Commercialized Prostitution in New York City

by George J. Kneeland

Therefore, as the initial step, the Bureau of Social Hygiene was formed in the winter of 1911. Its present members are Miss Katharine Bement Davis, Superintendent of the New York State Reformatory for Women at Bedford Hills, New York; Paul M. Warburg, of the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Company; Starr J. Murphy, of the New York Bar; and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. As the work develops, new members may be added.

One of the first things undertaken by the Bureau was the establishment at Bedford Hills, adjacent to the Reformatory, of a Laboratory of Social Hygiene, under Miss Davis’s direction. In this laboratory, it is proposed to study from the physical, mental, social and moral sides each person committed to the Reformatory. This study will be carried on by experts and every case will be kept under observation for from three weeks to three months, as may be required. When the diagnosis is completed, it is hoped that the laboratory will be in position to suggest the treatment most likely to reform the individual, or, if reformation is impossible, to recommend permanent custodial care. Furthermore, reaching out beyond the individuals involved, it is believed that important contributions may be made to our knowledge of the conditions ultimately responsible for vice, and that the methods worked out may prove applicable to all classes of criminals, thus leading to lines of action not only more scientific and humane but also less wasteful than those at present followed.

In entering upon its labors, the Bureau regarded it of fundamental importance to make a careful study of the social evil in this country and in Europe. This problem, like any other great and difficult one, can be approached only through an understanding of the various factors involved—physical, moral, social and economic—and of the experience of other cities and countries in dealing with it. Arrangements were therefore made in January, 1912, to secure the services of Mr. George J. Kneeland, who had directed the Chicago Vice Commission investigation. Since that time Mr. Kneeland, with a corps of assistants, has been making a thorough and comprehensive survey of the conditions of vice in New York City, the findings of which are here presented.

The purpose of this volume is to set forth as accurately and fully as possible the conditions of vice as they existed in New York City during the year 1912. It should be clearly understood that the data upon which it is based are not presented as legal evidence, but as reliable information secured by careful and experienced investigators, whose work was systematically corroborated.

In presenting the facts contained in this report, the Bureau has no thought of criticizing any department or official of the city administration. The task which the Bureau set itself was that of preparing a dispassionate, objective account of things as they were during the period above mentioned, the forms which commercialized vice had assumed, the methods by which it was carried on, the whole network of relations which had been elaborated below the surface of society. The studies involved were made in a spirit of scientific inquiry, and it is the hope of the Bureau that all departments or officials whose work this book in any way touches may find the information therein contained helpful to them in the further direction and organization of their work.

The Bureau also secured the services of Mr. Abraham Flexner, whose reports on the medical schools in this country and in Europe are well known, to study the social evil and the various methods of dealing with it in the leading cities of Europe. Mr. Flexner spent the greater part of a year abroad, making a searching and exhaustive inquiry into the subject, and is now working on his report, entitled “Prostitution in Europe,” which will be the second volume of the series, to be published in the fall.

The third volume will deal with European police systems. Mr. Raymond B. Fosdick, a member of the staff of the Bureau and former Commissioner of Accounts of New York City, went to Europe in January for the purpose of making this study and is enjoying unusual facilities in the prosecution of his inquiry. The police are necessarily so important an instrument in dealing with prostitution that the success of whatever plan is adopted will depend largely on their organization and efficiency. No adequate descriptive and critical account of the British and Continental police systems exists. Much has been published from time to time, but there does not appear to have been any exhaustive study for the purpose of ascertaining the points of excellence, as well as the defects, of the European police and the lessons deducible from their experience. The police problems of the great European cities closely resemble our own; their police organizations have successfully worked through a period of storm and stress such as we are now passing through. Whatever differences may ultimately have to be taken into account, the experience of London, Berlin, and of other cities will, when fully reported, be rich in suggestions that will abbreviate our own period of experimentation.

The fourth volume will be based upon studies made in those cities in the United States where different conditions exist or where special methods of dealing with the social evil have been introduced.

In conclusion, it should be stated that the spirit which dominates the work of the Bureau is not sensational or hysterical; that it is not a spirit critical of public officials; but that it is essentially a spirit of constructive suggestion and of deep scientific as well as humane interest in a great world problem.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Chairman.