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PROSTITUTION (from Lat. prostituere, ...
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See also:PROSTITUTION (from See also:Lat. prostituere, to expose publicly) , a word which may best be defined as promiscuous unchastity for gain. In See also:German See also:law it is described as Gewerbsmtissige Unzucht. It has always been distinguished in law and See also:custom from See also:concubinage, which is an inferior See also:state of See also:marriage, and from See also:adultery and other irregular sexual relations, in which the See also:motive is See also:passion. Prostitution has existed in all civilized countries from the earliest times, and has always been subject to regulation by law or by custom. In See also:Christian countries attempts have repeatedly been made to suppress it, but without success. Its ultimate basis lies in the two most elementary attributes of living things, namely, the will to live and the See also:instinct of See also:reproduction. The one represents the See also:interest of the individual, the other that of the See also:race; and the essential See also:character of prostitution is that it utilizes the latter to satisfy the former, whereas in true sexual passion, as See also:Schopenhauer has pointed out, the See also:advantage of the individual is subordinated to the needs of the race. In See also:practical See also:language, prostitution offers, through abuse of the sexual instinct, a means of livelihood which a certain proportion of See also:women prefer to other means. It is often assumed by philanthropic moralists that no other means are open to them. That may be so in cases in which deception or constraint has been used, and adverse circumstances—such as lack of See also:friends and a harsh social See also:code—See also:close the See also:door to other occupations; but to suppose that such cases See also:account for prostitution is to misapprehend the problem. The detailed investigations of various observers and the experience of See also:rescue See also:societies prove that the See also:great See also:majority of prostitutes prefer that means of livelihood to others entailing See also:regular See also:work, discipline and self-See also:control. When they really cease to prefer the See also:life, they leave it voluntarily.' Otherwise there is extreme difficulty in reclaiming even the few who will consent to try, and permanent success is only attained with a small proportion of them. The earliest See also:attempt at reclamation met with the same result. It was carried out by the See also:Roman empress See also:Theodora, wife of Justinian, herself a prostitute in See also:early life. She established a See also:home for 50o women on the See also:Bosporus, but after a See also:time they could not See also:bear the See also:restraint; some threw themselves into the See also:sea, and eventually the See also:scheme was abandoned. The preference is due to several causes, of which indolence is the See also:chief. Prostitutes are See also:drawn mainly from the See also:lower classes; the life offers them an See also:escape from the toil which would otherwise be their See also:lot. Women who See also:present themselves to the See also:police for inscription on the See also:continent of See also:Europe frequently give as their See also:reason for embracing the life, that they do not intend to work any more. Other causes are love of excitement and dislike of restraint. The same qualities make the criminal and the wastrel. In addition, a large proportion have the sexual appetite See also:developed in an abnormal degree. Of 3505 women interrogated by M. Buls in See also:Brussels, 1118 admitted le See also:gout pour l'homme. The foregoing are See also:primary causes. See also:External conditions which See also:foster any of these tendencies, or destroy the self-respect and sense of modesty which are their natural antidotes, are secondary causes of prostitution. The more important are: (I) difficulty of finding employment; (2) excessively laborious and See also:ill-paid work; (3) harsh treatment of girls at home; (4) promiscuous and indecent mode of living among the overcrowded poor; (5) the See also:aggregation of See also:people together in large communities and factories, whereby the See also:young are brought into See also:constant contact with demoralized companions; (6) the example of luxury, self-See also:indulgence and loose See also:manners set by the wealthier classes; (7) demoralizing literature and amusements; (8) the arts of profligate men and their agents. See also:Alcohol is often an aid to prostitution, but it can hardly be called a cause, for the practice flourishes even more in the most abstemious than in the most drunken countries. These observations apply to the See also:West. In See also:Oriental countries girls are commonly See also:born into or brought up to the See also:trade, and in that See also:case have no choice. Among the See also:ancient nations of the See also:East, with the exception of the See also:Jews, prostitution appears to have been connected with See also:History. religious See also:worship, and to have been not merely tolerated but encouraged. From the See also:Mosaic ordinances and the narrative of the Old Testament it is clear that the separation of the Jews as the chosen people, and the See also:maintenance of their faith, were always See also:felt by See also:Moses and by the later prophets to be chiefly endangered by the vicious attractions of the religious See also:rites practised around them. The code of sexual morality laid down in the See also:Book of See also:Leviticus is prefaced by the See also:injunction not to do after the doings of the See also:land of See also:Egypt, nor after the doings of the land of See also:Canaan, where all the abominations forbidden to the Jews were practised; and whenever the Israelites lapsed from their faith and " went a-whoring after See also:strange gods," the transgression was always associated with licentious conduct. In Egypt, See also:Phoenicia, See also:Assyria, Chaldea, Canaan and See also:Persia, the worship of See also:Isis, See also:Moloch, See also:Baal, See also:Astarte, Mylitta and other deities consisted of the most extravagant sensual orgies, and the temples were merely centres of See also:vice. In See also:Babylon some degree of prostitution appears to have been even compulsory and imposed upon all women in See also:honour of the goddess 1blylitta. In See also:India the ancient connexion between See also:religion and prostitution still sur- f The number of those who do so is considerable. In See also:Copenhagen, from 1871 to 1896, 33% of the registered prostitutes were removed from the See also:register by marriage and by returning to their friends. Many women resort to prostitution occasionally in See also:alternation with work.See also:vives; but that is not the case in See also:China, a most licentious See also:country; and, considering the antiquity of its See also:civilization, and its conservatism, we may perhaps conclude that it formed an exception in this respect among the ancient nations. Among the Jews, who stood apart from the surrounding peoples, the See also:object of the Mosaic law was clearly to preserve the purity of the race and the religion. Prostitution in itself was not forbidden, but it was to be confined to See also:foreign women. Jewish fathers were forbidden to turn their daughters into prostitutes (Lev. xix. 29), and the daughters of See also:Israel were forbidden to become prostitutes (Deut. See also:xxiii. 