CHAPTER VIII
A STUDY OF PROSTITUTES COMMITTED FROM NEW YORK CITY TO THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN AT BEDFORD HILLS
_By Katharine Bement Davis, Superintendent._
_Sources_:--The materials for this study are found in the records of 647 prostitutes committed from New York City to the State Reformatory for Women at Bedford Hills.[304] Of these, 279 were in the institution at the time the study was made. The remainder were either on parole or had been discharged on completion of sentence. The data are gathered from the girls' own stories supplemented by information from their families, from correspondence with previous employers, interviews with officials of other institutions, letters received and sent by the women themselves; from the officers who chaperone all visits to the girls while in the institution and from personal acquaintance extending in every case from three months to several years. The difficulties inherent in the compilation of such statistics are obvious. Certain data, such as birthplace, age, size of family, education, religion and previous occupation, are probably very nearly accurate. When we leave the domain of facts easily verifiable and come to the question of causes of prostitution, earnings of prostitution, reasons for coming to New York City, past institution records, conjugal condition, there is always a possibility of error. But we believe the study is, on the whole, a fair picture of the New York City prostitute who is convicted in the New York City courts. It may be said that the women convicted in the courts are not a fair sample of New York prostitutes as a class, for the reason that the more prosperous ones are so protected as not to suffer molestation from the police. A comparison, however, of the tables of the institution cases with the cases of women on the streets which include all grades from those who frequent the more expensive hotels down, will not show wide variations.
_Birthplace and Parentage_:--New York's population is composed of as heterogeneous elements as any city on the continent. It is the meeting place of the nations. What effect has this on the composition of a body of New York prostitutes? Does the native-born American who has enjoyed the economic and social advantages of this country contribute a greater or less percentage than the various groups of foreign-born? Interesting from the point of view of our immigration problem is the proportionate number contributed by each of the chief races in New York City.
An analysis of the 647 Bedford cases shows that American-born whites contribute 62.75 percent of the entire number; American-born colored women furnish 13.14 percent while the foreign-born women are 24.11 percent of the total. (See Table I.) A preliminary bulletin issued by the United States Census Bureau for the Census of 1910, places the native white population of New York City at 57.3 percent, while the foreign population is estimated at 40.4 percent of the entire population. According to this, the American-born contribute more and the foreign-born less than their proportion to the Bedford prostitutes. But 647 cases are a very small number on which to base any judgment. We have at hand, however, some other statistics. The histories of 610 prostitutes in other institutions have been analyzed.[305] Of these, 168 or 27.2 percent were white foreign-born and 68.5 percent were white American-born. In the study of 1,106 street cases, all white women, made in connection with this report, we find 31 percent foreign-born and 68.9 percent American-born.[306] The percentage of foreign-born is here somewhat higher than in the institution cases because practically no colored women were included among the street cases and few in the institutions other than Bedford. Combining the three sets of records, or 2,363 cases, we have 67 percent American-born white as against 28 percent foreign-born; a poor showing for the American-born. (See page 250, Table XLIX, columns III and IV.)
Taking up a comparison of the different nationalities, we find that in the Bedford cases the countries in the order of their numerical contributions stood as follows: Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Ireland, England-Scotland, France, and Italy. (See Table XLIX, column II.) Ranking the contributions to the 610 cases in the other institutions in the same way, the first five places on the list were identical. Canada comes sixth and France is relegated to eighth place. (Table, column III.) Examining the street cases in the same way, Russia comes first, Germany and Austria-Hungary exchange places as do Ireland and England-Scotland, France and Italy occupying sixth and seventh places. (Table, column IV.) Combining all records, the order is the same as for the street cases with the exception that Ireland and England-Scotland are reversed. (Table, column V.) Ranking the foreign-born population of New York City in point of numbers, we have Russia, Germany, Ireland, Austria-Hungary, England-Scotland, and France. (Table, column IV.) Dropping out Italy, the order remains as in column V.
Table L shows numbers and percentages. From this, it would seem that, with the exception of Italy, the various foreign groups contribute prostitutes in numbers proportioned to their numerical rank but not in proportion to their percentage of the total population; thus, Russia forming a trifle over 10 percent of the population contributes only about 8.3 percent of prostitutes; Germany and Austria-Hungary come very near to contributing their full quota; Ireland only about half, while England-Scotland send us a very few more and France a good many more than their proper proportion. It is a well-known fact that Italy sends to the United States every year, many hundred unmarried men or men without their families. This probably accounts for the small proportion of Italy's contribution. It may be argued that this is not a fair rating as we have no complete census of New York prostitutes, but owing to the methods employed in securing our material both in and out of institutions, we probably have here as representative a group of prostitutes as can be found, and a fair cross section of the entire number. It might be a more just comparison if we had the figures for the female population of the various national groups within the age limits of the women studied, but that is not attainable. With the exception of the Italian and possibly some of the component parts of the Russian and Hungarian groups, the figures used here are believed to be fairly comparable.
