Ever since the creation of New York’s night court, the women’s night court, and the midtown community court, prostitution arrests, specifically in the Midtown Manhattan area has decreased drastically. In an article about New York City’s untraditional response to prostitution is revisited by Mae C. Quinn, who focuses on critiques made by Anna Moscowitz Kross involving the three courts. Throughout her reexamining of the article it is made clear that unintended consequences and politics more than knowledge often shape criminal justice policies. We know this because of material provided about New York’s night court, the women’s night court, and the midtown community court and each of their impacts on prostitution.
Anna Moscowitz Kross believed
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However, this new way of dealing with prostitution didn’t go as how Moscowitzs had planned. (CL) The women’s night court instead of being a place where women can be protected from legal injustices was a place that treated women as if they were centered stage of a show for any and all to come and witness, a type of public shaming. (EV) One member of the New York City Women Lawyers’ Association Bertha Rembaugh complained that the women who were tried at the court would be surrounded “by a crowd of men… drawn by morbid curiosity.” (3_112) Or by a group of fashionably dressed men and women who would stop by after a night out in the city and watch the girls as if they were part of a vaudeville show. Moscowitzs also stressed that many who did witness these girls at the court presumed “that if she were not guilty she would never be there” (4_113) in the first place. Turns out, the women’s night court ended up closing in the year 1960 due all of the “scandal, controversy, and failed efforts to prevent sex work.” (5_102) (WA) The creation of the women’s night court resulted in women being treated as if they were guilty no matter how the trial ended because if they were innocent they never would have been at court to begin with. Because of this, many of the women at the women’s night court were looked at as entertainment for people from all over the city to come and see, which not the women’s night court’s intentions
Patty Kelly’s article, “Enough already, it’s time we decriminalize prostitution”, takes the reader into a fascinating behind the scene look into one of Mexico’s legalized brothels. Although it is apparent that her research and investigation into this social experiment are well defined, it is too narrow a focus to gather all the required information to support her argument. Kelly begins with a half hazard analysis of Elliot Spitzer infidelity, then continues down the path that is far too laser like to see the overall effect on these women; failing to see these prostitutes as real people with hearts and souls. Instead, she produces an impression that the prostitutes are just commodity, bought and sold on the open market, lacking feeling for their plight. In Kelly’s investigation, she neglects to create an entire picture of what decriminalizing prostitution will cost humanity due to the fact that her investigation ignores society’s accepted understanding of what problems are produced by, or result from prostitution. There was absolutely no research cited that relating to sexual addiction, the effects on the prostitutes’ emotional and physical wellbeing, or even the acknowledgment of the organized criminal element behind prostitution.
At the beginning of the 1900s, there was a “sexual revolution” in New York City. During this time, sexual acts and desires were not hidden, but instead they were openl...
An analysis of Horsmanden’s work paints a picture of the social divisions present in the city. Race was a fairly obvious division, exemplified by Horsmanden’s statement that Peggy was the “worst sort” of prostitute because she was “a prostitute to negroes” (Zabin, p.49) and that blacks were much more prone to suspicion which can be seen in the fact that roughly 30 blacks were executed compared to four whites (Zabin, p.175). Economic status also shines through as a source of division. This is apparent by the fact that the Hughsons, who owned a disreputable public house (Zabin, p.48), were tried and executed largely on the testimony of Mary Burton. However, when Ms. Burton cast suspicion upon some people “in ruffles” (those of better means), the court quickly wrapped up the ca...
Bernstein, Laurie. Sonia's Daughter's: Prostitutes and Their Regulation in Imperial Russia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
Library. Web. 22 Apr. 2011. Rosie, DiManno. “Prostitutes Suffer with ‘Sinister’ Law.” Toronto Star. EBSCO. Web. 8 Apr.
...Boris B. Gorzalka. "Attitudes, Beliefs, And Knowledge Of Prostitution And The Law In Canada." Canadian Journal Of Criminology & Criminal Justice 54.2 (2012): 229-244.
• Sokoloff, Violent Female Offenders in NYS: Myths and Facts, Crime and Justice in NY, A. Karmon, 2000-2001
Stansell, Christine. “Women on the Town: Sexual Exchange and Prostitution,” in City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860 (Illinois, 1987), 171-192. [ACLS Humanities E-Book, via Coast]
Prostitutes did not necessarily “enjoy” their sexual encounters with men, as Victorians tended to believe. Prostitution was their survival. Lower-class women did not become prostitutes because they wanted to. They became prostitutes because they had no alternate choice for survival. There were few options that allowed women to live off her own income instead of her family’s income, and once she e...
In Santa Ana, California police are baffled with the incoming complaints by citizens in Orange County, concerning prostitutes and street walkers. Within the last few years Santa Ana have incorporated intense strategy to overtake the uprising rates of prostitution, in doing this they have dramatically lessened the amount of arrests being made currently. In saying this they are now again hearing another outcry of the public to control this much issue much smaller than past encounters. Just over 80% of all arrest were women which presents a Feminist Conflict sociological issue, showing that the men are walking away free while the already tormented women are taken into custody.
In The Murder of Helen Jewett, Patricia Cohen uses one of the most trivial murders during the 1800’s to illustrate the sexiest society accommodations to the privileged, hypocritical tunneled views toward sexual behavior, and the exploitation of legal codes, use of tabloid journalism, and politics. Taking the fact that woman was made from taking a rib from man was more than biblical knowledge, but incorporated into the male belief that a woman’s place is determined by the man. Helen had the proper rearing a maid servant, but how did she fall so far from grace. Judge Weston properly takes credit for rearing her with the proper strictness and education. Was Helen seduced at an early age and introduced to sexual perversions that were more persuasive that the bible belt life that the Weston’s tried to live? Was Helen simply a woman who knew how to use what she had to get what she wanted? Through personal correspondence, legal documentation, census reports, paintings, and newspapers we are able to make our own determinations. Cohen provides more than enough background and history to allow any one to make their own opinion how the murder of a woman could be turned into a side show at a circus.
Frances, S. (2012). Sex work and the law: A critical analysis of four policy approaches to adult prostitution . Thinking about justice: a book of readings (pp. 190-220). Halifax, N.S.: Fernwood Pub..
Clemmit, Marcia. “Prostitution Debate.” CQ Press. 18.19 (2008): 435-438. CQ Researcher. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Prostitution in the nineteenth century was perhaps one of the most degrading positions for a woman during the era. Identified by dress, makeup, and forward mannerisms, a woman employed within the business was avoided by all respectable persons. Once tainted by the immoral sin a woman could never return to good g...
In this country, we do not currently have federal laws regulating street sex work. However, forty-nine states have laws on the books that identify street and in...