17), but no See also:penalty was attached to disobedience, except in the case of a See also:priest's daughter, who was to be burnt (Lev. xxi. 9). This distinction is significant of the attitude cf Moses, because the See also:heathen " priestesses " were nothing but prostitutes. Similarly, he forbade groves, a See also:common See also:adjunct of heathen temples and a convenient See also:cover for debauchery. Again, his purpose is shown by the severe penalties imposed on adultery (See also:death) and on unchastity in a betrothed damsel (death by stoning), as contrasted with the mild See also:prohibition of prostitution. So See also:long as it did not See also:touch the race or the religion, he tolerated it; and even this degree of disapproval was not maintained, for See also:Jephthah was the son of a harlot2 (Judg. xi. 1). There is abundant See also:evidence in the Old Testament that prostitution prevailed extensively in See also:Palestine, even in the earlier and more puritan days. The women were forbidden See also:Jerusalem and places of worship; they infested the waysides, and there is some evidence of a distinctive See also:dress or bearing, which was a marked feature of the trade among the Greeks and See also:Romans. In the later See also:period of aggrandisement that increase of licentious indulgence which Moses had foreseen took See also:place, associated with infidelity. The people plunged into debauchery, the invariable sign of See also:national decadence, which has always accompanied over-prosperity and See also:security, and has always heralded national destruction. Before leaving the Jews, it may be noted as an interesting fact that the remarkable See also:series of ordinances laid down by Moses in the interest of public See also:health contains unmistakable recognition of venereal disease and its contagious character (Lev. xv.). Passing on to the ancient Greeks, we find prostitution treated at See also:Athens on a new principle. The regulations of See also:Solon were designed to preserve public See also:order and decency. He established houses of prostitution (dicteria), which were a state See also:monopoly and confined to certain quarters. The dicteriades were forbidden the See also:superior parts of the See also:town, and were placed under various disabilities. They were compelled to See also:wear a distinctive dress, and, so far from. being connected with religion, they were not allowed to take See also:part in religious services. These See also:laws do not seem to have been carried out at all effectually, and were 2 Neither " harlot " nor " whore " is the Anglo-Saxon for a prostitute, for which the word is miltestre (so in Matt. xxi. 31). " Whore " came into See also:English from Scandinavian See also:sources. It was not spelled with the initial w till the beginning of the 16th See also:century. The earlier forms are See also:bore or hoore. The word appears in many See also:Teutonic See also:languages, See also:Dan. hore, Swed. hora, Du. hoer, Ger. Hure. The ultimate origin has been taken to be the See also:root meaning " to love," seen in Lat. See also:carus, dear. In its earliest usages the word means " adulterer " or " adulteress." It is frequent in the early version of the See also:Bible in the sense of prostitute. " Harlot," possibly, as the New English See also:Dictionary points out, as a less offensive word, is frequent in 16th-century versions. The word " harlot " first appears without its 'present application and usually of men, in the sense of See also:rogue, vagabond, sometimes even with no evil significance at all, much as we use " See also:fellow." Thus in the See also:prologue to the See also:Canterbury Tales, 647, where the " Somonour " is called a " gentii harlot and a kynde." The word came from Fr. arlot, masculine, arlotte, feminine. Du Cange (Glossarium) defines med. Lat. arlotus, as Helluo, ventri deditus, and gives the Fr. arlot as an See also:equivalent, with the meaning homo nihili, fripon, coquin. The Catholicon anglicum (1483) defines " harlott " as joculator, joculatrix, histrio, histrix, connecting the word with the wandering players, actors, jugglers, of the See also:day. The ultimate origin of the Romanic word is unknown. See also:Skeat connects it with the Teutonic word, which appears in Ger. kerl, Eng. " See also:churl," which means " See also:man," " fellow." Like " See also:bigot " (q.v.), the word has been fancifully derived from the name of a See also:person, viz. Arletta or Arlotta, the See also:mother of See also: In later times any one could set up a dicterion on See also:payment of the tax. In other Greek cities extreme See also:licence prevailed. At See also:Corinth, which was famous for sensual practices, a See also:temple, with a huge See also:staff of common prostitutes for attendants, was established in honour of See also:Aphrodite and for the See also:accommodation of the sailors frequenting the See also:port. The worship of this goddess became generally debased into an excuse for sexual excesses. The Romans See also:united the Jewish See also:pride of race with the Greek regard for public decency, and in addition upheld a See also:standard of austerity all their own. In early days See also:female virtue was highly honoured and strenuously maintained among them, of which the institution of the vestal virgins was a visible sign. Their attitude towards prostitution differed, accordingly, from that of other ancient nations. Among them, alone, it was considered disgraceful to a man to frequent the See also:company of prostitutes; and this traditional standard of social conduct, which markedly distinguished them from the Greeks, retained sufficient force down to the later days of the See also:Republic to furnish See also:Cicero with a weapon of rhetorical attack against his See also:political opponents, whom he denounced as scortatores. Prostituti%n was more severely regulated by them than by any other ancient race. They introduced the See also:system of police See also:registration, which is the leading feature of See also:administration in most See also:European countries to-day. From the earliest