Unfortunately, we have not the data for the parentage of any group except that of the Bedford cases. Table II shows the nationality of parents in detail with the greatest possible attainable accuracy. Table III gives the summary. The graph accompanying Table II represents the same thing to the eye.
We find that the native-born of foreign parentage is about 51 percent. The native-born of American parentage is 18.5 percent. Mixed parentage means one native-born and one foreign-born parent.
Table IV compares these percentages with the parentage of the native population of New York City. The Tribune Almanac for 1912 gives the native white of native parents as 19.3 percent of the total population while the native white of foreign parents is 38.2 percent. Comparing, we see that the native parents contribute about their proportionate quota; the foreign-born of foreign parents contribute less than their quota, while the group that contributes out of proportion to its percentage in the population, is that of the native-born of foreign parents. This is not surprising when we remember that here we have a group in which the fathers and mothers belong to a civilization with speech, tradition and habits different from those of the country in which they are living. The children, native-born Americans with American companions and American schooling, adopt American ideals often not of the highest and are very apt, even when quite young, to feel that they know more than their parents. Lacking in any feeling of reverence, they early refuse to listen to the counsels of their parents. On the other hand, the parents often stand in awe of the superior cleverness, usually superficial, of their American-born children. An observation extending over twelve years of the relations between foreign-born fathers and mothers and their American-born daughters, leads me to feel that right here lies one of the important points of attack in preventive work.
_Status of Family_:--Occupation of father. Before we are in a position to deal fairly with any problem, we must know all the elements which enter into it. The most important factor in the study of any individual is the kind of family from which he comes. The occupation of a man has very little to do with his moral worth or his good citizenship; but it enables us in a general way, to place him as to his position in society. By his earning capacity we can judge something of the kind of home he can make and the opportunities he can give his children. We have, accordingly, included in our Bedford study, the occupation of the girls' fathers. It will be observed from Table V that the largest single group is that of unskilled labor which forms 21.3 percent of the whole. Men engaged in the mechanical trades form the next largest group, or 18.6 percent; the professions stretched to their limit furnish only 15 individuals or 2.4 percent.
_Size of Family_:--It has sometimes been claimed that the number of children in a family has a direct bearing on prostitution. One theory suggested is that prostitutes are apt to be members of a large family where economic pressure is great, where a girl is either driven out by want or has failed to receive proper education and training as a result of insufficient means. In individual cases, undoubtedly, this is true. We have a young woman of German parentage, nineteen years of age, at Bedford at the present time, who was the eldest of ten children. She has never been to school a day in her life, nor to church or Sunday School. She is as much of a heathen as if she had been born in Central Africa. As a child, she had to stay at home to "mind the baby" and there was always one. As she grew older, she became tired of the over-crowded home, had never received any training which would fit her for any occupation, fell an easy prey to a young man who took her fancy; and it was but another step into prostitution as a means of livelihood. We could tell a number of such stories where we feel confident that a very large family on very small means is largely to blame for the downfall of the older daughters.
On the other hand, it is held by some that only daughters are more apt to go wrong than those who have brothers and sisters to hold them up to family standards. It is claimed that an only daughter is apt to be pampered and spoiled, never learns obedience and is often discouraged from earning her own livelihood by her parents with the idea that her social position is thus bettered and she will be more likely to make a good marriage. One very marked case of this kind we have at this present moment at Bedford. The girl's father and mother are small shopkeepers, perfectly respectable but very injudicious people. The girl was allowed to believe all through her girlhood that she could have anything she wanted; and when her wants exceeded the possibility of gratification by her parents, she gratified them in any way she could.
Table VI, which gives the size of the families from which our 647 cases come, shows that in the largest number of cases our girls were one of three brothers and sisters. The next largest group is that of four in the family, two and five brothers and sisters having the same number of representatives. The average number of children is 3.99, not greatly above the average number of children per family in the general community which is given in the census of 1910 as 2.7 percent for New York City. Our figures, therefore, so far as they go, would seem to prove nothing special except that girls go wrong in families of all sizes.
