The Select Committee of the House of Commons on the contagious diseases acts (1866-69), sessions of 1879 to 1882, inclusive : the minority report / as adopted by Mr. Stansfeld, M.P. [and others] ; with references to the evidence on which it is founded.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on the Contagious Diseases Acts (1866-69)
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Select Committee of the House of Commons on the contagious diseases acts (1866-69), sessions of 1879 to 1882, inclusive : the minority report / as adopted by Mr. Stansfeld, M.P. [and others] ; with references to the evidence on which it is founded. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    481-8 963-1005 extent only, that such persons avoid open and avowed prostikition, which would cause them to be registered. They are, in fact, only deten-ed from registration, and not from prostitution. This conclusion appears indeed to be confirmed by Capt. Harris' Eeport for 1880, Avherein he says that the strict observation of the police Par. 6 npon the brothels has no doubt deterred many women of doubtful •character from resorting thereto for fear of being brought under the •operation of the Acts. The actual reduction of registered women has also been quoted as proving that the amount of sexual indulgence of men—more parti- ■culai-ly soldiers and sailors in protected districts—has diminished. If this, however, be the fact, the credit for such diminution must Ev 1882. he undoubtedly given to the many improvements in the barrack life 180-6 of soldiers, and to the institution of Homes for sailors, and other means and regulations devised for their protection from crimps •and harpies, as well as to the numerous benevolent agencies now happily in increasing operation for promoting intellectual and moral improvements in the national forces. On the other hand, it is conclusively proved by the evidence as to Glasgow, ah'eady noticed, that a substantial reduction in the number of known or avowed prostitutes may be effected by ordinary police action, and without the means of the periodical examination imder the Acts. 22. As to (3) the alleged improvement in character of the registered prostitutes, it is advanced as a proof of the beneficial administration of the Acts that the women who are now registered under the Acts •are more decent in appearance and conduct, as well as in domestic •circumstances, than formerly, and that sohcitation in public has •dinunished. Taking Woolwich as a specimen case, and comparing the testimony of Mr. Tuffield with that of Mr. Krause upon the subject, it is undoubtedly the fact that the women are now better ■dressed and more decently lodged than formerly, and also that there is but little solicitation in the public streets. But these results indicate the possession by the women of more money than formerly, •and as that can only be derived by this class from their evil avoca- tions, Mr. Krause's opinion that prostitution in Woolwich is a Ev 1881.7729- prosperous and attractive pursuit is evidently well founded. There 7734 is consequently, as he says, no need now for public solicitation; ^''^^ men visit the registered women in increased and increasing numbers, 7764 and although each woman now has a separate room, he has himself 7733 •discovered in the course of his ministerial visits as many as eight ^^^^ men in a bed-room with one woman. According to his observations 77eg the demand for prostitutes, owing to the increase of vicious men in 7762 recent years, is greater even than the supply. If, therefore, the improved appearance and public behaviour of the women be atttri- butable to the Acts, it is inevitable that the proximate cause of ■such improvements, i.e., the increase of professional gain, must be also attributed to them, together with the fact of the increased vice