days of the Republic prostitutes were required to register at the aediles' See also:office, where licences were issued to them on payment of a tax. They were placed under stringent control, had to wear a distinctive dress, dye their See also:hair or wear yellow wigs, and were subject to various See also:civil disabilities; but the severest feature of the system was that, once registered, their names were never erased, and consequently remained for ever under an indelible stain. As in our times, registration became ineffective, and neither law nor tradition could check the demoralizing influence of ease and luxury when once external See also:conquest See also:left the Romans See also:free to devote their energies to the pursuit of See also:pleasure. An attempt was made, by the enactment of severer laws against prostitution, to See also:stem the rising See also:tide of immorality, which threatened to taint the best See also:blood in See also:Rome with the basest elements in the later days of the Republic. Citizens were prohibited from marrying the descend-ants or relatives of prostitutes, daughters of equestrians were forbidden to become prostitutes, and married women who did so were liable to penalties. More stringent regulations were also imposed on prostitutes themselves, in addition to the old disabilities and police system, which remained in force. If these laws had any effect at all, it was to promote the general prevalence of immorality; they certainly did not diminish prostitution. The profligacy of imperial Rome has never been surpassed for See also:gross and obscene sensuality. The greatest See also:change introduced by See also:Christianity with regard to prostitution was the See also:adoption of a more charitable attitude towards these social and legal outcasts. The Roman state tax, which had descended to the emperors and had been further regulated under Caligula, was partly given up in the 4th century by See also:Theodosius, on the representations of Florentius, a wealthy patrician, who offered to make See also:good the loss of See also:revenue out of hisown See also:pocket. It was fully and finally abolished by See also:Anastasius I. in the next century, and the old registers were destroyed. Then some of the civil disabilities of prostitutes were removed by Justinian in the 6th century. See also:Gibbon, who never gave See also:credit for a good motive when a See also:base one could be found, attributes Justinian's See also:action solely to his See also:desire to marry Theodora, whose life had been notorious; and no doubt she influenced him in the See also:matter, but it is permissible to assume a good motive. Even Gibbon is constrained to admit her virtue after marriage, and to give her credit for " the most benevolent institution " of Justinian's reign, the rescue home for fallen women in See also:Constantinople, which was at any See also:rate disinterested. Though it did not succeed, it marks a turning-point in the treatment of a class which had never met with public sympathy before. At the same time See also:procuration and connivance' were severely punished, which is in keeping with the Christian attitude. The early Christian See also: The Church became exceedingly active in prevention and rescue work, and was assisted by a devout and zealous laity. Rescue See also:missions were organized, convents were founded everywhere for the reception of penitents, and dowries were subscribed to procure them husbands. See also:Fulke de Neuilly was a conspicuous figure in this work. He held missions, preached, and collected large sums for marriage dowries. See also:Pope See also:Innocent III. (1198—1216) pronounced it a praiseworthy See also:act to marry a prostitute; and See also:Gregory IX., a few years later, wrote to See also:Germany that brothel-keepers were not to prevent prostitutes from attending missions, and that See also:clergy and laity who See also:drew profit from prostitution were banned. " Urge bachelors," he wrote, " to marry repentant girls, or induce the latter to enter the See also:cloister." In spite of such efforts, and of occasional spasms of severity by individual rulers, prostitution flourished everywhere throughout the middle ages. It was not merely tolerated, but licensed and regulated by law. In See also:London there was a See also:row of " bordells " (brothels) or " stews " in the See also:Borough near London See also:Bridge. They were originally licensed by the bishops of See also:Winchester, according to See also: The act was afterwards confirmed in the reigns of See also:Edward III. and See also:Richard II. In 1383 the bordells belonged to William See also:Walworth, See also:lord See also:mayor of London, who farmed them out, probably on behalf of the See also:Corporation, according to See also:analogy in other parts of Europe. They were closed in 1506, but reopened until 1546, when they were abolished by Henry VIII. In London we get the earliest known regulations directed against the spread of venereal disease. The act of I161 forbade the bordell-keepers to have women suffering from the " perilous infirmity of burning"; and by an order of 1430 they were forbidden to admit men suffering from an infirmitas nefanda. Probably it was by virtue of this order that in 1439 two keepers were condemned to eleven days' imprisonment and banishment from the See also:city. In 1473, again, it is recorded that bawds and strumpets were severely handled by Lord Mayor See also:Hampton. Elsewhere in Europe much the same state of things prevailed during the same period. Prostitution was both protected and regulated, and in many places it constituted a source of public revenue. In See also:France prostitutes were distinguished by a badge, and forbidden to wear jewels and See also:fine stuffs and to frequent certain parts of the town. Public brothels on a large See also:scale were established at See also:Toulouse, See also:Avignon and See also:Montpellier. At Toulouse the profits were shared between the city and the university; at Montpellier and Avignon the trade was a municipal monopoly, and farmed out to individuals; at Avignon, where the See also:establishment was kept up during the whole period of the popes' See also:residence, the inmates were subjected to a weekly examination. In 1254 See also: At the same time prostitutes were forbidden to live among respectable women or go to the See also:baths with them. Hospitality to important guests included placing the public Frauenhauser at their disposal. So See also: With regard to the first, there can be little doubt that both the slighter and graver forms of venereal disease existed in very remote times, but until the 15th century they attracted comparatively little See also:attention. The constitutional character of syphilis was certainly not understood—which is by no means surprising, since its See also:pathology