Prostitution and the Victorians

Victorian Britain has long been viewed as a tightly buttoned society in sexual matters. In fact, female prostitution, or the Great Social Evil as contemporaries called it, was endemic and the persistence of the phenomenon infuriated anti-vice campaigners, while perplexing social reformers. The issue being debated was whether society should tolerate prostitution as an inevitable phenomenon which should be regulated in the public interest -- the public health position -- or suppressed as an intolerable evil -- the moral purity position. The evidence presented here clearly indicates that prostitution was a serious issue for serious Victorians. The popular images of a polite and respectable people, or a hypocritical and repressive society which did not practice what it preached, cannot be substantiated. Moreover, it is surprising how many of the debates covered in this book are still with us today.