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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    and that his actual achievements by such moans are approved and adopted by his superiors in the public service. To the community, however, the scandalous spectacle is afforded of open co-operation between the administrators of the law and those who are in con- Ev 1881^^^^ templation of law offenders against law and morality. For, 8083-93 while every brothel-keeper is an offender, and every brothel an offence against the law, a certain number of brothels and brothel- Ev 1882. keepers in each of the subjected districts are practically under the protection of the law; and are utilized by the administrators of the law as instruments for preventing, not vice itself, but certain physical consequences of vice. The registered prostitutes are also Ev 1881. comprised in this scheme of co-operation, for practically they act 4013-4 on behalf of the police, as spies upon women and girls engaged Ev 1882. clandestinely in prostitution, and furnish information which, in ^^^iT-b some cases at least, is the undoubted invention of malice. It is remarkable that while the police invariably refuse to believe the assertions of any prostitute regarding herself, they seem ready to credit her statements respecting other women. The legal position Ev 1881^ is, therefore, at once both inconsistent and scandalous. And the 5681-2 system of toleration and co-operation thus established, amounts in reality to a licence of brothel-keeping and of prostitution. To Ev 1882. the public, especially in the neighbourhood of these operations, the 4501-12 result of the whole system is necessarily demoralizing. The frequent ^^ '^5066 domiciliary visits of the police to the brothels—the regular con- 5731 course of women on examination days, escorted or accosted by men, 8214 and sometimes accompanied by open exhibitions of indecency both 8545 of action and speech—and the occasional forcible removal of an 8210 unwilling woman to hospital—all necessarily exercise a demoralizing influence among the poor and ill-educated in the vicinity, especially the younger persons of both sexes, and familiarize them with vicious ideas, which have their legitimate consequences in scenes which are a public scandal, and disgraceful to civilization. It is true the 7774 police do not appear iii uniform (except at Aldershot), but they App 487 soon become known in the neighbourhood. Moreover, the defaiilt ^^c 2 of uniform induces impersonation, for purposes either of indecency 7047 50 or fraud—in one case apparently with both objects. Even Inspector App 481 Anniss himself has been the subject of impersonation; although he Ev 7050 nevertheless defends the practice of appearing without uniform 4032-6 (which was condemned by the Eoyal Commission). 6765-6 25. (4)—The various objections urged by the opponents of the Acts, on the general ground of the violation of moral legislative and constitutional priaciples involved therein, are fully stated in the evidence, and may be briefly summarized under the follow- ing heads of particulars in which such violation is principally alleged, viz.:— (a)—In making provision on the subject of sexual vice, not for its suppression or punishment, but only for preventing the physical consequences of vice.