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Federal Government's Program in Attacking the Problem of Prostitution

NCJ Number
204070
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 67 Issue: 3 Dated: December 2003 Pages: 10-12
Author(s)
Eliot Ness
Date Published
December 2003
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article, originally published in the April-June 1943 issue of "Federal Probation," describes the Federal Government's then-existing national program for repressing prostitution as "necessary for effective control of venereal disease."
Abstract
Military reports, medical history, and years of trial-and-error methods have shown that the repression of prostitution is necessary for the effective control of venereal disease. In an effort to control the spread of venereal disease, the Federal Government has launched a national program of repression of prostitution. The first point of attack is against commercialized prostitution in "red light" districts and segregated areas. The elimination of segregated prostitution districts depends largely on intensive police action by local law enforcement officials. Large-scale closings of houses of prostitution by police have resulted in a corresponding decrease in the military venereal disease rates. A second phase of the Federal Government's program to combat prostitution focuses on the unorganized channels of prostitution. With the closing of "red light" districts, clandestine prostitutes and promiscuous girls and women have become the chief source of venereal infection. Clandestine prostitution must be attacked under the authority of adequate laws and ordinances, vigilant police action, the active cooperation of judges and prosecutors, the alertness of public health and welfare departments, and enlightened public opinion. There is also a need for increased funding for quarantine facilities for arrested prostitutes who require treatment for venereal disease, and increased attention must be given to measures that will prevent girls and women from entering prostitution. Further, sympathetic supervision of prostitutes during periods of quarantine or probation can lead to social readjustment and reformed lives.