_Occupation of Mother_:--Probably of more importance than the size of the family is the economic position of the mother, particularly during the years of the daughter's adolescence. It is a vital loss if a girl's mother is away from home all day, leaving her after school hours to associates of whom the mother knows nothing and who may be most questionable in their influence on her developing character. In 145 instances, or in 22.4 percent of the total number of cases studied, the mother worked outside the home. Table VII gives a list of the occupations of working mothers, with the number in each group. It will be seen that the women who went out for day's work are much the largest group. They went out to wash, to clean, to scrub offices and for other unskilled labor. The laundresses were employed partly in steam laundries and partly in private families and came home at night. Of the 145 mothers who worked, there were 94 who were widows; one mother was divorced; the husband and father in one case was an inmate of a sanitarium for tuberculosis; in one case the father was in an insane asylum; in 8 cases the father had deserted his family; in 40 cases the husband and father was alive and working. The necessity for earning a livelihood explains simply the leaving of children alone in the group of widows. In the 40 cases where the husband was working, no special necessity for the mother's occupation is shown by our data. The 40 husbands and fathers whose wives went out to work, were engaged in thirty-one different occupations, no one group numbering more than four men. These were the day laborers. Three were colored cooks; three were teamsters; two were carpenters; others include a stationary engineer, a walking delegate, an insurance agent, a market man, an elevator man, etc.
Neither did the size of the family afford a special excuse, as in these forty families there was an average of four children. One family contained ten children; two families each had seven and eight respectively, while the greatest number in any one group was ten families with three children each. It may be that the father was inefficient or irregular in his occupation or the family standards of living were higher. It would be necessary to know all of these details in each family to offer any opinion as to reasons and we have not these data.
But the 94 cases of working widows do not cover all the cases where the father was dead. Of these there were 170. Thirty of the mothers had remarried; two received pensions; in three cases the mothers' whereabouts were unknown and in 41 cases she was supported by her older children or by relatives. Of the total group of fatherless girls there were 154 who had lost their fathers before they had reached an age where they could receive their working papers; 73 were over fourteen; 36 did not know the date of their fathers' death. Among these were some of the orphans and probably some girls who were not willing to tell all they knew. Of the 94 girls whose widowed mothers were employed, 61, or 64 percent lost their fathers before they had reached a working age. One hundred and two girls whose fathers were living had lost their mothers previous to their admission to Bedford. In 42 instances the father had remarried and in 20 instances the fathers' whereabouts were unknown, but they were believed to be living. One hundred and fifteen out of 195 girls in the motherless group had lost their mothers when under fourteen years of age. Of the 93 orphans, 43 had been brought up by relatives, 10 by strangers and 20 in orphan asylums; twenty were old enough to earn their living at the time of their father's death. To summarize, only 282, or 43.5 percent of the women studied, had both parents living.
Until very recently, the Reformatory has had no field worker. Our knowledge of the families of our girls has been obtained as stated in the first section. Accordingly, much that would have a bearing on the conditions which have made our girls what they are, is unknown to us. But we do know that out of the 647 cases studied, in 130 different families there were known degenerate strains. This is shown in the following table:
HEREDITY; KNOWN DEGENERATE STRAINS Total Percent
1. Alcoholism in family 35 2. Criminality in family 5 3. Epilepsy in family 7 4. Feeble-minded (very marked) parents 2 5. General ill health of parents 9 6. Insanity 16 7. Parents sex offenders 21 8. Syphilitic parents 10 9. Tubercular 25 130 20.09
It is probable on the face of it that syphilis, tuberculosis and alcoholism are likely to be much more generally present than is shown by our figures.
Before we are prepared to say just how many of these factors affecting home life are directly responsible for a girl's entering a life of prostitution, we should be able to say that these factors were or were not present to the same extent in affecting the lives of a group of girls of about the same age, education, industrial efficiency and social status who have not "gone wrong." Would there be as many orphans, as many motherless girls, as many or more working mothers in any such group taken at random? Until we can make such a study, it is not fair to consider the facts given in these sections on the family as anything more than a picture of the conditions from which our girls come.
_Education and Occupation_:--A girl's education and occupation are very closely connected. We have data with reference to education so far as the Bedford cases go, based on the actual examination of the girls. Table VIII has something to say for compulsory education in New York City, especially when taken in connection with the data from other institutions and from the street cases. The table shows that 50 individuals, or 7.72 percent cannot read or write any language. Of these, 15 are American-born. Thirty-two can read and write a foreign language; 45.3 percent have never finished the primary grades, while an additional 39.72 percent never finished the grammar grades. Of the whole number, only 7.24 percent finished the grammar grades. Thirteen individuals had entered but not finished high school; only four individuals had graduated from high school; three had had one year at a normal school and one out of 647 cases had entered college. The institution cases other than Bedford make a slightly better showing, but here, in a large percentage of cases, we have nothing to go on but the girl's own statement. According to this, only 12 percent finished grammar grades and, according to their own admission, 11.4 percent of the street prostitutes cannot read or write in any language and only 4 percent had finished the grammar grades. (See Tables.)
So far as the Bedford cases go, the industrial efficiency of the women is about on a par with their education. Table X shows the occupation of these girls before entering a life of prostitution. It will be noted that 243 or the largest group are general houseworkers, forming 37.5 percent of the total number.
