Reforming the ‘Fallen’: Voluntary Organisations, Probation and the Informal Regulation of Prostitution

This chapter focus on the informal regulation of prostitution by examining the role of religious voluntary organisations in ‘rescuing fallen women’. Instead of punishing women who were caught soliciting by sending them to prison, the police and magistrates often turned to probation and voluntary organisations in an attempt to rehabilitate these women using a more penal welfare approach. The first half of this chapter will outline the ways in which probation sentences were used to police women who committed prostitution offences and examine the close links that existed between the new probation service and voluntary institutions. The second section will look more closely at the daily activities of these voluntary organisations, focusing particularly on the Magdalene Asylums, the Scottish National Vigilance Association (SNVA) and the Women Patrols. These case studies explore the ideologies, aims and methods of these organisation and how the daily routines and experiences of the ‘inmates ‘changed during the period. These case studies will allow us to examine how the collaborations that were established between these voluntary organisations, the police and the probation service influenced the regulation of prostitution and women’s experiences of the criminal justice system.

Conclusion

This chapter summaries the main arguments of the book and brings them together to re-affirm the key conclusions. The final section then reflects on some of the possible relevance this research has for current policy debates relating to prostitution and the law.

Women’s Experiences of Prostitution

This chapter uses poor law, census, police, magistrates and prison records relating to over eight-hundred women, alongside in-depth case studies of individuals, to examine the major themes that shaped the lives of women involved in prostitution in Scotland during the early twentieth century. The chapter explores various reasons why women entered or exited prostitution at certain stages during their lives; particularly their socio-economic backgrounds, their health, use of alcohol or involvement in crime and other events that shaped their lives and relationships, including the different types of relationships that existed among ‘prostitutes’, ‘pimps’ and ‘brothel-keepers. Despite the limitations of the available sources which are heavily mediated, this collective biography approach provides some important insights into the lives and experiences of the women involved in prostitution. Importantly, this evidence begins to reveal a level of women’s historical agency that has often been difficult for historians to ascertain.

The Social Geography of Prostitution1

This chapter uses court and police records alongside other contemporaries’ writings on prostitution to gain a fuller understanding of how prostitution was organised and to explore the wider social implications attached to this use of space. By chronologically mapping the changing location of prostitution in Edinburgh and Glasgow, it is possible to track how emerging technologies and the development of new entertainment venues influenced the location of prostitution and shaped women’s opportunities for successful solicitation. The first half of the chapter focuses on the geography of prostitution in Edinburgh, beginning with street solicitation and moving on to look at the location of brothels. The second half examines the location of prostitution in Glasgow, following a similar pattern. Whilst the previous chapter stressed the role that the state played in shaping the organisation of prostitution, this chapter will show that the women’s utilisation of new commercial and technological developments was at least equally important in that process, thus demonstrating women’s ability to cross boundaries of gender, class and respectable femininity, highlighting these women’s historical agency.

Controlling the ‘Social Evil’: Policing Prostitution

This chapter focuses on the ways in which legislation was implemented by the police and magistrates on a day-to-day basis, and the impact police policies had on the regulation and organisation of prostitution. Rather than there being a ‘crack-down’ on prostitution, as was the case in other cities such as London during this period, in Edinburgh and Glasgow the number of arrests and convictions sharply declined. The chapter uses police, magistrates and prison records to explore these trends further and examine the various reasons behind these patterns, including the wider changes in social attitudes towards prostitution and the importance of police chief constables and police officers in shaping the way that individual men and women were treated under the law. In particular, the importance of the Scottish method of using cautions, a system that relied on distinguishing between ‘amateur prostitutes’ and ‘hardened prostitutes’, will be examined. The first half of the chapter begins by examining the policing of street prostitution and the second half explores the policing of brothels and ‘pimps’.

Dance Clubs and Ice-cream Tubs: Clandestine Prostitution and the Kosmo Club1

This chapter uses detailed court and newspaper coverage relating to the 1933 trail of the mangers of the Kosmo dance club in Edinburgh for living off the earnings of prostitution, to explore the role that dance clubs played in the development of new sites for clandestine prostitution and to examine what influence this environment had on the experiences of the women who worked there. The chapter provides a rare glimpse of the ways in which these women negotiated the considerable dangers posed by this new environment and tells us more about the lives of women who were less likely to come to the attention of the police. The first half of the chapter explores how various clandestine forms of indoor prostitution were organised, and how these networks facilitated new methods for selling sex. The second section focuses on the experiences of women who worked at the Kosmo dance club and examines their relationships with the men who managed and frequented the club, including some of the ways in which they resisted attempts made by the police, magistrates and club owners to label and to control them.

Introduction

This chapter introduces the reader to the key theoretical and methodological concepts and provides an overview of the historical context. Key historiographical trends are discussed and the new contributions of this book are outlined. The chapter ends with detailed chapter summaries which outlines the book’s key arguments.