What Shall We Do with the Young Prostitute? Reform Her or Neglect Her

Domestication as Reform at the New York State Reformatory for Women at Bedford, 1901-1913

Bibliographic Data

ID9075765
AuthorsAnne E Bowler, Chrysanthi S Leon (0000-0002-8210-7658, Oxford University Press (United Kingdom)), Terry Glenn Lilley (corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume47
Issue2
Pages458-481
Publication date2013-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Social History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4529 • E-ISSN: 1527-1897
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jsh/sht080
OpenAlexW2037187696
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited13

Research conducted at the New York State Reformatory for Women at Bedford under the direction of founding superintendent Katharine Bement Davis produced some of the most influential data on prostitution in the Progressive Era. While Davis and Bedford have figured prominently in histories of the women's prison reform movement, historical studies of the social response to prostitution in the Progressive Era, and feminist biographical accounts of women in early twentieth century reform crusades, the relationship between penal reform and the changing social organization of labor has been overlooked. This paper undertakes a critical reexamination of the Bedford data, demonstrating that while Davis advocated a social scientific approach to reform, she systematically displaced the significance of structural factors at two crucial levels: her studies of inmates and her own philosophy and practice of reform. Studies of inmates discounted the role of economic factors for women's entry into prostitution in favor of explanations that emphasized familial and personal weakness. The institutionalization, training, and parole of inmates functioned not simply to place inmates in domestic service but to effectively disqualify them from other sources of respectable employment. Viewed through the lens of a social organization of labor perspective, a previously neglected dimension of the logic and practice of reform is illuminated.

Criminology · Institutionalisation · Neglect · Political science · Politics · Prison · Prison reform · Psychiatry · Reform movement · Social reform · Sociology · State (computer science) · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · Gender Studies · Law · Medicine · Race, History, and American Society