has only recently been elucidated (see VENEREAL DISEASES)—bUt one would still have expected to find more See also:notice taken of it by See also:historical, moral and medicalwriters in classical and See also:medieval times. Nor is it possible to explain their reticence by prudery, in view of the unbounded See also:literary licence permitted in those ages. One can only conclude that the evil was less widely spread or less virulent than it after-wards became. At the end of the ,5th century it attracted so much notice that it was supposed .to have originated then de novo, or to have been brought from the West Indies by See also:Columbus —both untenable hypotheses; and, as usual, each country accused some other of bringing the contagion within its See also:borders. To speculate on the cause of this increased prevalence would be idle; it is enough to See also:note the fact and its consequences. It was immediately followed by the Reformation, and the two together led to a general campaign against the system of licensed prostitution. The last Frauenhaus was closed in Ulm in 1531, in Basel in 1534 and in Nuremberg in 1562. In London, as already noted, the bordells were abolished in 1546. In See also:Paris an See also:ordinance was issued in 156o prohibiting these establishments, and later all prostitutes were required to leave the city within twenty-four See also:hours. These instances will suffice to show the general character of the See also:movement. Nor were municipal brothels ever tolerated again. It is observed by Henne-am-Rhyn —no friend of See also:toleration—that their suppression was followed by the See also:appearance of the See also:crime of See also:infanticide, by the establishment of hospitals for foundlings and for syphilis. This suggests an See also:indictment against humanity which is hardly justified by the facts. Infanticide was no new thing, and foundling hospitals date from the beginning of the 13th century. Their marked increase and the establishment of syphilitic hospitals came a century later than the Reformation campaign against the Frauenhauser. The suppression of the latter did not affect the prevalence of prostitution. In the 17th century another spasm of severity occurred. In 1635 an edict was issued in Paris condemning men concerned in the See also:traffic to the galleys for life; women and girls to be whipped, shaved and banished for life, without formal trial. These ordinances were modified by Louis XIV. in 1684. The Puritan enactments in See also:England were equally See also:savage. Fornication was punishable by three months' imprisonment, followed by See also:bail for good behaviour. Bawds were condemned to be whipped, pilloried, branded and imprisoned for three years; the punishment for a second offence was death. In Hamburg all brothels were pulled down and the women expelled from the town. If these See also:measures had any effect, it was speedily lost in a greater reaction; but they have some historical interest, as the present system was gradually evolved from them. It would be tedious and unprofitable to follow all the steps, the shifts and turns of policy, adopted in different countries during the 18th century for the suppression or control of an incurable evil. They involve no new principle, and merely represent phases in the See also:evolution of the more settled and more systematic See also:procedure in force at the present time. Its chief feature, as compared with the past, is the establishment of an organized police force, to which the control of prostitution is entrusted, coupled with a general determination to put the subject out of sight and ignore it as far as possible. The procedure on the continent of Europe is virtually a return to the old Roman system of registration and supervision, except that there is no state tax, and names can be removed from the register. The See also:objects are the same, namely, public order and decency, with one important addition, which has given rise to much controversy. This is the protection of health: From what, has gone before, the reader will have gathered that it is not, as frequently supposed, a new thing. Already in the middle ages the question, occupied the attention of parliament in England, and a weekly examination of public women by the See also:barber (the surgeon of that time) was instituted at Avignon. The practice was adopted in Spain from about 1500, and later in many other places. But the abolition of licensed brothels, and the consequent growth of private prostitution, rendered it a dead See also:letter. To meet the difficulty, registration was devised. It was first suggested in France in 1765, but was not adopted until 1778. The present regulations in France are based on the ordinances of that year and of 178o which in their turn were borrowed from those of the 16th and 17th centuries, previously mentioned. The theory of the modern attitude towards prostitution is clearly laid down by successive ordinances issued in See also:Berlin. Those of 1700 stated that " this traffic is not permitted, but merely tolerated "; the more precise ones of 1792 pronounced the toleration of prostitution a necessary evil, " to avoid greater disorders which are not to be restrained by any law or authority, and which take their rise from an inextinguishable natural appetite "; and the regulations of 185o and 1876 are headed: Polizeiliche Vorschriften zur Sicherung der Gesundheit, der offentlichen Ordnung and See also:des offentlichen Anstandes. " This embraces the whole theory of present administration, and if Gesundheit be omitted, is not less applicable to the United See also:Kingdom than to the continent. The last attempt to suppress prostitution in Germany is See also:worth noting, as it occurred so See also:late as 1845. Registration was stopped and the tolerated houses were closed in Berlin, See also:Halle and See also:Cologne. The attempt was a See also:complete failure, and it was abandoned in 1851 in favour of the previous system. We proceed to state the present See also:condition of the law in France, Germany, See also:Austria and the United Kingdom. France.