Almost all the studies of prostitution heretofore made have noted the high percentage of women who were engaged in domestic service previous to entering the life. So far as my observation goes, I do not believe that this indicates any greater danger from domestic service itself as an occupation than from any other in which unskilled girls engage. Domestic service for women under existing economic conditions corresponds to casual labor for men. It is the job where training and experience are unnecessary in order to find work. Such services would not be desired by families where efficiency is demanded and paid for. A very large proportion of our girls were not competent workers but were girls employed in the lowest stratum of families that employ domestic help at all and where standards of service do not exist. This group includes almost all the colored girls and a considerable number of the foreign-born white girls. The factory operatives form the next largest group; clerks in department stores come third. Ninety-two individuals, or 14 percent, had never engaged in any occupation previous to having entered a life of prostitution. These were either girls whose parents were fairly comfortably off and who preferred to have their daughters at home pending matrimony, or girls who married almost immediately upon leaving school and kept house until matrimony became too much for them. A large proportion of all our young women were not fit to fill any more responsible positions than those they held.
Comparing the occupations of the institution cases other than Bedford with those shown in the Bedford table, we find that the factory operatives form the largest group or 32.46 percent, domestic service and department stores coming second and third. (See Table XXX.) The table of occupations of street cases makes quite a different showing, which may or may not be due to the desire of the girls to put the best foot foremost in giving their histories to the investigator. Here the department store clerks form the largest group. Nearly half of the histories, however, say that the girls have never had any occupation previous to entering the life and in 101 cases, no statistics were given. (See Table XLVI). So far as education goes, however, this group is no better equipped for filling more remunerative positions than are the girls in the institutions. Their racial distribution is about the same. There is not much reason to believe that they were greatly different from the institution cases in industrial efficiency.
For comparison with the occupational groups of women wage earners in New York City in the population at large, the latest statistics available are those of the United States Census of 1900. This gives the total number of wage-earning women as 329,489. The groups which run into five figures are as follows:
1. Servants and waitresses 94,789 or 28.7% 2. Factory operatives 36,458 " 11.06% 3. Dressmakers 34,306 " 10.04% 4. Saleswomen 20,578 " 6.2% 5. Seamstresses 15,845 " 4.8% 6. Laundresses 15,085 " 4.5%
It will be noted that the third group, which is a skilled trade, has very few representatives among the prostitutes.
_Earnings_:--Until recently in our Bedford records, we have not systematically recorded wages earned before entering prostitution. With the beginning of this study, we endeavored to obtain the data from the prostitutes now in the institution. We find, however, that the girls are very hazy as to the exact amounts earned. They "don't remember" because "they always gave all their earnings to their mother" is a frequent statement. In 162 cases, however, they appeared to be sufficiently accurate as to the maxima and minima of earnings to furnish reasonable proof of the truth of their statements; particularly when taken in connection with our knowledge of the girls' ability. The average minimum is $4 and the average maximum is $8. It will be noted that even the average maximum is below $9, an amount generally conceded to be the minimum on which a girl can live decently in New York City. See Table IX. By far, the largest number earned less than this, the average being pulled up by the few girls who were more competent. In this connection we made an inquiry of 194 young women who were at Bedford at the time the study was made, as to whether they were living at home and as to the disposition of their earnings at the time they entered prostitution as a business. Out of 194, one hundred and twenty-two claim to have been living at home. Of these, 32 were supported by their parents or husbands and did not work outside of their home; 53 were working and giving all they made to their mothers; 39 were giving part of what they earned; 24 were living with relatives and of these, 15 gave all they earned to their relatives, while 9 gave a part as board; 20 young women were working and boarding with strangers. They claim they paid board ranging from $1.50 a week in one case to one case which claims to have been paying $13.50. The greatest number paid $4.00 per week. Twenty-six of the girls were domestics living where they worked. See Table XI.
It is interesting to compare the statements in regard to wages made by the girls in Bedford with the statements of those in other institutions and especially with the statements made by the street cases. Table LI presents this comparison. It will be noted that of the 420 cases considered, the average maxima and minima varied between $9 and $13, a much higher point than is reached by girls in the institutions. The total shows data for 238 girls who were domestic servants and 907 engaged in other occupations. In the cases of institution girls, the knowledge that the statement which they give can be checked up and verified by the institution officials, will, in most instances, deter them from going wide of the mark. As this was impossible in the majority of cases interviewed on the street, I feel that not as much reliance can be placed on data as to salary. Granted, however, that the data are reliable, there would seem to be no indication of real economic pressure as a reason for entering an immoral life.
