Law, Jurisprudence, and Punishment

Abstract

Modern laws that sought to control prostitution were part of a raft of late Georgian and early Victorian laws concerned with public space, nuisance, vagrancy, and petty crime. As we noted in the introduction, laws against street solicitation differed according to place. In London, two laws, the Vagrancy Act of 1824 and the Metropolitan Police Act of 1839, were used to arrest women who sold sex on the street who behaved ‘in a riotous or indecent manner’ (1824) or ‘to the annoyance of inhabitants or passengers’ (1839). Both laws required that the woman be proved to be a ‘common prostitute’. In other parts of England and Wales, the broadly similar Towns and Police Clauses Act 1847 applied, while the Belfast Improvement Act 1845 and the Towns Improvement Act (Ireland) 1854 meant similar measures were enforced in Northern Ireland. By contrast, Scotland’s Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892 and similar pieces of local Scottish legislation did not require proof of annoyance.