"Using sources from the Times of London and several books about child sexual abuse during the Victorian era, the author claims that three factors were the key in this epidemic; economics, the double standard regarding sexuality and the image of childhood innocence, which was a new construct in the Victorian era.
A working-class girl, age 14, walks along a street in London, 1837. The young girl is approached by a pretty and sophisticated 18 year old woman who asks the girl to accompany her on a walk. They walk to a brothel house, but the young, innocent girl is unaware of what goes on behind those doors. She is forced inside and locked in a back room, where a man enters as she begins to scream. Meanwhile, her mother notices she is missing, and a search ensues. An uncle, hearing rumors on the street, visits the brothel and rescues the poor girl, but not before damage has been done. At least she is not doomed to live a life of prostitution and her story can warn other innocent girls of the dangers lurking in the streets of London.
The Bible has references to harlots and ancient civilizations included brothels. So the existence of prostitution in Victorian England is no surprise. What is a surprise is the rise ofjuvenile prostitution, where young female virgins were stolen, sold by their parents, or forced onto the streets just to make enough money to eat. Child prostitution did not end after the Victorian era. Today, there are sex slave rings where many young, working-class girls are promised a good life and lots of money, only to end up as captives in brothels. What is it that keeps such a deplorable business thriving through the centuries? Simple economics plays a large role, as does the double standard regarding sexuality that began in the Victorian era, and a new image of the innocence of childhood that emerged during the 19'h century contributes still to the desire for young victims.
Activists formed committees attempting to outlaw juvenile prostitution, but neglected to address the root problem of economics that keeps such businesses alive. The London Society for the Protection of Young Females and the Prevention of Juvenile Prostitution was formed in 1834 to assist young victims. The Society opened asylums for girls who were recovering from prostitution, and to alert the authorities to houses of ill repute so that these businesses may be closed down. In an article in The Times of London, the Society praised itself in how it was "wise in adopting the
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system of prevention instead of cure."
only gets involved after the young girls have been made prostitutes.
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Prostitution is known as the world's oldest profession.
The Society may credit itself with prevention, but in reality
This method ignores the reason many girls become prostitutes, specifically the economic aspects, which are outlined by Michael Pearson using excerpts of Walter's book. Walter, "the anonymous
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Victorian author of a million words of sexual experience, about young working-class teenagers" writes about one young girl who does not see herself as a pro~titute because she does not make herliving at it. The girl lets men have sex with her for sausage rolls, "meat pies and pastries, too." The
young girl helps her working parents, who have several other children at home, by securing her
own meals. For her, this is an economic necessity allowing her family to subsist on what little they
have. Another example ofeconomic necessity leaving little or no choice for young girls is
recounted in one of William T. Stead'.s articles, as paraphrased by Pearson. Through his contacts,
Stead procures a young virgin and gives her a choice between taking the full amount of money
promised in exchange for sex, or receiving half that amount and leaving untouched. But to " Stead's
concern- partly because he realized the background of poverty that dictated the decision- she opted 5
for the bigger money." The poor girl might have been virtuous, ifonly her family's financial
situation were not dismal. As a member of the poorest class, she had not the luxury of choice.
When faced with starvation, the girl had only one option, to sell the only thing of value that she
possessed. Occasionally, Stead ran across mothers who were trying to sell their virgin daughters.
The bold-faced reality of being poor with no government assistance, then starvation and certain
death for families as a result of no work is a leading cause behind the juvenile prostitution
explosion during the Victorian era. The girls need food and money, and they could make more as
prostitutes than as domestic servants or as workers in factories. But this contributing factor to child
prostitution was lru·gely ignored by those who sought to help, like the London Society for the
Protection of Young Females and the Prevention of Juvenile Prostitution. Pearson surmises of
Walter's experience with the girl who sells herself for sausage rolls that "being a man of his time,
[Walter] was not touched by the poverty she described- only by her quick humour.''6 Neither
Walter nor Stead nor the Society acknowledged that these girls lacked opportunities for economic
stability and the role this reality played in the high number ofjuvenile prostitutes. Judith R .
Walkowitz writes that Stead "devoted scant attention to the economic exploitation of women under
capitalism that would lead them to take up prostitution on a voluntary basis."
poverty assistance or renovating the capitalist system that forces young girls into prostitution to survive would have caused too great a disturbance among society because such a stance would have implicated more than just the girls and their customers: It would have pointed the finger at government and society as a whole and demanded change.
Victorian society preferred to believe that girls were tricked into prostitution as innocent victims, thus perpetuating the idea of the virtuous child that still persists today. An article in The Times of London recounts the trial of a woman accused of luring an 11 year old girl to a brothel. The victim, Mary Ann, is described as "very childish in her ways, and was easily led away, like the generality
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ofother children her age." In another Times article, the tricked girls are described as "unfortunate
victims of seduction" and "unsuspecting little girls."
adults, and in Calvinist religions, children were "evil by nature, requiring rigorous discipline to
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The romantic poets reinforced the new Victorian model of childhood:
resist temptation."
innocence and virtue. Wordsworth, Lewis Carroll, and J.M. Barrie perpetuated the idea that childhood innocence was something so precious that "adults might long for but never return to."