_Social Relations_:--Statistics with regard to social relations must be taken with several grains of salt. A girl confined in an institution is very anxious to maintain relations with men outside and sometimes represents a man as her husband who is simply the man she has been supporting by her wages of prostitution. Usually we find this out sooner or later; but as we include in these statistics a considerable percentage of girls whom we have known only for a few months, we cannot be certain. According to present knowledge, out of 647 cases there are 193 married women or 29.8 percent of the whole. (See Table XII.) In this connection it may be said that marriages are apparently entered into with as little consideration as one would give to the purchase of a new hat, and a husband who has ceased to please is thrown aside as easily as an old garment. New connections are entered into with very little regard to the legal aspects of the case. Many a girl has said to me when arguing the matter of a new relationship and the lack of legal separation from the first, "But, Miss Davis, he did not deserve any consideration!" One girl who has committed bigamy by marrying the second man, gave as her excuse, which I think was perfectly genuine, that she wished to be respectable! In a large proportion of cases of girls sent here for prostitution, one or more men and sometimes as many as six stand ready to marry each as a means of securing her release. These are not always the men with whom the girls have been living nor the men whom they have been supporting. The most extreme case that has come to my attention is that of one of our girls who stopped a man on the street as she was being taken to the train by our officer saying: "She is taking me to prison. Will you marry me to save me?" He said "Yes," and actually wrote me asking to be allowed to do so. It should be said in connection with married women, that we have record of comparatively few husbands who are in good and regular standing, as the tables in our annual reports will show.
It is equally difficult to get at the actual truth as to the number of children that the unmarried women have had. The table shows the admissions of 219 women on this point. There are 73 unmarried women who admitted having had children; 16 were pregnant at the time of entering the institution and 18 had previously been pregnant; 428 claim to have had no children. In this connection it may not be amiss to note the fact that an unmarried woman who has had a child is more apt to belong to the mentally defective class discussed later on. The cleverer women know how to prevent conceptions.
_Religion_:--Table XIII shows the religious affiliation of the Bedford girls. At Bedford, separate services are held for Catholic, Protestant and for Jewish women. On entrance they are asked to state their previous religious connection or preference. They are advised, if they have no definite religious preference, to attend the church to which their parents belonged. They are also told that they may not change after once having declared themselves. The table shows that 41.1 percent are Catholics, 38.9 percent are Protestants and 19 percent are Jews. The colored girls are almost all included in the Protestant section.
The warden of the Jefferson Market District prison states in regard to the religious affiliations of the 7,408 women sentenced from Jefferson Market Day and Night Court in 1912, that there were 3,533 Catholics or 47.6 percent, 2,525 Protestants or 34.08 percent and 1,301 Jews or 17.4 percent.
The religion of the women committed for all offenses from all the courts of Manhattan and the Bronx in 1912 is as follows:
Catholic 4,630 or 44.4% Protestants 3,677 " 35.2% Jewish 1,880 " 18.03% ------ Total 10,424
A comparison of these figures with the percentage of Catholics, Protestants and Jews in the population of New York City would be interesting. These latter figures are very hard to get at except in the most general way. The latest authoritative study with which I am familiar is that made by the United States Census Bureau in 1906. It gives the church membership as reported by the various denominations as 1,838,482. On a basis of a regular growth in population from 1900 to 1910, the population of New York City in 1906 was about 4,235,010. On this basis, only 43.4 percent of the population have church connections. Only the heads of Jewish families are reported in this census. They are placed at 30,414. The World Almanac for 1913 is responsible for the statement quoted from "Christian Work and Evangelist" that there are 905,000 Jews in New York. This means racially as well as religiously Jewish. This would be about 19 percent of the entire population. The Census for 1906 gives to the Catholics 1,413,775, or 33.38 percent of the entire population and to the various Protestant denominations only 327,690, or 8.8 percent of the population. This would leave about 38 percent of the population without direct church connection to be distributed as to original affiliations between Catholic and Protestants. I should expect that here the Protestants would outnumber the Catholics.
Bedford's quota of Protestant girls is high, among other reasons because the House of the Good Shepherd, whose inmates are chiefly Catholics, is much the largest of the private institutions to which delinquent women are committed. I should personally believe that if we had the necessary data we should find that, as in the case of the Jewish women, the Protestants and Catholics would contribute in about their proportion in the community at large to the whole group of prostitutes.
_Age_:--Table XIV shows in column 1 the ages of 647 prostitutes on their commitment to Bedford. In column 2 it shows the age of the girl when she says she committed her first sexual offense. We have the data only in 300 cases. Of these, 279 are cases still in the institution. The age on entering prostitution is also only known for the cases in the institution, as we did not attempt to secure this special data until the beginning of the present study. It will be noted that about 7 percent of the whole number committed their first offense before they were fourteen, and that an additional 9 percent were fourteen at the time. There is, however, only the difference of a year in the average time in committing the first offense and in entering a life of prostitution. The graph which illustrates this was made by using percentages in order to have comparable curves.