—The See also:French criminal law takes no See also:cognizance of prostitution. The subject was omitted from the penal code Present drawn up by the first Republic, and was never laws. restored, although many attempts were made to introduce legislation, on account of the great disorder which arose. Procuration is to a certain extent a criminal offence. See also:Paragraph 334 of the code forbids the exciting, favouring or facilitating habitually the debauch of girls or boys under twenty-one years of age; the penalty is imprisonment for six months to two years, and a fine of 50 to 500 francs. If the offence is committed by parents, guardians or other persons in a tutelary position, imprisonment is from two to five years, and the fine 300 to loon francs. The regulation of prostitution rests on the law of 1790, which entrusted the preservation of public tranquillity to the administrative authorities; these are in Paris the See also:prefect of police, and in other communes the mayor. The Parisian regulations have been built up by the decrees of successive prefects. They are based on those of 1778, which See also:fell into See also:abeyance at the Revolution, were reintroduced in 1816, amended in 1823, and made more complete in 1830 and 1841. Those adopted in other towns do not differ in any essential particular. The more important points are: (1) registration of prostitutes, which is either voluntary, or compulsory after repeated See also:arrest; (2) recognized brothels, which are of two classes—maisons de tolerance (residential) and maisons de passe (houses of See also:call); (3) medical examination, which is weekly at the maisons de tolerance, while other registered prostitutes must present them-selves fortnightly at the dispensary; (4) See also:hospital treatment of those found diseased; (5) rules with regard to solicitation, the frequenting of public places, &c. A small See also:fee is paid for examination. The penalty for infraction of regulations is imprisonment; offences are divided into two classes: (1) slight, (2) See also:grave, and the See also:term of imprisonment varies accordingly from fourteen days to one year. Names may be erased from the register on the following grounds: (1) marriage, (2) organic disease such as to render the calling impossible, (3) return to relations and See also:proof of good behaviour. The'whole procedure appears to See also:rest on grounds of doubtful legality. Prostitution never comes before the courts which alone can try offences and pronounce See also:sentence. The police have no See also:power to do so, yet they both try and sentence these women. That is to say, the whole system depends on their doing, by some verbal quibble, what they have no power to do. The question came before the court of See also:Reims in 1876, in the case of two women who refused to submit to medical examination, and the See also:judge decided in their favour. He was dismissed in consequence, which does not make the situation more satisfactory. Germany.—The German law is more explicit and more logical. Prostitution is not forbidden, but by paragraph 361 of the Imperial Code women are liable to arrest for practising prostitution without being under police control, and for contraveningregulations after they have been placed under such control. This brings the traffic completely under the police, and gives legal See also:sanction to their regulations. These vary to slime extent in different places, but their general See also:tenor is the same. They include compulsory registration and weekly or semi-weekly medical examination, together with rules, for the most part extremely strict, with regard to public demeanour and conditions of life. In Hamburg, for instance, prostitutes are confined to certain streets or houses, forbidden to See also:share lodgings with persons not registered, to have female servants under twenty-five years of age, to keep See also:children after school age, to admit young men under twenty, to make a See also:noise or See also:quarrel, to attract attention in any way, to go out between two and five in summer, to frequent certain parts of the town, or public balls, or superior seats in the See also:theatre, to remain out after 11 p.m. (Regulations of 1886). On proved reclamation, supervision may be relaxed or names struck off the register. Generally, the women are compelled to contribute a fixed sum to a sick fund, for defraying the cost of medical examination; and in some places also to a See also:journey fund, which is applied to sending strangers to their homes. Brothels are absolutely illegal throughout Germany. Paragraph 18o of the Imperial Code (1876) made Kuppelei a penal offence. Kuppelei is defined as promoting prostitution, either by procuration or by providing facilities of any See also:kind. There is (1) See also:ordinary Kuppelei, or simply assisting prostitution for gain, and (2) aggravated Kuppelei, which includes false pretences and procuration by parents, guardians, teachers, &c. The penalty for the former is a See also:short term of imprisonment and police supervision; for the latter, penal See also:servitude up to five years. It is obvious that if this law were strictly enforced, it would amount to suppression, for every householder or See also:house-owner who harboured a prostitute would be liable to prosecution. Its actual See also:interpretation, however, is very elastic. A law passed in See also:Prussia in 1900 has for its object the reclamation of the young. Girls under eighteen may be placed under control until they are twenty-one. Austria.—The See also:Austrian law goes farther than the German, and is still more inconsistent with the existing practice. By paragraph 5 of the Criminal Act of 1885 prostitution is actually forbidden, but permission is given to the police to tolerate it under conditions, and to prescribe regulations according to circumstances. Power to punish is also given to the police. Only certain cases of prostitution are liable to criminal prosecution, namely, when continued after police punishment, with disregard of regulations, when practised by persons suffering from venereal disease, and when accompanied by public See also:scandal. See also:Seduction of the young is punishable by imprisonment, eight days to six months; living on the prostitution of others, by eight days to three months. Kuppelei is a penal offence. See also:Simple Kuppelei include (I) harbouring prostitutes for the purpose of pursuing their trade, (2) procuration, (3) having any connexion with the traffic—penalty, three to six months' imprisonment; qualified Kuppelei is (1) procuration of innocent persons (equivalent to use of false pretences), (2) procuration by parents, guardians, &c.—penalty, one to five years. The police regulations and procedure are similar to those in Germany, but less strict. In all these countries a special service of police is employed. Great See also:Britain.