Italian judge sentences man to buy feminist books for underage prostitute

A judge in Rome handed down an unusual ruling to a man convicted of soliciting an underage prostitute: Buying his 15-year-old victim 30 feminist books, including works by Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, and Anne Frank’s diary.

The judge, Paola Di Nicola, said she hoped the books would help “help the girl understand the damage done to her dignity as a woman,” according to the London Evening Standard.

Adriana Cavarero, the author of one of the books the man is ordered to purchase, criticized the ruling in an interview with Milanese newspaper Corriere Della Sera, saying that he should be forced to read the books, not his victim. “Adolescence is not the time for reflection. What he did was much worse: an adult who, knowingly, paid for sex with a minor,” she said, according to a translation by the Independent.

The ruling followed an investigation into a Roman underage prostitution ring that resulted in a nine-year sentence for the “mastermind,” the AFP reported.

Sam Stecklow is the Weekend Editor for Fusion.