Commercialized Prostitution in New York City Part 12

It will be noted that the third group, which is a skilled trade, has very few representatives among the prost.i.tutes.

_Earnings_:--Until recently in our Bedford records, we have not systematically recorded wages earned before entering prost.i.tution. With the beginning of this study, we endeavored to obtain the data from the prost.i.tutes now in the inst.i.tution. We find, however, that the girls are very hazy as to the exact amounts earned. They "don't remember" because "they always gave all their earnings to their mother" is a frequent statement. In 162 cases, however, they appeared to be sufficiently accurate as to the maxima and minima of earnings to furnish reasonable proof of the truth of their statements; particularly when taken in connection with our knowledge of the girls' ability. The average minimum is $4 and the average maximum is $8. It will be noted that even the average maximum is below $9, an amount generally conceded to be the minimum on which a girl can live decently in New York City. See Table IX.

By far, the largest number earned less than this, the average being pulled up by the few girls who were more competent. In this connection we made an inquiry of 194 young women who were at Bedford at the time the study was made, as to whether they were living at home and as to the disposition of their earnings at the time they entered prost.i.tution as a business. Out of 194, one hundred and twenty-two claim to have been living at home. Of these, 32 were supported by their parents or husbands and did not work outside of their home; 53 were working and giving all they made to their mothers; 39 were giving part of what they earned; 24 were living with relatives and of these, 15 gave all they earned to their relatives, while 9 gave a part as board; 20 young women were working and boarding with strangers. They claim they paid board ranging from $1.50 a week in one case to one case which claims to have been paying $13.50. The greatest number paid $4.00 per week. Twenty-six of the girls were domestics living where they worked. See Table XI.

It is interesting to compare the statements in regard to wages made by the girls in Bedford with the statements of those in other inst.i.tutions and especially with the statements made by the street cases. Table LI presents this comparison. It will be noted that of the 420 cases considered, the average maxima and minima varied between $9 and $13, a much higher point than is reached by girls in the inst.i.tutions. The total shows data for 238 girls who were domestic servants and 907 engaged in other occupations. In the cases of inst.i.tution girls, the knowledge that the statement which they give can be checked up and verified by the inst.i.tution officials, will, in most instances, deter them from going wide of the mark. As this was impossible in the majority of cases interviewed on the street, I feel that not as much reliance can be placed on data as to salary. Granted, however, that the data are reliable, there would seem to be no indication of real economic pressure as a reason for entering an immoral life.

_Social Relations_:--Statistics with regard to social relations must be taken with several grains of salt. A girl confined in an inst.i.tution is very anxious to maintain relations with men outside and sometimes represents a man as her husband who is simply the man she has been supporting by her wages of prost.i.tution. Usually we find this out sooner or later; but as we include in these statistics a considerable percentage of girls whom we have known only for a few months, we cannot be certain.

According to present knowledge, out of 647 cases there are 193 married women or 29.8 percent of the whole. (See Table XII.) In this connection it may be said that marriages are apparently entered into with as little consideration as one would give to the purchase of a new hat, and a husband who has ceased to please is thrown aside as easily as an old garment. New connections are entered into with very little regard to the legal aspects of the case. Many a girl has said to me when arguing the matter of a new relations.h.i.+p and the lack of legal separation from the first, "But, Miss Davis, he did not deserve any consideration!" One girl who has committed bigamy by marrying the second man, gave as her excuse, which I think was perfectly genuine, that she wished to be respectable! In a large proportion of cases of girls sent here for prost.i.tution, one or more men and sometimes as many as six stand ready to marry each as a means of securing her release. These are not always the men with whom the girls have been living nor the men whom they have been supporting. The most extreme case that has come to my attention is that of one of our girls who stopped a man on the street as she was being taken to the train by our officer saying: "She is taking me to prison. Will you marry me to save me?" He said "Yes," and actually wrote me asking to be allowed to do so.

It should be said in connection with married women, that we have record of comparatively few husbands who are in good and regular standing, as the tables in our annual reports will show.

It is equally difficult to get at the actual truth as to the number of children that the unmarried women have had. The table shows the admissions of 219 women on this point. There are 73 unmarried women who admitted having had children; 16 were pregnant at the time of entering the inst.i.tution and 18 had previously been pregnant; 428 claim to have had no children. In this connection it may not be amiss to note the fact that an unmarried woman who has had a child is more apt to belong to the mentally defective cla.s.s discussed later on. The cleverer women know how to prevent conceptions.

