is a member of the most ancient profession in the world.”