Scotland in the nineteenth century

2. Crime and punishment

Section 2.9: Prostitution

"to inquire into the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1866-1869, their administration, operation and effect ... and to report whether the said Contagious Diseases Acts should be maintained, amended or repealed."

[page 44]

Alexander McCall, Chief Constable of Glasgow, gave evidence to the Committee concerning prostitution (pp. 370-387). Regulations concerning prostitution were encompassed in the Glasgow Police Act, 1843, which imposed a fine on those harbouring prostitutes. This Act was amended in 1862, when more powers were bestowed on the magistrates of Glasgow concerning brothels and street solicitation. The General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act, 1862 stated that if a complaint was made by a citizen, search warrants could be issued, valid for 30 days, and anyone found in brothels could be arrested. If a charge was proved against them, they could be sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment or made to pay a fine of £10. After a second conviction, the magistrate could close the premises.

Since the passing of this Act, the number of brothels in Glasgow had been greatly reduced. Mr. McCall stated, "before such measures were adopted you could scarcely walk any distance without some woman putting herself in your way, or getting hold of you" (para. 7407).The Glasgow Police Act, 1862 had undoubtedly reduced brothels and soliciting: "you will not find a city in which there is less of that upon the public streets, or less temptation in a general way to lead young people astray than you find in Glasgow" (para 7611). In support of this, he quoted the reports from the Registrar General, which showed that the number of patients in Glasgow Lock Hospital, where women were treated for venereal disease, had also reduced. The hospital was supported by voluntary subscriptions and women entered it of their own accord. It was argued that the voluntary character of the institution induced women to seek medical aid at an earlier stage than they would do otherwise.

"to inquire into the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1866-1869, their administration, operation, and effect ... and to report whether the said Contagious Diseases Acts should be maintained, amended or repealed..."

This legislation provided for the registration, police supervision and periodical compulsory examination and detention in hospital of prostitutes. When they had a clean bill of health, prostitutes were "signed off" for as long as 12 months, and those who opposed the legislation on moral grounds saw this as being tantamount to the State condoning and licensing prostitution. The Acts did not apply to Scotland and attempts to extend them to cover Scotland encountered fierce moral opposition from Nonconformist elements.

The Select Committee recommended that:

1. The Acts should not be repealed.
2. The Acts should not be extended to cover the United Kingdom as a whole because of the powerful body of opinion opposed to the measures.
3. Registration, police supervision, periodical compulsory examination and detention in hospital should continue.

[page 45]

In England supporters of the Acts saw them as protecting public health and the health of the women concerned, and also providing an opportunity, while they were compulsorily detained in hospital, for attempts at moral reclamation. Evidence from Scotland took the view that the legislation should not be extended to cover that country. Medical evidence, from a surgeon at the Lock Hospital Glasgow, was given to the effect that the Glasgow Police Act, 1870, worked well. Since this legislation, prostitution had ceased to be an obvious public nuisance on the streets. In the past "it was a common thing to see the mistress of the house on the summer afternoons with a troop of 4 or 5 females marching in Indian file in their gaudiest array. That is never seen now." (para. 2853). Although there was no compulsion placed on women apprehended by the police most accepted treatment voluntarily.

An attempt had been made to extend the Acts to Maryhill, Glasgow, as this was the military centre for the West of Scotland (para. 4713-4724). One of the reasons for the passing of the legislation in England had been the intractable problems caused by sexually-transmitted diseases in the armed forces. William Ferguson, an elder of the Free Church of Scotland remarked: "I have read that one third of the British Army is in hospital all the year round." The magnitude of this problem was increased by the fact that soldiers were not allowed to marry.

Immorality and illegitimacy in rural Scotland were also discussed. It was agreed that this was a very different matter and grew out of the bothie system, by which farm labourers lived in single sex dormitories. It also owed something to what was referred to coyly as "the practices of courtship in farmhouses" (para. 4771).

William Ferguson recommended, as an antidote to vice, early marriage, that the army should be allowed to marry and that prostitutes should be able to go to hospitals voluntarily, and these hospitals should be provided by charitable subscription.