Age, prostitution and punishment in the late nineteenth century
| Date | 01 April 2014 |
| Published date | 01 April 2014 |
| Author | Kerry Wimshurst |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865813497208 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
2014, Vol. 47(1) 102–122
Age, prostitution and
! The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
punishment in the late
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0004865813497208
nineteenth century
anj.sagepub.com
Kerry Wimshurst
Griffith University, Australia
Abstract
Considerable research has been undertaken by historians to understand the meanings of
prostitution as it evolved in the nineteenth century. Initially, commercial sex was considered
in terms of criminality and deviance. Later studies, influenced by the seminal work of
Walkowitz (1980), explored the role of local economies in shaping the lived experiences
of prostitutes. This article investigates the incarceration of women labelled as prostitutes in
late nineteenth century Queensland, using prison and police sources. The analysis identifies
similarities and differences between prostitutes and other female prisoners as a way of
exploring the place of prostitutes in patterns of ‘offending’ in their communities. While
situated in a criminal justice framework, the article takes account of recent work on historical
images and representations of prostitutes. There is general agreement among historians on
some core interpretations, but debate still surrounds the role of age, and particularly how
concerns about age might have informed strategies of governance. In fact, it seems that age
was less important in terms of control strategies. Instead, the reputation of women as street
rowdies, petty criminals, and the carriers of disease were deciding factors in official regulation
of their lives. However, considerations of age did inform contemporary visions of ‘deviant’
women, and especially popular views about divisions between deviant women themselves.
Examples are provided of the formation of views about older and younger female offenders.
Such views about generational divisions between ‘fallen’ women have exerted a tenacious
hold on modern imaginations.
Keywords
age, imprisonment, interpretations, nineteenth century, prostitution
Introduction
Studies of prostitution in the Australasian colonies in the nineteenth century have dis-
covered similarities both in the anxieties expressed by respectable citizens and in the
types of punitive and regulatory measures introduced in different places to control the
great ‘social evil’ (Evans 1984; Frances 2007; Macdonald 1986; Robinson 1984).
Corresponding author:
Kerry Wimshurst, Griffith University, Mt Gravatt Campus, Brisbane 4111, Australia.
Email: k.wimshurst@griffith.edu.au
Wimshurst
103
Australian commentators at the time attributed sexual immorality to intergenerational
contamination bequeathed by the ‘convict taint’ of the founders (Damousi, 1997;
Frances, 2007; Perkins, 1991). New Zealand observers found it hard to explain how
prostitution continued to flourish after the consolidation of European settlement, since
their society had been convict-free and supposedly founded on ideals for civilised colo-
nial development (Jordan, 2010; Macdonald, 1990; Tennant, 1992). In a bid to restrict
the lives of prostitutes, all Australasian colonies introduced a range of vagrancy, police
and health legislation. However, one particularly intrusive and punitive attempt to regu-
late prostitutes and contain the spread of venereal disease saw the introduction of con-
tagious diseases legislation from the late 1860s. Women suspected of prostitution could
be compelled by police to attend a medical examination and, if there were signs of
venereal disease, they were committed to some form of lock hospital for ‘treatment’.
Non-compliance or absconding from the hospital resulted in a prison sentence (Evans,
1984; Finnane and Garton, 1992).
In fact, while championed by the powerful as the most effective constraint on the
activities of prostitutes, the introduction and policing of this legislation was sporadic
over time and region, and was enforced in only a few Australasian colonies:
Queensland and Tasmania in Australia; and Auckland and Canterbury in New Zealand
(Frances, 2007; Jordan, 2010). Moreover, as with contagious diseases legislation in the
United Kingdom, which formed the blueprint for similar measures across the British
Empire, most of the Australasian legislation was revoked during the 1880s in the face
of concerted opposition from religious, socialist, and feminist groups (Frances, 2007;
Levesque, 1986; Walkowitz, 1980). The exception was Queensland, where the
Contagious Diseases Act of 1868 continued to be policed into the early twentieth century.
