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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.