—The English law differs markedly from the foregoing. It regards prostitution solely as a public See also:nuisance, and See also:dates from the middle of the 18th century. The See also:principal act (25 Geo. II.) was passed in 1755, making perpetual a previous act of 1752. It is entitled " An act for encouraging prosecutions against persons keeping bawdy-houses," and provides that two ratepayers, on giving notice to a See also:constable, may go with him before a See also:justice and obtain an order for proceeding against the persons in question. A further act was passed in 1763, fixing the penalties, and a third in 1818 (58 Geo. III.), enabling the overseers of the See also:parish to take the requisite proceedings. Thus machinery was provided for dealing with brothels, but it was left to the public to put it in See also:motion. The See also:Vagrancy Act of 1824 enables the police to proceed against " common prostitutes for behaving in a riotous or indecent manner," and also forbids indecent literature. This was strengthened by a special act (1839) applying to London only, for the prevention of " loitering for the purpose of prostitution or solicitation, to the annoyance of passengers or inhabitants." Other large towns have since obtained private acts for the same purpose. The penalties are fines and short terms of imprisonment. In 1847 an act was passed making it an offence for publicans to allow " common prostitutes to assemble and continue " in licensed premises. The Licensing Act of 1872 contains a See also:provision to the same effect. The previous law for dealing with brothels by indictment was strengthened by the Criminal Law See also:Amendment Act of 1885, which renders " any person who keeps, manages or acts or assists in the management of a brothel," and any owner or occupier who knowingly permits the same, liable to See also:summary conviction under the Summary Jurisdiction Act; penalties for first offence, a fine up to £20, or imprisonment up to three months, increased for second offence to £4o and four months respectively. The same act also strengthened the law, which had previously been very weak, for the protection of the young and the prevention of procuration. It makes the procuration or attempted procuration of any girl or woman " to become a common prostitute " a See also:misdemeanour punishable by two years' imprisonment, and places the following offences on the same footing: procuring defilement by threats, See also:fraud or drugs; compulsory detention for defilement or in a brothel; procuring the defilement of girls under twenty-one; inducing them to leave the kingdom or to leave home and go to a brothel, with See also:intent. The defilement of girls under sixteen and over thirteen years of age is also a misdemeanour, and subject to the same penalty; the defilement of girls under thirteen is See also:felony, punishable by penal servitude from five years up to a life-sentence. Owners or occupiers of premises conniving at these offences are equally liable. No account of the law in the United Kingdom would be complete without some reference to the partial adoption of the system of examination as employed elsewhere in Europe in 1864-1883. In 1864 a Contagious Diseases Prevention Act was passed providing for the compulsory medical examination of prostitutes, and detention in hospital of those found diseased, in the following See also:garrison towns: See also:Portsmouth, See also:Plymouth, See also:Woolwich, See also:Chatham, See also:Sheerness, See also:Aldershot, See also:Colchester, Shorn-cliff e, the See also:Curragh, See also:Cork and See also:Queenstown. The legal machinery was a justices' order granted on sworn See also:information that the woman named was a common prostitute. " The Act having proved very inefficacious " (judge See also:advocate-general in House of See also:Commons, See also:April 1883), it was amended in 1866 and extended to See also:Windsor. Two years later an important memorial was drawn up by the royal colleges of physicians and surgeons in favour of the acts and their extended application, and in 1869 they were further amended and applied to Canterbury, See also:Dover, See also:Gravesend, See also:Maidstone, See also:Southampton and Winchester—eighteen places in all. A popular agitation, based on humanitarian and moral grounds, and continuously carried on against the measure led to the See also:appointment of a royal See also:commission in 1871 and a select See also:committee in 1879. The See also:direct evidence was strongly in favour of the acts, alike with regard to the diminution of disease among the troops in the protected towns, the See also:absence of complaints and the good effect on public order, to which clergymen and other residents testified. The majority of the committee reported accordingly after three years' inquiry; but in 1883 the House of Commons passed a See also:resolution, by 182 to See also:Ito votes, condemning the compulsory examination of women. As this would have entailed refusal to See also:vote the See also:money required to carry on the system, it was immediately dropped, and the See also:officers of the See also:metropolitan police to whom its See also:execution had been entrusted were recalled. In 1886 the C. D. Acts were repealed. In India the system was introduced for military cantonments in 1865, partially suspended at the end of 1884, and stopped in 1888 on account of the action of the House of Commons. A new See also:Cantonment Act was applied in 1889, and an amending act in 1893, by which the compulsory or periodical examination of women was prohibited. In consequence of the enormous increase of syphilis which followed, a new order was made in 1897, which gave power (1) to call on persons suffering from a contagious disease to attend the dispensary, (2) to remove brothels, (3) to prevent the residence or loitering of prostitutes near cantonments. The foregoing summary of existing laws and regulations sufficiently indicates the present methods of dealing with prostitution. All Western nations broadly follow one or other of the systems described, though the See also:local regulations may vary somewhat in See also:minor details. The French system of recognized houses, with registration, police des mteurs, &c., obtains in See also:Belgium, See also:Russia, See also:Hungary, Spain and See also:Portugal; Italy adopted it in 1855, but Conditions abandoned it in 1888 for a modified system; in the actually Dutch towns maisons de tolerance are permitted existing. with or without a service des mwurs; See also:Norway has abandoned registration, except in See also:Bergen and See also:Trondhjem, but otherwise Scandinavia rather follows the German principle of non-recognition, with more or less vigorous policing; of the Swiss cantons, some have the French, others the German system; while the United States and the See also:British self-governing colonies incline more to the English See also:model of See also:comparative freedom, without a moral police or one possessing arbitrary executive See also:powers See also:independent of the courts of justice. All the systems have their defects; all fail to fulfil their purpose in the great cities. The most modest aim is to preserve public order and propriety. This object is better secured on the continent of Europe than elsewhere, but at the cost of submitting to an arbitrary police See also:rule, intolerable to a free people. There appears to be less prostitution, both visible and actual, in Italy than in other countries. Under the English system the streets