She was “a comon night walker abusing him & being of ill behaviour”
Violence and Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century London
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9633591 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jessica Steinberg (0000-0003-4312-8795, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 239-261 |
| Publication date | 2015-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0008-4107 • E-ISSN: 2292-8502 |
| Publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3138/cjh.ach.50.2.239 |
| OpenAlex | W1071828001 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
This article examines the representation of violence committed by and against prostitutes in eighteenth-century London. To explore attitudes toward prostitutes’ assaults and victimization, it examines how the Bridewell Court of Governors records and the Proceedings of the Old Bailey portrayed incidents in which prostitutes were involved in violent or aggressive confrontations; it also examines texts written by popular commentators, moralists, and contributors to the newspaper press. Although prostitutes were depicted as both agents and targets of violence, incidents in which prostitutes physically assaulted or verbally insulted potential male clients generated far more discussion than reports about prostitutes who were the victims of violent crimes. The greater emphasis on prostitutes’ proclivity to violence suggests that policing authorities, journalists, and social commentators portrayed prostitutes as a threat to the peace and stability of the nation, rather than as pitiable victims
Criminology · Domestic violence · Intimate partner · Medical emergency · Newspaper · Poison control · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics) · Sociology · Suicide prevention · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Sex work and related issues
Gender, Sex, and Subordination in England, 1500-1800
Making Sex
Crime, Prosecution and Social Relations
Law, Crime and English Society, 1660–1830
Inferior Politics
Philanthropy and Police
Disorderly Women in Eighteenth-Century London
Men and the Emergence of Polite Society, Britain 1660–1800
Moral Panics, the Media and the Law in Early Modern England
English Masculinities, 1660-1800
Comparative Histories of Crime
City of Dreadful Delight
An Ordered Society
Women, Crime and the Courts in Early Modern England
Confronting the Digital
Print and the Female Voice
Male honour and the decline of public violence in eighteenth-century London
Newspaper reporting and attitudes to crime and justice in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century London
Meanings of Nightwalking in Early Modern England
Punishment, Discipline, and Power
Sex and Societies for Moral Reform, 1688–1800
The Criminality of Women in Eighteenth-Century England
The Taming of the Duel
Qualities of Mercy
Law and Morality in Seventeenth-Century England
The Decline of Public Insult in London 1660-1800
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |