The Campaign to Repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts in Victorian England, 1864-1886 PDF Download

Author: Sharon Harless (author)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Communicable diseases
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A series of three laws, known as the Contagious Diseases Acts, were passed by parliament in the years 1864, 1866, and 1869. The legislation involved the regulation of prostitution, not then a criminal offense, in certain military towns and ports in England and Ireland, with the purpose of reducing the amount and severity of venereal disease in the army and the navy. The first Act, introduced on june 20, 1864, applied to Portsmouth, Plymouth, Woolwich, Catham, Sheerness, Aldershot, Colchester Shorncliffe, the Curragh, Cork, and Queenstown. It contained the following provisions; that for a duration of three years, a special plain-clothed police unit, not local officers but members of the Metropolitan Police Force overseen by the Admiralty and the War Office, could apprehend any woman in a subjected district suspected of being a common prostitute. The public at large could anonymously accuse a woman, or a special policeman could swear evidence against her himself. The Acts provided no legal definition of the term "common prostitute," and unless the woman could convince a magistrate that she was not whatever that term implied, she was ordered to a hospital certified under the law to undergo a gynecological examination. If found to be suffering from venereal disease, the woman was incarcerated in a "Lock" (venereal) hospital for up to three months. Refusal to be examined or subsequently admitted to hospital carried a penalty of one month's imprisonment with or without hard labor for a first offense, and two month's imprisonment for each offense thereafter. If an accused woman desired, she could avoid official action by signing an ostensibly voluntary submission slip before examination. Nevertheless, she was still liable for mandatory detention if found deceased. In any case, her name was automatically placed on a prosecution.