can be, and sometimes are, kept orderly in provincial towns by an energetic police; but in London the See also:mass of prostitution is so great that the police seem totally unable to See also:cope with it. Important thoroughfares and centres are frequented by large See also:numbers of prostitutes in broad daylight, and choked by them at See also:night. The law with regard to loitering is a dead letter, for these women do nothing but loiter. Flagrant solicitation is to some, extent repressed, but for the most part the police content themselves with preventing See also:positive tumults, and do not always succeed in that. On the other See also:hand the less obvious but more pernicious nuisance of the brothel prevails to a far greater extent on the continent of Europe. Under the French system it is, of course, encouraged, in preference to " surreptitious " prostitution; but under the German it is forbidden. The facts here afford a proof of the See also:impotence of the law no less striking than the condition of the London streets. By the German and Austrian criminal law, quoted above, brothels are prohibited, yet they abound in both countries. In Austria they are recognized, and perhaps the See also:logic of the law is saved by permissive police clauses. In Germany it is not so. Paragraph 18o absolutely disposes of the question, and in Berlin it is acted on. Elsewhere brothels not only existed, but were recognized by authority for years after the passing of the laws against Kuppelei. It was not until 1886 and 1889 that they were nominally abolished in Hamburg and See also:Saxony respectively. Yet they still exist in most or all of the large towns, with the knowledge and consent, if not with the permission, of the police. In some they are even authorized. Berlin, which is more severely policed than any town outside Russia, is an exception. There brothels are not openly winked at, but the police have to See also:deal annually with 16,000 or 17,000 charges of Kuppelei, and the number remains very constant, from which it may be inferred that the law, even when logically and energetically carried out, is quite ineffective. The European system of registration is still more delusive. In Russia, where the authorities have the means of knowing the movements and habits of every individual, it may be possible to compel the registration of the majority of prostitutes, but in other countries it is impossible. The police everywhere complain of the amount of " clandestine " prostitution, which they cannot control, and which tends always to increase, under the system, while the See also:roll of inscribed women dwindles. The numbers alone are sufficient to prove the failure of the procedure; for in-stance, 311 and 270 in See also:Dresden and See also:Munich respectively (Zehnder 1891), both See also:capital towns and cities of pleasure containing over 300,000 inhabitants. Cologne,, with only See also:half the See also:population, had See also:double the number on the register at the same time. In Paris, which may be called the headquarters of Western vice, the disproportion between registered and clandestine prostitution has reduced the whole system to an absurdity. The number of women on the roll is not a tenth of the estimated number of prostitutes; nor is Berlin, with about 3000 on the register, any better off. In See also:Bordeaux, See also:Brest, See also:Lille, See also:Lyons and See also:Marseilles the same See also:process is going on (See also:Reuss). It follows that the protection of health, which is the object aimed at by registration, is delusive in an equal degree. There are no means of ascertaining the amount of venereal disease existing in any town or country, except in Norway, and consequently, no data for comparing one period or one place with another; but we know that all forms of such disease are still very prevalent in all large European towns, in spite of the system. The only exact figures available are the military returns, which are of some value. It is in garrison towns of moderate See also:size that compulsory registration is likely to be most efficiently carried out and to See also:pro-duce the most decided results, because the women with whom soldiers See also:consort are by their character and habits least able to elude the vigilance of the police. The following table gives the proportion of admissions to hospital from all forms of venereal disease in the German, French, Austrian and British forces for twenty years from 1876. It may be added that the pro-portion in the See also:Russian See also:army is almost identical with the French, while the See also:Italian figures are slightly higher than the Austrian. It is therefore unnecessary to give them:- Admissions per woo in European Armies. Year. German. French. Austrian. British British (Home). (India). 1876 28.8 57.0 65.8 146.5 203.5 1877 30.0 57.8 66.9 153.2 224.4 1878 36.o 59.7 75.4 175.5 291.6 1879 38.5 63.7 81.4 179'5 253'3 188o 34.9 65'8 75.7 245'9 249'0 1881 39.2 6o•6 79.0 245'5 259'6 1882 41.0 62•o 73.7 246•o 265.5 1883 38.2 58.9 73.3 260.0 271'3 1884 34'5 52.1 73.5 270'7 293'5 1885 32.6 50.7 69.o 275'4 342'6 1886 29'7 49'6 65.8 267.1 385.8 1887 28.6 51.6 64'4 252.9 361.4 1888 26.3 46.7 65.4 224'5 372.2 1889 26.7 45.8 65.3 212.1 481.5 1890 26.7 43.8 65.4 212.4 503.6 1891 27'2 43'7 63.7 197'4 400'7 1892 27.9 44.0 61.6 201.2 409.9 1893 - 42.8 64.5 194.6 466.o 1894 - 40.9 64.8 182.4 511'4 1895 - - - 173.8 522.3 The most striking thing in this table is the enormous difference between the See also:continental and the British figures. To make the comparison more complete, we will add the following, which gives the See also:average admissions per See also:I000 for the three years 1890-1892:-- German. French. Rus- Aus- Italian. U.S.A. British British Dutch sian. trine. (Home). (India). (Indies). 27'2 43.6 43.0 63'5 71.3 77.4 203'6 438.0 455'6 It is clear at once that troops in the East stand upon an entirely different footing from those in the West, the Dutch figures being even higher than the British; we may therefore put them aside for the moment. Comparing the rest, we notice that not only are the British figures enormously higher than the other European, but the latter also show very large discrepancies; and since all the foreign troops are under the same protective system, we may conclude that other factors must be taken into account. The discipline maintained, the character of the soldiers themselves, and the procedure with regard to admission into hospital, no doubt all affect the returns. Further, a sort of epidemic rise and fall is to be noted. All the returns given in the first table show a simultaneous rise for several years, beginning with 1876; and having reached a maximum, each shows a progressive fall, likewise lasting over several years. This points to another disturbing See also:factor. It is convincingly