_Various Other Contributing Factors_:--There has been considerable discussion as to the relative influence of country and city life in the production of character which leads to an irregular sexual life. We have registered the birthplace of all the women included in this study. We find that out of the 491 American-born women, 404 were born in cities while only 85 are known to have been country-born. Of the city-born, 290 or 59.2 percent of the total number of American-born were born in New York City. So far as this goes, it does not support the contention that the ranks of prostitution are recruited from country girls brought to the city for the purpose of immorality. We inquired of 139 girls in the institution at the time the study was made who were born outside of New York City but practised prostitution there, why they had come to New York. Seventy-eight of these claim to have come to the city with their families, who moved there for economic reasons. Only 9 admit having come with the purpose of entering the life; one came with her lover; 10 "to see New York"; 26 for work and 11 claim that they ran away from home to escape unpleasant conditions and came to New York simply because it was the handiest thing to do. Only 4 were unwilling to answer the question. In none of these cases had we any information which would contradict the statements made by the girls.
We have previously stated that 279 of the total number studied were in the institution when this special study began. We were interested to know how many of them were practising prostitution continuously and living entirely by it. One hundred and sixty-six claim to have been practising it continuously from the time they began; 55 either did not care to answer or gave unsatisfactory answers in the sense that they were obviously misleading; 58 claim to have been practising prostitution intermittently simply to eke out their wages or to get extra money. Thirty-two of the girls who were practising it at intervals and 43 who were practising it continuously, were engaged in trade. Of these, domestic servants were the largest single group, with factory operatives second. The girls who were working at trades excluding domestic service, were for the most part earning small wages; but the number of cases for which we have this data are few, too few on which to base any conclusions. The weekly earnings from prostitution as given by 146 girls who gave a maximum and of 95 girls who gave a minimum, is also to be taken with allowances. See Table XIX. It is our general experience that the majority of prostitutes have little conception of the value of money. They earn it easily and spend it as easily. Even among those who claim to make far more than the wages of even well paid working girls, it is not infrequent to find young women without changes of underclothing. These, of course, are the women who are not patronized by a well-to-do class of men.
As indicative of the character of the girl, their statements as to the reasons for their first sexual offense and of what they believe to be the causes leading up to prostitution as a career are illuminating. One hundred and eight out of 279 claim that their first wrong-doing was because they yielded to a man whom they loved; 57 admit that it was for pay; 62 claim to have been forced into the first act; 23 yielded where there was no love and where neither money nor force was used, but succumbed through weakness of will; two only state they did it because they liked it; 27 "could not remember why." See Table XXI.
As will be seen when we discuss the mentality of the girls, they are not as a class given to introspection or self-analysis. They are as a rule, incapable of this even if they try. It appeared to us worth while, however, to ask them what they thought were the reasons that led them into an immoral life. It is a very rare thing for a girl to admit that she would be willing to have a younger sister enter the life and this often can be used as a key to secure their willingness to discuss the situation. Two hundred and seventy-nine girls gave 671 reasons. We have grouped them as well as we can. The surprising thing is that very few directly economic reasons are given. It might be supposed that in friendly conversation, a girl would wish to make the greatest possible excuse for herself, and that the one most ready to hand would be the inability to earn a living. But in only 19 cases was this given as an excuse; and by referring to a similar table for street cases, it will be noticed that only 139 out of 1,106 gave a directly economic reason. It will be noted that only 7 out of 671 gave previous use of drink and drugs. As a result of experience, I should say that drink is a consequence rather than a cause of a life of prostitution, although a good many girls have admitted to me that their first wrong-doing occurred after taking an unaccustomed drink. In this connection our medical records at Bedford with regard to the use of alcoholic drinks, drugs and cigarettes, show that at entrance 112 individuals, or 17 percent of the 647 women studied were suffering from one or the other alone, or from combinations, as shown in the following table:
EXCESSIVE USE OF ALCOHOLIC DRINKS, DRUGS AND CIGARETTES
Alcohol 45 Drugs 23 Cigarettes 7 Alcohol and cigarettes 18 Alcohol and drugs 8 Drugs and cigarettes 5 Alcohol, drugs and cigarettes 6 --- Total 112 17.3%
Not suffering at entrance from effects of above 535 82.6 --- 647
Five hundred and thirty-five showed no injurious effects so far as was evident from a physical examination. We cannot give figures as to the exact number who used alcohol or cigarettes in moderation. We believe the number to be high.
Sixteen of the 647 were tubercular and were transferred to institutions for tuberculosis. No examination of the sputum was made except in cases of suspects. Seven others were epileptic and there was one case of chorea (St. Vitus Dance).
