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This is an examination, from a feminist historian's standpoint, of the background to the present system of regulating prostitution in Britain - which is generally admitted to be not only unjust and discriminatory, but ineffective even in achieving its stated aims. Concentrating on the 1950s, and especially on the Wolfenden Report and the 1959 Street Offences Act, it is a thorough exposure of the sexual double standard and general misogynist assumptions underlying legislation relating to prostitution. In addition to the detailed analysis of the 1950s legislation and the background to it, there is an exposition of the subsequent workings of the Act, and of attempts to amend or repeal it.
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PROSTITUTION, WOMEN AND MISUSE OF THE LAW PROSTITUTION, WOMEN AND MISUSE OF THE LAW The Fallen Daughters of Eve HELEN J.SELF FRANK CASS LONDON • PORTLAND, OR First Published in 2003 in Great Britain by FRANK CASS PUBLISHERS Crown House, 47 Chase Side, Southgate London, N14 5BP This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” and in the United States of America by FRANK CASS PUBLISHERS c/o ISBS, 920 NE 58th Avenue, Suite 300 Portland, Oregon, 97213–3786 Website http://www.frankcass.com Copyright © 2003 Helen J.Self British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: Self, Helen J. Prostitution, women and misuse of the law: the fallen daughters of Eve 1. Great Britain. Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution 2. Prostitution—Law and legislation—Great Britain I. Title 364.1′534′0941 ISBN 0-203-50700-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-58365-5 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-7146-5481-7 (cloth) ISBN 0-7146-8371-X (paper) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Self, Helen J., 1937– Prostitution, women and misuse of the law: the fallen daughters of Eve/Helen J.Self. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7146-5481-7 (cloth)—ISBN 0-7146-8371-X (pbk) 1. Prostitution—Great Britain. I. Title. KD8077.S45 2003 344.41′0544–dc21 2003043990 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book. Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Part I vi viii 1 The Regulation of Prostitution: Society and Law Chapter 1. Technologies of Power 16 Chapter 2. The Legislative Background 36 Part II The Wolfenden Committee: Regulating Prostitution in the 1950s Chapter 3. The Origins of the Report 68 Chapter 4. Preliminary Organisation 79 Chapter 5. Listening to the Experts 96 Chapter 6. Formulating an Offence 114 Chapter 7. The Report 129 Chapter 8. The Double Standard 148 Part III Chapter 9. Chapter 10. Part IV The Law and Society The Legislative Legacy 158 Moral Matters 175 Change and Continuity: The Consequences of Legal Reform Chapter 11. Legal Reform 209 Chapter 12. Assessing the Effects of the Street Offences Act 1959 221 Chapter 13. ‘Any Person’: Attempting to Reform the Street Offences Act 1959 240 Chapter 14. Resolving New Problems with More Legislation 254 v Chapter 15. Conclusion 280 Appendix 1.