Middle-Class Prostitution

Furthermore, Victorian perceptions of prostitution were also much to do with class difference and social problems, early social investigators had identified prostitution as an intolerable evil that threatened the sanctity of the family as well as social order” (Walkowitz.J, 1980, p.33). This was because the majority of contemporary literature published on prostitution was written by middle-class men, who would link prostitution with poverty, particularly because as aforementioned they felt threatened by the independence of the prostitute. Therefore many writings on the topic meant that prostitutes were highlighted negatively and made a social problem closely linked with poverty, “thus prostitution become associated with the troublesome poor” …show more content…
was believed to result from the low moral standard, which is existed among sections of the working class as much as poverty” (Bartley.P, 1999, p.34). Throughout the Victorian era, there were large amounts of criminal activity and so “it is arguable that the interest in prostitution in Victorian Britain stemmed from the need to cull immoral behaviour through tougher policing” (Joyce.F, 2008). Prostitutes become the central figure of all social problems and criminal activity in the Victorian era as exemplified by the 1839 Vagrancy Act, which was aimed exclusively at prostitutes, distinctively outlawing “loitering for the purposes of prostitution or solicitation, to the annoyance of passengers or inhabitants” (Pearsall.R, 2003, p.267). Prostitutes were seen differently to other vices, “drunks, vagrants, bankrupts and immoral men could all regain their respectability, but not prostitutes, thus placing prostitution above others as the most disgraceful vice” (Landels.W, 1858,