CHAPTER VIII

PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES IN THE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION

We have seen that the ideal of sanitary regulation can, for moral reasons, admit of only an approximate realisation. It is of great importance to examine regulation as it exists to-day, with a view to ascertaining how far the approximation falls short of the ideal.

That part of prostitution which cannot be subjected to sanitary control is necessarily very large. Probably by far the greater number of prostitutes begin their career of shame before they have attained their majority.'

This fact is so well known that authority need hardly be cited to prove it. It stands to reason that the waif or neglected child of fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen should fall the easiest prey, first of the seducer and later of the procurer.

1 Of 1000 prostitutes concerning whom Dr. Le Pileur was able to secure detailed information, 758 began to prostitute themselves before the twenty-first year; 109 were prostitutes before the sixteenth year.Le Pileur, Conférence Internationale, Brussels, 1899; Rapports Préliminaires, 3me Question, 47.

Since the average length of time in which a prostitute exercises her trade is not more than half a dozen years, it is evident that the minors make up a considerable proportion of the total numbers of those who are at any time engaged in prostitution.

But minors, as a rule, cannot be subjected to sanitary control. In every country there is a strong public sentiment against the official recognition of minor prostitutes. Whether it is a sound moral sentiment or mere sentimentality, it must be counted with as a fact; and no administration dares to violate it to any great extent.'

With the minors may be grouped the very large numbers of prostitutes who will not voluntarily subject themselves to sanitary control, and whose conduct is not sufficiently notorious to justify compulsory registration. Naturally, most prostitutes begin in this class. They are not at first sufficiently hardened to be willing to be classed with notorious prostitutes; they still cherish the purpose of returning to honourable life.

And

although the police may suspect them, in probably nine cases out of ten it would be impossible

In Berlin, 229 minors were registered in 1898. Any one can see that the number is wholly insignificant as compared with the number actually living in the state of prostitution. In Paris, from 1816 to 1832, 59% of those newly registered were minors. From 1851 to 1866 minors made up 33%. From 1880 to 1886 the minors were 20%. The percentage has declined since, but the exact figures are not at hand.

to obtain proof that would by any regular course of judicial procedure convict them of debauch. It is true that such proof is not absolutely necessary. Every police administration that undertakes to control prostitution pursues a more or less arbitrary policy. But experience has proved that such a policy must be pursued with great care. Otherwise the charge is sure to arise that honourable women have been seized and branded with the deepest infamy known to civilisation. It may be that the women in question are really what the police consider them to be. But if positive proof is wanting, as must generally be the case, the women stand innocent before the general public. And many such charges would annihilate any police organisation.

Continental defenders of sanitary regulation frequently deplore the violent opposition to the sanitary police that is aroused whenever the charge of arbitrary procedure is made. The system of sanitary control, they claim, is shorn of all effectiveness if the police are not empowered to act upon reasonable suspicion. Whether the popular feeling is sound or not, it is not necessary to inquire. The fact remains that it exists in every country, and that administrative systems find themselves compelled to respect it. Even in Russia, where, we are accustomed to believe, the police do much as they please, the high-class prostitute is seldom forced upon the register, for the simple reason that she can make her cause heard. It is the low-class

woman' who is the subject of arbitrary disposal. In Germany, imbued as it is with military ideals, the police proceed with a good deal of freedom in registering women against their will. Lack of visible means of support, and the existence of venereal disease are taken as proof of prostitution. Of course, reflection will show that such proof is not absolute. But the public is generally willing enough to believe that a woman without support, especially if diseased, is of bad character; and doubtless mistakes would not be so very frequent. The experience of Berlin proves, however, that the great majority of those who are actually prostitutes cannot be discovered even in this way.

> In Paris, the police are more circumspect in proceeding to register unwilling women as prostitutes. The movement for the abolition of control during the 'seventies and 'eighties brought to light some exceedingly unfortunate mistakes that had been made in the arrest of suspected women.2 Doubtless the Bureau of Morals proceeded with as great caution as possible. But if compulsory registration is employed freely, some mistakes are inevitable.

It would be interesting to know how far such a policy could be pursued in a great city of England or America, with Anglo-Saxon notions of personal liberty and of inviolability of domicile, and with

1 Stürmer, Die Prostitution in Russland, 107.

2 Mrs. Butler, Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade, 285; YvesGuyot, op. cit., 126.

Anglo-Saxon dislike for police inquisition into private affairs. Of course a great number of lowclass prostitutes could be picked up in notorious resorts, and public opinion might find little to object to. But as soon as the more notorious had been disposed of, it is difficult to see how the police could proceed farther.

Accordingly, it may be taken for granted that voluntary registration must chiefly be relied upon. Such is the case in the two cities we have selected as typical.' It may, further, be taken for granted that the very great majority of prostitutes will never submit voluntarily.2

'Of course, "voluntary" inscription must be understood to imply something quite different from free consent. By frequent arrests, by threats of long imprisonment, and the like, these women are compelled to submit. But of course no such persecution would compel a really innocent woman to consent to inscription.

Every authority on prostitution will state that the unsubjected or "clandestine" prostitutes far outnumber those who are subject to control. Naturally, the number of the clandestine can be arrived at only by conjecture. Some of these conjectures may, however, be worth mentioning.

Barthélemy estimates that the clandestine prostitutes are from ten to fifteen times as numerous as the subjected. Reuss contents himself with saying that the clandestine are greatly in the majority. Lecour, writing in the 'seventies, estimated the number of prostitutes in Paris at 30,000, of whom about 4000 were subjected. At present, something over 6000 are subjected; and from the incessant complaints of the increase of clandestine prostitution, we may infer that the proportion has not changed for the better (from the reglementist point of view). Müller, writing in 1867, estimated the prostitutes of Vienna at 20,000. In all probability the number has since doubled. Those under sanitary control numbered 2400 in 1896. Nieman, in 1890, estimated that. there were 50,000 prostitutes in Berlin; in 1887, 3063 were under sanitary control.