Prostitution. Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of sexual activity varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact with the customer. The requirement of physical contact also creates the risk of transferring diseases. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as the world's oldest profession in the English-speaking world. A person who works in this field is called a prostitute, and sometimes a sex worker, but the words hooker and whore are also sometimes used to describe those who work as prostitutes. Prostitution occurs in a variety of forms, and its legal status varies from country to country, ranging from being an enforced or unenforced crime, to unregulated, to a regulated profession. It is one branch of the sex industry, along with pornography, stripping, and erotic dancing. Brothels are establishments specifically dedicated to prostitution. In escort prostitution, the act may take place at the client's residence or hotel room, or at the escort's residence or a hotel room rented for the occasion by the escort. Another form is street prostitution. According to a 2011 report by Fondation Scelles there are about 42 million prostitutes in the world, living all over the world. Estimates place the annual revenue generated by prostitution worldwide to be over $100 billion. The majority of prostitutes are female and have male clients. The position of prostitution and the law varies widely worldwide, reflecting differing opinions. Some view prostitution as a form of exploitation of or violence against women, and children, that helps to create a supply of victims for human trafficking. Some critics of prostitution as an institution are supporters of the Nordic model that decriminalizes the act of selling sex and makes the purchase of sex illegal. This approach has also been adopted by Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway, France and Sweden. Others view sex work as a legitimate occupation, whereby a person trades or exchanges sexual acts for money. Amnesty International is one of the notable groups calling for the decriminalization of prostitution. Prostitute is derived from the Latin prostituta. Some sources cite the verb as a composition of pro meaningup front or forward and stituere, defined as to offer up for sale. Another explanation is that prostituta is a composition of pro and statuere. A literal translation therefore is: to put up front for sale or to place forward. The Online Etymology Dictionary states, The notion of sex for hire is not inherent in the etymology, which rather suggests one exposed to lust or sex indiscriminately offered. The word prostitute was then carried down through various languages to the present-day Western society. Most sex worker activists groups reject the word prostitute and since the late 1970s have used the term sex worker instead. However, sex worker can also mean anyone who works within the sex industry or whose work is of a sexual nature and is not limited solely to prostitutes. A variety of terms are used for those who engage in prostitution, some of which distinguish between different types of prostitution or imply a value judgment about them. Common alternatives for prostitute include escort and whore; however, not all professional escorts are prostitutes. Use of the word whore is widely considered pejorative, especially in its modern slang form of ho. In Germany, however, most prostitutes' organizations deliberately use the word Hure since they feel that prostitute is a bureaucratic term. Those seeking to remove the social stigma associated with prostitution often promote terminology such as sex worker, commercial sex worker or sex trade worker. Another commonly used word for a prostitute is hooker. Although a popular etymology connects hooker with Joseph Hooker, a Union general in the American Civil War, the word more likely comes from the concentration of prostitutes around the shipyards and ferry terminal of the Corlear's Hook area of Manhattan in the 1820s, who came to be referred to as hookers. A streetwalker solicits customers on the streets or in public places, while a call girl makes appointments by phone, or in recent years, through email or the internet.