Commercialized Prostitution in New York City — John Shaqi
Commercialized Prostitution in New York CityKneeland, George J. (George Jackson)
History
Commercialized Prostitution in New York City
Kneeland, George J. (George Jackson)
Prostitution -- New York (State) -- New York
At 12.30 P. M., February 22, 1912, the investigator found two women in
this place, by both of whom he was solicited to go to a rear room for
immoral purposes. When they failed in their efforts, the proprietor said
that she could get him a young girl if he preferred. Two days later the
resort was visited by another investigator, who found two women acting as
waitresses, by one of whom he was similarly solicited.
The various establishments above mentioned were all repeatedly visited in
order to show their relatively permanent character and their freedom from
interference: one[46] on Broadway was visited nine times in five weeks:
another,[47] in West 29th Street, five times between February 8 and August
19; a third,[48] in the same neighborhood, five times in four months.
(2) ASSIGNATION AND DISORDERLY HOTELS
The parlor house and the tenement vice resort are, like shops, fixed
places for the carrying on of prostitution as a trade. There is, besides,
an enormous amount of itinerant prostitution utilizing mainly disorderly
hotels. These places are commonly called "Raines Law" hotels.
The history of the creation of the "Raines Law" hotels in New York City is
exceedingly interesting. The primary object of the framer of the law was
to minimize the evils connected with saloons. As pointed out in the report
of The Research Committee of The Committee of Fourteen, issued in 1910
under the title of "The Social Evil in New York City, a study of Law
Enforcement,"[49]
"from the passage of this law dates the immediate growth of one of
the most insidious forms of the Social Evil. This growth was due to a
heavy increase in the penalties for a violation and the expected
increased enforcement of the law by state authorities beyond the
reach of local influences. To illustrate, the license tax was raised
from $200. to $800., and the penalty of the forfeiture of a bond was
also added.[50] To escape these drastic penalties for the selling of
liquor on Sunday in saloons, saloon keepers created hotels with the
required 10 bedrooms, kitchen and dining-room. The immediate increase
was over 10,000 bedrooms. There being no actual demand for such an
increase in hotel accommodations, the proprietors in many instances
used them for purposes of assignation or prostitution, to meet the
additional expense incurred. In 1905 there were 1407 certificated
hotels in Manhattan and the Bronx, and of these about 1150 were
probably liquor law hotels. In 1906 an important administrative
provision was added to the law. This amendment, known as the Prentice
Act, provided that hotels must be inspected and passed by the
Building Department as complying with the provisions of the law,
before a certificate could be issued to them. As a result of this new
legislation, 540 alleged hotels were discontinued in Manhattan and
the Bronx. A large number of these places, however, continued under
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