_Mentality_:--Of peculiar value, in view of the public interest in the question of mental defect as a cause of delinquency, is a study of the mentality of our 647 women. Twenty have been pronounced insane by commissions in lunacy and have been transferred to asylums for the insane. Three others will probably have to be transferred; 107 were unhesitatingly pronounced distinctly feeble-minded. Not all of our 647 cases have been examined by our psychologist. One hundred and sixteen, however, have had laboratory tests of various sorts. Among these tests, all have been given the Binet test. The result has been as follows:
MENTALITY BY BINET TEST
Showing mentality of 5 year old child 2 " " " 6 " " " 1 " " " 7 " " " 6 " " " 8 " " " 6 " " " 9 " " " 29 " " " 10 " " " 44 " " " 11 " " " 26 " " " 12 " " " 2 --- 116
The 44 who have the mentality of a ten year old child and under were unhesitatingly pronounced mentally defective. The 72 showing mentality from ten to twelve years may possibly not be so-called. The 67 others included among the 107 are those so mentally defective that there can be no question as a matter of observation. Fifty-two others are distinctly border line cases. This is the group which gives the most trouble in all reformatory institutions. It is safe to say that 90 percent of all disciplinary difficulties come from cases of this sort. They can be easily divided into at least two groups. Thus divided, 26 are girls who can be taught very little in school, whose general intelligence is low, but who may perhaps be able to learn a certain amount of manual labor; these cannot "stay good" any length of time. The other 26 are those who do well in school, are capable of mastering even such subjects as algebra and bookkeeping, but who have no moral sense or continuity of purpose. Eleven others are also properly in this class but differ from the two preceding groups in the character of their instability. If they were boys they would be tramps. They are all girls who have run away from home, sometimes a number of times, as well as from any place where they are put to service.
The foregoing figures mean that 193 individuals, or 29.8 percent, of the number studied are decidedly mentally defective. This is an extremely conservative estimate.
With the facilities which we are to have in the Laboratory of Social Hygiene under the auspices of the Bureau of Social Hygiene, we expect to get much more definite results not only as to the mentality but also as to the physical condition and the social relations of the young women under our care.
_Venereal Disease_:--The records of the Bedford Reformatory for girls show that 20.56 percent of the 647 inmates have clinical manifestations of venereal disease. The facts are summarized in the following table:
Total number of inmates 647 Number free from clinical manifestations of disease 514 Number showing clinical manifestations of disease 133 Of the last named: Number with syphilis 61 gonorrhoea 54 syphilis and gonorrhoea 9 " " disease unnamed 8 " " chancre 1 --- Total 133 (20.56%)
A series of complement fixation tests on blood specimens from 466 of the inmates show, however, that a very much larger number are infected with either syphilis or gonorrhoea or both of these diseases.[307] With the Wassermann test 176, or 37.7 percent gave positive reactions; 273, or 58.6 percent gave negative reactions, and 17, or 3.6 percent gave doubtful reactions. With a modification of the Wassermann technique where the tests were allowed to stand for four hours at ice box temperature to fix complement, instead of the usual one hour at 37 deg.C. in the incubator, 224, or 48 percent gave positive reactions, 212, or 45.4 percent gave negative reactions and 30, or 6.4 percent gave doubtful reactions, showing an increase of 10.3 percent of positive reactions for syphilis over the method of fixing complement at 37 deg.C. The same sera were tested by the complement fixation test for gonorrheal infection with the result that 134 or 29 percent gave positive reactions; 234, or 50 percent gave negative reactions and 98, or 21 percent gave doubtful reactions, fixing complement at 37 deg.C. for one hour. When the ice box method of fixation was used, 306 or 65.6 percent gave positive reactions; 101, or 21.7 percent gave negative reactions and 59, or 12.6 percent gave doubtful reactions, showing an increase of 36.9 percent of positive results over the method of fixing complement at 37 deg.C. in the incubator.
Vaginal smears from the same persons were examined but it was possible to demonstrate the presence of the gonococcus in but five of them, although many of them show the presence of numerous pus corpuscles.[308]
The full significance of the results above stated does not appear until the statistics are summarized. Of the 466 girls tested, only 50, that is, 10.7 percent, are found to be free from venereal infection. Practically 90 percent showed infection; 170, or 36.4 percent gave positive reactions for both syphilis and gonorrhoea; 27, or 5.79 percent were positive for syphilis only, and 117, or 25.1 percent were positive for gonorrhoea only.[309]
_Offenses_:--Not all of the 647 cases studied were committed to Bedford for prostitution; but all were leading the lives of prostitutes in New York City at the time of their commitment and the specific offense which they committed was an incident in the life of prostitution.[310] Table XXIV shows that 105 women or 16.22 percent were convicted of felonies, while 450, or 69.55 percent were convicted of offenses directly connected with prostitution. The 25 cases committed as disorderly children were girls under eighteen years of age whose parents or relatives caused their arrest and brought them into court as the only means of taking them from the life. The 38 commitments for vagrancy were under Subdivision 3 and 4 of Section 887 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which defines a vagrant as "a person who has contracted an infectious or other disease, in the practise of drunkenness or debauchery, requiring charitable aid to restore him to health" or "a common prostitute who has no lawful employment whereby to maintain herself."
