This paper explores the role that the control system — understood as a set of financial and non-financial mechanisms — introduced by the Ministerial Decree of 15th February played in promoting the ethical tolerance of prostitution in the Kingdom of Italy. A qualitative research method was adopted. Specifically, this study draws on literature on accounting and deviant behaviors and on Suchman's theories of legitimation to interpret empirical evidence collected from archival primary sources as well as secondary sources.
The paper highlights how the accounting mechanisms introduced by the law were molded to limit the serious consequences of prostitution from a public health standpoint and to demonstrate that the State neither profited from prostitution nor used public money to fund it. This should have stimulated ethical tolerance of the law itself and, consequently, of the prostitution that was regulated. This paper opens a new research avenue in the field of accounting history by exploring the connection between accounting and prostitution.
Moreover, unlike the extant literature on accounting and deviant behaviors, this study delves into the role played by accounting mechanisms to promote ethical tolerance rather than to activate normalization processes. Gatti, M. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article for both commercial and non-commercial purposes , subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors.
One year later, the newly established Kingdom of Italy extended the law to the rest of the national territory with the aim of regulating a phenomenon that had significant social, health and economic implications.
By means of this law, prostitution was de facto made legal in the Kingdom of Italy for the first time, although it could only be carried out in the manner prescribed by the law.