_Religion_:--Table XIII shows the religious affiliation of the Bedford girls. At Bedford, separate services are held for Catholic, Protestant and for Jewish women. On entrance they are asked to state their previous religious connection or preference. They are advised, if they have no definite religious preference, to attend the church to which their parents belonged. They are also told that they may not change after once having declared themselves. The table shows that 41.1 percent are Catholics, 38.9 percent are Protestants and 19 percent are Jews. The colored girls are almost all included in the Protestant section.

The warden of the Jefferson Market District prison states in regard to the religious affiliations of the 7,408 women sentenced from Jefferson Market Day and Night Court in 1912, that there were 3,533 Catholics or 47.6 percent, 2,525 Protestants or 34.08 percent and 1,301 Jews or 17.4 percent.

The religion of the women committed for all offenses from all the courts of Manhattan and the Bronx in 1912 is as follows:

Catholic 4,630 or 44.4% Protestants 3,677 " 35.2% Jewish 1,880 " 18.03% ------ Total 10,424

A comparison of these figures with the percentage of Catholics, Protestants and Jews in the population of New York City would be interesting. These latter figures are very hard to get at except in the most general way. The latest authoritative study with which I am familiar is that made by the United States Census Bureau in 1906. It gives the church members.h.i.+p as reported by the various denominations as 1,838,482.

On a basis of a regular growth in population from 1900 to 1910, the population of New York City in 1906 was about 4,235,010. On this basis, only 43.4 percent of the population have church connections. Only the heads of Jewish families are reported in this census. They are placed at 30,414. The World Almanac for 1913 is responsible for the statement quoted from "Christian Work and Evangelist" that there are 905,000 Jews in New York. This means racially as well as religiously Jewish. This would be about 19 percent of the entire population. The Census for 1906 gives to the Catholics 1,413,775, or 33.38 percent of the entire population and to the various Protestant denominations only 327,690, or 8.8 percent of the population. This would leave about 38 percent of the population without direct church connection to be distributed as to original affiliations between Catholic and Protestants. I should expect that here the Protestants would outnumber the Catholics.

Bedford's quota of Protestant girls is high, among other reasons because the House of the Good Shepherd, whose inmates are chiefly Catholics, is much the largest of the private inst.i.tutions to which delinquent women are committed. I should personally believe that if we had the necessary data we should find that, as in the case of the Jewish women, the Protestants and Catholics would contribute in about their proportion in the community at large to the whole group of prost.i.tutes.

_Age_:--Table XIV shows in column 1 the ages of 647 prost.i.tutes on their commitment to Bedford. In column 2 it shows the age of the girl when she says she committed her first s.e.xual offense. We have the data only in 300 cases. Of these, 279 are cases still in the inst.i.tution. The age on entering prost.i.tution is also only known for the cases in the inst.i.tution, as we did not attempt to secure this special data until the beginning of the present study. It will be noted that about 7 percent of the whole number committed their first offense before they were fourteen, and that an additional 9 percent were fourteen at the time. There is, however, only the difference of a year in the average time in committing the first offense and in entering a life of prost.i.tution. The graph which ill.u.s.trates this was made by using percentages in order to have comparable curves.

_Various Other Contributing Factors_:--There has been considerable discussion as to the relative influence of country and city life in the production of character which leads to an irregular s.e.xual life. We have registered the birthplace of all the women included in this study. We find that out of the 491 American-born women, 404 were born in cities while only 85 are known to have been country-born. Of the city-born, 290 or 59.2 percent of the total number of American-born were born in New York City.

So far as this goes, it does not support the contention that the ranks of prost.i.tution are recruited from country girls brought to the city for the purpose of immorality. We inquired of 139 girls in the inst.i.tution at the time the study was made who were born outside of New York City but practised prost.i.tution there, why they had come to New York. Seventy-eight of these claim to have come to the city with their families, who moved there for economic reasons. Only 9 admit having come with the purpose of entering the life; one came with her lover; 10 "to see New York"; 26 for work and 11 claim that they ran away from home to escape unpleasant conditions and came to New York simply because it was the handiest thing to do. Only 4 were unwilling to answer the question. In none of these cases had we any information which would contradict the statements made by the girls.

