Prostitutes and popular history: notes on the ‘underworld’, 1918-1939

Slater, Stefan

doi:10.4000/chs.689

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 32 publications

(16 reference statements)

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“…An island in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily, north of Tunisia, Malta represents the southernmost point of Europe. Malta was described as a centre of the white slave trade and Maltese were said to be the key in the international underworld [9,43,44]. Yet the evidence for this view is rather slim.…”

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International crime in the interwar period: a view from the edge

Knepper

Azzopardi

2011

Crime Law Soc Change

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This article examines the issue of international crime in Malta during the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, Malta was said to be at the centre of the international underworld, and in particular, a primary route for the white slave trade. Archival evidence in Malta and London reveals some concern over counterfeiting and smuggling, but little to support concerns about traffic in women or drugs. International crime did, however, represent a significant political issue. Owing to a rising national identity and interest in promoting tourism, politicians and the press in Malta resented allegations about the white slave trade. Accusations surrounding a bomb incident and assassination attempt invoked charges by pro-British and proindependence voices. We conclude that the 'myth of international crime', raised in the context of multi-national police cooperation, extended to the edge of Europe and figured into wider issues involving governance within the British Empire.We live in an age of international crime. Twentieth century technologies, including internet commerce and satellite-based communication, have facilitated fraud and theft. Economic, political and cultural developments have enabled mass intercontinental travel along with drug trafficking, human trafficking and terrorist attacks. But without historical knowledge, it is difficult to put these threats into perspective.In his research on the internationalisation of policing, Mathieu Deflem portrays international crime as a myth that originated in the interwar period. He leaves open the possibility that some police knowledge reflected actual developments, but concludes that international crime represented a 'professional' or 'organisational' myth. Police authorities in Europe inflated the threat of cross-border crime to enhance their influence across national borders. They talked about a crime wave occurring in the aftermath of the First World War and of a new class of criminals who exploited modernisation of life.

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confidence: 97%

International crime in the interwar period: a view from the edge

Knepper

Azzopardi

2011

Crime Law Soc Change

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Murder Cases, Trunks and the Entanglement of Ethics: The Preservation and Display of Scenes of Crime Material

Sutton-Vane

2019

Crime and the Construction of Forensic Objectivity From 1850

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Lady Astor and the Ladies of the Night: The Home Office, the Metropolitan Police and the Politics of the Street Offences Committee, 1927–28

Slater¹

2012

Law hist. rev.

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Section 54 (11) of the Metropolitan Police Act 1839 criminalized the act of a common prostitute causing annoyance by soliciting in public.2For the police to implement this legislation was no simple matter, as no definition of “prostitute,” or indeed “annoyance,” was scribed in statute law. Although common law aided the interpretation of this offense—the case ofRex v. de Munck(1918): “We are of the opinion that prostitution is proved if it is shown that a woman offers her body commonly for lewdness of payment in return”3—in practice, identifying a “common prostitute” and defining “annoyance” was left to the discretion of the individual police officer. Although specific squads were deployed to target streetwalkers in West End police divisions, where the presence of prostitutes was more likely to cause public offense, a “blind eye” was often turned to women soliciting in the less salubrious streets of the metropolis. Local knowledge gained on the beat and the informal advice of colleagues shaped an unofficial police policy of containment and toleration.4

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Prostitutes and popular history: notes on the ‘underworld’, 1918-1939

Abstract: Ware (1932, p. 142). The project had its faults. For example, Smith was so eager to show the decline in absolute poverty, that Booth's definition of the « poverty standard » was violated: Yelling (1990, pp. 205-206).

Cited by 9 publications

References 32 publications

International crime in the interwar period: a view from the edge

International crime in the interwar period: a view from the edge

Murder Cases, Trunks and the Entanglement of Ethics: The Preservation and Display of Scenes of Crime Material

Lady Astor and the Ladies of the Night: The Home Office, the Metropolitan Police and the Politics of the Street Offences Committee, 1927–28

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