This article explores the characteristics of imprisoned prostitutes in Queensland and
compares them with other women prisoners who were not labelled prostitutes. Given the
view of historians (Frances, 2007; Walkowitz, 1980) that earlier in the century prostitutes
were relatively integrated into the life of their working-class communities, where other
types of female offenders also lived, the study investigates whether there were similarities
and differences between imprisoned prostitutes and other female prisoners in the 1880s
and 1890s.
The images developed of prostitutes in the late nineteenth century have retained a
tenacious hold on modern imaginations (Hubbard, 1998). Such images included the
‘hardened’ older woman, spiralling downwards, with recourse to no other means of
support, or the younger woman seduced and abandoned, destined for a life on the streets
or in the brothel, but still perhaps reclaimable for good (Hubbard, 1998; Tennant, 1992).
In both cases, each was seen as a victim, albeit victims inclined to guile and viciousness.
In fact, an exploration of nineteenth-century prostitution reveals a complex and shifting
web of meanings. Gilfoyle (1999: 137) has noted that despite the increase in studies of
prostitution, ‘the prostitute remains an elusive historical character’. It is as if the more
historians ‘know’ prostitution, the less they actually understand it. This is partly the
result of a paucity of source materials, as prostitutes rarely left their own accounts.
Gilfoyle (1999) concludes that:
[There are] great difficulties reconstructing accurate accounts of the past because of added
layers of myth and fabrication. Because the ‘whore’ was also a metaphor, commercial sex
104
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 47(1)
was transformed into a vehicle by which elites and middle classes articulated their social
boundaries, problems, fears, agendas, and visions. Consequently, most sources are so
embedded in discourses of pleasure, reform, and regulation that any effort to reconstruct
the lived experiences of these women is nearly impossible. (1999: 138)
Contemporary Australasian middle-class accounts portrayed prostitutes as either
degraded predators, or victims forced to resort to the sex trade out of poverty
(Evans, 1984; White, 1985). Yet, other images emerge from the official discourse
which suggest a more complex set of motivations. There are comments about ‘flash
young girls’ choosing to go on the town to escape the drudgery of working-class life
and labour. Elsewhere, commentators attributed blame to ‘weakness of character’,
rather than desperation or larrikinism (McConville, 1980). New Zealand observers
blamed single-women immigrants, whose passage from the United Kingdom was
assisted by provincial governments (Jordan, 2010; Macdonald, 1990). It was hoped
that these young women would become domestic servants, marry and establish respect-
able families. A few already were or became prostitutes on their arrival, but as
Macdonald (1990) also notes, there were probably as many reasons for entering pros-
titution as there were for emigrating. It seems likely that nineteenth-century prostitu-
tion held multiple meanings for society, and among prostitutes themselves. Such
multiple and contrasting images also informed official attempts at governance and
regulation.
A further aim of the article is to explore the relationship between age, prostitution
and punishment. Despite the likely diversity of prostitutes’ lives, Hubbard (1998:72)
claims that dominant Victorian images retain a powerful hold on our views about the
‘unknown world [and] badlands of the inner city’. The supposed hardness and predatory
nature of older and experienced women, contrasted with the possible reformation of
youth, became central to discourse about the great ‘social evil’. The question of age has
divided historians. Considerations of age, including concerns about innocence and
experience, informed much of the discourse and legislation on sexual behaviours in
the nineteenth century (Hunt, 1999; Russell, 2010; Walkowitz, 1992). Examples are
provided later in the article by way of vignettes, or illustrative insights into the formation
of views about older and younger women offenders.
With regard to prostitution, historical debates about age are important because they
inform other interpretations of the types of regulatory strategies adopted by officialdom.
For example, Allen (1990) believes that older workers were always the most vulnerable,
and became more so later in the century. With increasing age, they were no longer
wanted in brothels and as a result they worked the streets and pubs, increasingly open
to police harassment. This interpretation claims that police specifically targeted older,
poorer and more visible women as a way of regulating and discouraging the prostitute.
Older women were more likely to be convicted and more likely to be incarcerated
because they could not pay fines. Frances (2007:...
To continue reading
Request your trial