We have previously stated that 279 of the total number studied were in the inst.i.tution when this special study began. We were interested to know how many of them were practising prost.i.tution continuously and living entirely by it. One hundred and sixty-six claim to have been practising it continuously from the time they began; 55 either did not care to answer or gave unsatisfactory answers in the sense that they were obviously misleading; 58 claim to have been practising prost.i.tution intermittently simply to eke out their wages or to get extra money. Thirty-two of the girls who were practising it at intervals and 43 who were practising it continuously, were engaged in trade. Of these, domestic servants were the largest single group, with factory operatives second. The girls who were working at trades excluding domestic service, were for the most part earning small wages; but the number of cases for which we have this data are few, too few on which to base any conclusions. The weekly earnings from prost.i.tution as given by 146 girls who gave a maximum and of 95 girls who gave a minimum, is also to be taken with allowances. See Table XIX. It is our general experience that the majority of prost.i.tutes have little conception of the value of money. They earn it easily and spend it as easily. Even among those who claim to make far more than the wages of even well paid working girls, it is not infrequent to find young women without changes of underclothing. These, of course, are the women who are not patronized by a well-to-do cla.s.s of men.

As indicative of the character of the girl, their statements as to the reasons for their first s.e.xual offense and of what they believe to be the causes leading up to prost.i.tution as a career are illuminating. One hundred and eight out of 279 claim that their first wrong-doing was because they yielded to a man whom they loved; 57 admit that it was for pay; 62 claim to have been forced into the first act; 23 yielded where there was no love and where neither money nor force was used, but succ.u.mbed through weakness of will; two only state they did it because they liked it; 27 "could not remember why." See Table XXI.

As will be seen when we discuss the mentality of the girls, they are not as a cla.s.s given to introspection or self-a.n.a.lysis. They are as a rule, incapable of this even if they try. It appeared to us worth while, however, to ask them what they thought were the reasons that led them into an immoral life. It is a very rare thing for a girl to admit that she would be willing to have a younger sister enter the life and this often can be used as a key to secure their willingness to discuss the situation.

Two hundred and seventy-nine girls gave 671 reasons. We have grouped them as well as we can. The surprising thing is that very few directly economic reasons are given. It might be supposed that in friendly conversation, a girl would wish to make the greatest possible excuse for herself, and that the one most ready to hand would be the inability to earn a living. But in only 19 cases was this given as an excuse; and by referring to a similar table for street cases, it will be noticed that only 139 out of 1,106 gave a directly economic reason. It will be noted that only 7 out of 671 gave previous use of drink and drugs. As a result of experience, I should say that drink is a consequence rather than a cause of a life of prost.i.tution, although a good many girls have admitted to me that their first wrong-doing occurred after taking an unaccustomed drink. In this connection our medical records at Bedford with regard to the use of alcoholic drinks, drugs and cigarettes, show that at entrance 112 individuals, or 17 percent of the 647 women studied were suffering from one or the other alone, or from combinations, as shown in the following table:

EXCESSIVE USE OF ALCOHOLIC DRINKS, DRUGS AND CIGARETTES

Alcohol 45 Drugs 23 Cigarettes 7 Alcohol and cigarettes 18 Alcohol and drugs 8 Drugs and cigarettes 5 Alcohol, drugs and cigarettes 6 --- Total 112 17.3%

Not suffering at entrance from effects of above 535 82.6 --- 647

Five hundred and thirty-five showed no injurious effects so far as was evident from a physical examination. We cannot give figures as to the exact number who used alcohol or cigarettes in moderation. We believe the number to be high.

Sixteen of the 647 were tubercular and were transferred to inst.i.tutions for tuberculosis. No examination of the sputum was made except in cases of suspects. Seven others were epileptic and there was one case of ch.o.r.ea (St. Vitus Dance).

_Mentality_:--Of peculiar value, in view of the public interest in the question of mental defect as a cause of delinquency, is a study of the mentality of our 647 women. Twenty have been p.r.o.nounced insane by commissions in lunacy and have been transferred to asylums for the insane. Three others will probably have to be transferred; 107 were unhesitatingly p.r.o.nounced distinctly feeble-minded. Not all of our 647 cases have been examined by our psychologist. One hundred and sixteen, however, have had laboratory tests of various sorts. Among these tests, all have been given the Binet test. The result has been as follows:

MENTALITY BY BINET TEST

Showing mentality of 5 year old child 2 " " " 6 " " " 1 " " " 7 " " " 6 " " " 8 " " " 6 " " " 9 " " " 29 " " " 10 " " " 44 " " " 11 " " " 26 " " " 12 " " " 2 --- 116