The stories of the following girls will illustrate the relation between prostitution and crime in the cases of women sent to us for felonies or misdemeanors:
A. B. was a girl of eighteen, convicted of manslaughter in the second degree. She was not only leading a life of prostitution but was supporting her lover by it. As is so often the case, she was very fond of the man and intensely jealous when another girl won him away. She bought a sharp knife and carried it for a month before she met the girl, who had tried to avoid her. When at last they met, our girl stabbed her rival so seriously that she died from the effects.
C. D. was also only eighteen years of age. She was convicted of shooting her lover. The time had come when they were no longer happy together. A quarrel arose on the street over a trivial matter. She wished to go to one place and he to another. Neither would yield. He started across the street to go his own way. She drew a pistol and shot him dead. Asked how she happened to have a loaded pistol in her possession, she said that she has always carried one ever since she came to New York. She thought it necessary for self-protection.
The story of E. F., convicted of grand larceny in the first degree, was as follows: She came north from a southern city thirteen years ago with her mother, who died soon after. She had had a lover before her mother's death. By him she had an illegitimate child. After the child was born he married her but they were not happy together. Another man coaxed her away from her husband. She claims he put her on the street, that she was violently in love with him and supported him by prostitution. Finally she was with a man whose watch she admired and coveted for her lover. She stole it and gave it to her lover in whose possession it was found. Both were convicted.
G. H. was a woman of twenty-four convicted of robbery. She had a husband and two children. The husband was entirely able and willing to support her. She became addicted to the use of opium. She claims it was first prescribed by a physician during an illness. As the habit grew, she stole money from the till in her husband's shop to supply herself with the drug. The resulting friction between herself and her husband finally caused her to leave home and enter a life of prostitution. She had been living the life for two years at the time of her arrest for robbing a man of a diamond pin.
Three women, sentenced for corrupting the morals of a minor, had young girls with them whom they had brought to the city for immoral purposes.
The cases of assault were for the most part girls who had engaged in fist fights, usually on account of rivalry.
The attempted suicide was a girl who had tired of the life which she had led since she was fourteen years old and saw no other way out of it. She had made three unsuccessful attempts before she was sentenced to Bedford.
_Previous Records_:--The law prohibits the sentencing of women to the reformatory who have previously served a term in a state prison. With this limitation the judge has the power of sending those who have served numberless previous sentences for minor offenses if in his judgment there is hope of reform in the particular case. Contrary to the impression of many people, it is a very rare thing for a girl or woman to be sentenced to an institution for what is really a first offense. Never in our experience has a previously innocent girl been so sentenced.
Throwing light on the history of the prostitutes committed to Bedford, Table XXV gives us some information as to the various institutions in which they spent time previous to the Bedford commitment. The first section of the table shows that 305, or 47.1 percent have had previous institution experiences. In cases where these girls have been in more than one institution, this first portion of the table gives the institution in which she has spent the most time. Out of 647 cases, 255, or 39.4 percent only, are not known to have been at least previously arrested. These figures give the data that we know. The probabilities are that the tables understate the facts. The latter half of the table shows the variegated experience of a number of the women. We have no comparable data for the cases from other institutions.
_Conclusion_:--As this is a statistical study, we have not touched upon various phases of the lives of prostitutes which are of general public interest. This is because we had not sufficiently accurate data to warrant giving figures or percentages. For example, the relation of the women to the men whom they support is a matter where verifiable data are very hard to get. An increasingly large percentage of the women under our care state that they were turning over the whole or a part of their wages to their lovers. In other cases we were pretty well assured that this was the case although it was denied by the girl.
As a result of our twelve years' experience we believe that there is an increasing number of young women who live in furnished rooms and take their patrons to hotels. A larger proportion of prostitutes in our early days lived in houses of ill fame. Now in many instances, even if their work is in these houses, they live outside and go to the houses only for business purposes. A case in point is that of a girl only sixteen years of age who worked in one of the houses conducted by the so-called "syndicate." She was living with a young Italian who had lured her from her home. He conducted her to this house every afternoon at four o'clock, calling for her at five or six next morning and receiving her earnings from the woman who ran the house.
A number of the young women included in this study have figured in white slave cases. These commercialized phases of the social evil are dealt with elsewhere in this report.
STATISTICAL TABLES
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