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Numerous are the criminal juridical cases of the so-called Merlin Law (Lawdated 20 February 1958, No. 75) which ended the system of the houses ofprostitution and abolished any listing and obligatory health treatment forprostitutes. Punished by prison from 2 to 6 years and a fine of from 258 to 10,329Euros are the various activities which go from exploitation to aiding and abettingprostitution, renting of apartments where this is undertaken 89 . That which is ofconcern to us are the particularly revealing forecasts of numbers 6) and 7) of Art. 3of the law which punishes:“whoever leads a person to the territory of another State or however aplace different from that of their normal residence, in order to exerciseprostitution or places themselves to assist the departure”;“whoever undertakes an activity in association with national and foreignorganisations dedicated to the recruitment of persons for prostitution orexploitation of prostitution, or in whatever form and with whatever meansaids and abets the action or the scopes of such associations ororganisations”.The closing juridical case is foreseen in number 8) which sanctions whosoever,and in whatsoever manner aids and abets the prostitution of others. To this shouldbe added the juridical cases of the Penal Code which protect persons from violence(private violence, threats, lesions, blows, kidnapping of persons, sexual violence)and those who reduce to slavery or in similar conditions to slavery. To this end itshould be remembered that the reduction to slavery is characterised by “anindividual who - by means of the explicit activity of others on their person - findsthemselves (even if nominally having the status of a subject of a legal system)reduced to the exclusive property of the accused, who materially uses, gains orprofits, or disposes of, similar to the way in which - according to historicalknowledge, converged in the present socio-cultural patrimony of the members ofthe collective - the ‘owner’, at one time, exercised the ownership of the slave”(Cassazione a Sezioni Unite, 20 November 1996 - 16 January 1997, n. 261 ).Beside the reduction to slavery, Art. 601 of the Penal Code punishes “the trafficor commerce of persons in similar conditions to that of slavery”. The law of 3August 1998, No. 269 - which introduced the new juridical cases regardingexploitation of prostitution, pornography, sexual tourism to the detriment of minors- has added to such an article a second paragraph which in a specific mannersanctions those who “make exploitation or even commerce of minors undereighteen years with the objective to committing them to prostitution” foreseeing aprison sentence from 6 to 20 years 90 .89The conduct described by No. 1-5 of Art. 3 of the Law can be re-assumed as follows: 1) to have aproperty or exercise whatever form of control of a house of prostitution; 2) the rent of an apartment forthe exercise of a house of prostitution; 3) the habitual tolerance of persons who inside a place in whichone is the owner or manager are prostitutes; 4) the recruitment for prostitution or aiding prostitution; 5)induction of an adult woman to prostitution, or undertake acts of artifice.90Contextually repealed part of the aggravating circumstances foreseen in Art. 4 No. 1 of the Law No.75/1958, today re-instated in this provision.