The 44 who have the mentality of a ten year old child and under were unhesitatingly p.r.o.nounced mentally defective. The 72 showing mentality from ten to twelve years may possibly not be so-called. The 67 others included among the 107 are those so mentally defective that there can be no question as a matter of observation. Fifty-two others are distinctly border line cases. This is the group which gives the most trouble in all reformatory inst.i.tutions. It is safe to say that 90 percent of all disciplinary difficulties come from cases of this sort. They can be easily divided into at least two groups. Thus divided, 26 are girls who can be taught very little in school, whose general intelligence is low, but who may perhaps be able to learn a certain amount of manual labor; these cannot "stay good" any length of time. The other 26 are those who do well in school, are capable of mastering even such subjects as algebra and bookkeeping, but who have no moral sense or continuity of purpose. Eleven others are also properly in this cla.s.s but differ from the two preceding groups in the character of their instability. If they were boys they would be tramps. They are all girls who have run away from home, sometimes a number of times, as well as from any place where they are put to service.

The foregoing figures mean that 193 individuals, or 29.8 percent, of the number studied are decidedly mentally defective. This is an extremely conservative estimate.

With the facilities which we are to have in the Laboratory of Social Hygiene under the auspices of the Bureau of Social Hygiene, we expect to get much more definite results not only as to the mentality but also as to the physical condition and the social relations of the young women under our care.

_Venereal Disease_:--The records of the Bedford Reformatory for girls show that 20.56 percent of the 647 inmates have clinical manifestations of venereal disease. The facts are summarized in the following table:

Total number of inmates 647 Number free from clinical manifestations of disease 514 Number showing clinical manifestations of disease 133 Of the last named: Number with syphilis 61 gonorrhoea 54 syphilis and gonorrhoea 9 " " disease unnamed 8 " " chancre 1 --- Total 133 (20.56%)

A series of complement fixation tests on blood specimens from 466 of the inmates show, however, that a very much larger number are infected with either syphilis or gonorrhoea or both of these diseases.[307] With the Wa.s.sermann test 176, or 37.7 percent gave positive reactions; 273, or 58.6 percent gave negative reactions, and 17, or 3.6 percent gave doubtful reactions. With a modification of the Wa.s.sermann technique where the tests were allowed to stand for four hours at ice box temperature to fix complement, instead of the usual one hour at 37C. in the incubator, 224, or 48 percent gave positive reactions, 212, or 45.4 percent gave negative reactions and 30, or 6.4 percent gave doubtful reactions, showing an increase of 10.3 percent of positive reactions for syphilis over the method of fixing complement at 37C. The same sera were tested by the complement fixation test for gonorrheal infection with the result that 134 or 29 percent gave positive reactions; 234, or 50 percent gave negative reactions and 98, or 21 percent gave doubtful reactions, fixing complement at 37C. for one hour. When the ice box method of fixation was used, 306 or 65.6 percent gave positive reactions; 101, or 21.7 percent gave negative reactions and 59, or 12.6 percent gave doubtful reactions, showing an increase of 36.9 percent of positive results over the method of fixing complement at 37C. in the incubator.

v.a.g.i.n.al smears from the same persons were examined but it was possible to demonstrate the presence of the gonococcus in but five of them, although many of them show the presence of numerous pus corpuscles.[308]

The full significance of the results above stated does not appear until the statistics are summarized. Of the 466 girls tested, only 50, that is, 10.7 percent, are found to be free from venereal infection. Practically 90 percent showed infection; 170, or 36.4 percent gave positive reactions for both syphilis and gonorrhoea; 27, or 5.79 percent were positive for syphilis only, and 117, or 25.1 percent were positive for gonorrhoea only.[309]

_Offenses_:--Not all of the 647 cases studied were committed to Bedford for prost.i.tution; but all were leading the lives of prost.i.tutes in New York City at the time of their commitment and the specific offense which they committed was an incident in the life of prost.i.tution.[310] Table XXIV shows that 105 women or 16.22 percent were convicted of felonies, while 450, or 69.55 percent were convicted of offenses directly connected with prost.i.tution. The 25 cases committed as disorderly children were girls under eighteen years of age whose parents or relatives caused their arrest and brought them into court as the only means of taking them from the life. The 38 commitments for vagrancy were under Subdivision 3 and 4 of Section 887 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which defines a vagrant as "a person who has contracted an infectious or other disease, in the practise of drunkenness or debauchery, requiring charitable aid to restore him to health" or "a common prost.i.tute who has no lawful employment whereby to maintain herself."