shown by the figures for the protected districts in the United Kingdom before, during, and after the period of protection. In 1864-that is, just before the first Contagious Diseases Act came into operation-the proportional figure was 26o; ten years later it had fallen to 126; but in 1883 it had risen again to 234, in spite of the protection. Then, protection being removed, it See also:rose to 276, but afterwards fell again progressively to 191 in 1895, without any protection. It is therefore evident that in interpreting the See also:statistics See also:allowance must be made for large fluctuations due to causes quite independent of the protective system. The margin of difference, however, between the British and European re-turns is so large that, when all allowances have been made, it is impossible to doubt that a considerable degree of real protection is afforded to soldiers by the system. This conclusion is See also:con-firmed by the comparatively high returns for the army of the United States, and still more by the See also:Indian statistics. They rose gradually, it is true, during the cantonment system, but when that was dropped disease increased with shocking rapidity. Between 1887 and 1895 the admissions for primary syphilis rose from 75.5 to 174.1 per I000, and those for secondary syphilis from 29.4 to 84'9. The broad conclusion is that under special conditions, and when rigidly enforced, registration and medical examination do to a considerable extent fulfil the purpose of protecting health. Their failure to do so among the population at large and under the ordinary conditions of life is not surprising when we regard the amount of venereal disease which still occurs even among soldiers protected by the most rigorous measures and under the most favourable conditions. A general view of the whole subject suggests no pleasant or hopeful conclusions. Prostitution appears to be inseparable from human society in large communities. In different countries and ages it has in turn been patronized and prohibited, ignored and recognized, tolerated and condemned, regulated and let alone, flaunted and concealed. Christianity, the greatest moral force in the history of mankind, has repeatedly and systematically attacked it with a See also:scourge in one hand and See also:balm in the other; but the effect has been trifling or transient. Nor have all the social and administrative resources of modern civilization availed to exercise an effective control. The elementary 'laws on which prostitution rests are stronger than the artificial codes imposed by moral teaching, conventional See also:standards or legislatures; and attempts at repression only See also:lead to a change of See also:form, not of substance. It survives all treatment; and though it may coexist with national vigour, its extravagant development is one of the signs of a rotten and decaying civilization. In Western communities the traffic is not carried on so openly as in the East, nor is it exploited for purposes of public revenue, as among the ancients and in the middle ages; a See also:veil of reticence and secrecy, for the most part of a transparently flimsy character, is thrown over it; but whatever is gained in public decency is counterbalanced by other attendant evils. Two, in particular, are fostered by the policing of prostitutes. One is the system of See also:blackmail levied by the executive. The scandal has been most notorious in the United States, but it exists everywhere, and is a constant source of profound corruption. The other is the growth of the most degraded class that ever disgraced the name of man-the creatures who live upon the earnings of individual prostitutes, with whom they cohabit. They are called souteneurs in France, louis in Germany, cadets in New See also:York, and by various See also:slang names in Great Britain. They are all criminals. They flourish chiefly on the continent of Europe, where they exist in large and ever-increasing numbers; but they find their way everywhere, and are a dangerous menace to society. They are not altogether new. The Elizabethan See also:drama is full of references to men who took See also:toll of prostitutes in return for protective services in the old days of persecution; but they have been greatly fostered by the modern system, under which women find it necessary or convenient to have the cover of a man, who can pass for a See also:husband and .baffle the police. Thus the law is evaded on the one hand by the corruption of those who administer it, and on the other by the appearance of a class of criminal idlers more degraded than any other—both greater evils than the traffic which the law is intended, but fails, to control. There are no data for comparing the extent of profligacy at present existing in Western communities with that in other countries or in former times, but the unmentionable facts which come constantly to the knowledge of the police des mceurs, and less frequently to the ears of doctors, and lawyers, leave no doubt that in intensity of vice the great centres of modern civilization have nothing whatever to learn from Corinth, imperial Rome, ancient Egypt or modern China. The classical obscenities dug up and relegated to museums are far surpassed by the photographic abominations prepared to-day in Paris or in See also:Amsterdam. The gross perversion and abuse of the sexual instinct implied by these excesses may be a passing phase, but it is a phase which has always marked the decadence of great nations. It is undoubtedly accompanied by a general tendency towards increase of the See also:volume of prostitution. Improvement in the conditions of life among the poor ought to tend in the opposite direction, by removing one of the most potent causes of the traffic, but it is more than counterbalanced by the rising standard of luxury and comfort which accompanies it, by the aggregation of the people, more and more into great cities, and by their craving for amusement. The growth of prostitution has already left its marks on the marriage- and See also:birth-rates of the most highly civilized Western communities. In 1900 the Prussian See also:Government made an attempt, with the co-operation of the medical corporations, to ascertain the amount of venereal disease prevalent in the kingdom. Circular questions were addressed to all members of the medical profession requesting them to See also:report the number of patients suffering from those disorders in their practice at the date of the 1st of April. Answers were sent in by 63%, and the aggregate number of patients was 40,902. From this datum it is calculated that the number of persons attacked in the course of a year is at the very least 500,000 in Prussia alone (vide Hygienische Rundschau, April 1902). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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