The stories of the following girls will ill.u.s.trate the relation between prost.i.tution and crime in the cases of women sent to us for felonies or misdemeanors:

A. B. was a girl of eighteen, convicted of manslaughter in the second degree. She was not only leading a life of prost.i.tution but was supporting her lover by it. As is so often the case, she was very fond of the man and intensely jealous when another girl won him away. She bought a sharp knife and carried it for a month before she met the girl, who had tried to avoid her. When at last they met, our girl stabbed her rival so seriously that she died from the effects.

C. D. was also only eighteen years of age. She was convicted of shooting her lover. The time had come when they were no longer happy together. A quarrel arose on the street over a trivial matter. She wished to go to one place and he to another. Neither would yield. He started across the street to go his own way. She drew a pistol and shot him dead. Asked how she happened to have a loaded pistol in her possession, she said that she has always carried one ever since she came to New York. She thought it necessary for self-protection.

The story of E. F., convicted of grand larceny in the first degree, was as follows: She came north from a southern city thirteen years ago with her mother, who died soon after. She had had a lover before her mother's death. By him she had an illegitimate child. After the child was born he married her but they were not happy together. Another man coaxed her away from her husband. She claims he put her on the street, that she was violently in love with him and supported him by prost.i.tution. Finally she was with a man whose watch she admired and coveted for her lover. She stole it and gave it to her lover in whose possession it was found. Both were convicted.

G. H. was a woman of twenty-four convicted of robbery. She had a husband and two children. The husband was entirely able and willing to support her. She became addicted to the use of opium. She claims it was first prescribed by a physician during an illness. As the habit grew, she stole money from the till in her husband's shop to supply herself with the drug.

The resulting friction between herself and her husband finally caused her to leave home and enter a life of prost.i.tution. She had been living the life for two years at the time of her arrest for robbing a man of a diamond pin.

Three women, sentenced for corrupting the morals of a minor, had young girls with them whom they had brought to the city for immoral purposes.

The cases of a.s.sault were for the most part girls who had engaged in fist fights, usually on account of rivalry.

The attempted suicide was a girl who had tired of the life which she had led since she was fourteen years old and saw no other way out of it. She had made three unsuccessful attempts before she was sentenced to Bedford.

_Previous Records_:--The law prohibits the sentencing of women to the reformatory who have previously served a term in a state prison. With this limitation the judge has the power of sending those who have served numberless previous sentences for minor offenses if in his judgment there is hope of reform in the particular case. Contrary to the impression of many people, it is a very rare thing for a girl or woman to be sentenced to an inst.i.tution for what is really a first offense. Never in our experience has a previously innocent girl been so sentenced.

Throwing light on the history of the prost.i.tutes committed to Bedford, Table XXV gives us some information as to the various inst.i.tutions in which they spent time previous to the Bedford commitment. The first section of the table shows that 305, or 47.1 percent have had previous inst.i.tution experiences. In cases where these girls have been in more than one inst.i.tution, this first portion of the table gives the inst.i.tution in which she has spent the most time. Out of 647 cases, 255, or 39.4 percent only, are not known to have been at least previously arrested. These figures give the data that we know. The probabilities are that the tables understate the facts. The latter half of the table shows the variegated experience of a number of the women. We have no comparable data for the cases from other inst.i.tutions.

_Conclusion_:--As this is a statistical study, we have not touched upon various phases of the lives of prost.i.tutes which are of general public interest. This is because we had not sufficiently accurate data to warrant giving figures or percentages. For example, the relation of the women to the men whom they support is a matter where verifiable data are very hard to get. An increasingly large percentage of the women under our care state that they were turning over the whole or a part of their wages to their lovers. In other cases we were pretty well a.s.sured that this was the case although it was denied by the girl.

As a result of our twelve years' experience we believe that there is an increasing number of young women who live in furnished rooms and take their patrons to hotels. A larger proportion of prost.i.tutes in our early days lived in houses of ill fame. Now in many instances, even if their work is in these houses, they live outside and go to the houses only for business purposes. A case in point is that of a girl only sixteen years of age who worked in one of the houses conducted by the so-called "syndicate." She was living with a young Italian who had lured her from her home. He conducted her to this house every afternoon at four o'clock, calling for her at five or six next morning and receiving her earnings from the woman who ran the house.

A number of the young women included in this study have figured in white slave cases. These commercialized phases of the social evil are dealt with elsewhere in this report.