Commercialized Prostitution in New York City

by George J. Kneeland

In the following table, both sets of reports are arranged side by side in tabular form, all forms of disorderly resorts being grouped together:

Precinct		No. disorderly places reported by police Jan. 1-Aug. 1, 1912.		No. disorderly places found by our investigators from Jan. 24-Nov. 15, 1912.
1		0		2
5		1		3
6		4		18
12		3		3
13		0		7
14		0		4
15		9		65
16		3		8
17		0		3
18		15		73
21		6		37
22		10		118
23		35		132
25		0		19
26		15		133
28		1		32
29		0		14
32		0		25
33		0		1
36		3		36
39		3		37
40		0		4
43		4		34
Totals		112		808

Tenement resorts are not included in the preceding data. In the year 1912, the police reported to the Tenement House Department as vicious 138 separate addresses, in which they had made 153 arrests,—65 of these arrests in two precincts, the 13th and the 15th; from 247 other sources, the department learned of 211 addresses: in all, 349 separate places were reported.[231] Our own agents discovered 1,172 separate disorderly apartments in tenements at 578 separate addresses between January 24th and November 15th.

In the following table, both sets of reports are combined, according to precincts; the tenement house reports cover the entire year (January-December 31, 1912), ours only the period of investigation (January 24-November 15, 1912):

TENEMENT HOUSE DEPARTMENT RECORDS

Police Reports					Complaints from all sources including police			Investigation Reports
Precincts		No. reports		No. separate buildings involved	No. complaints		No. separate buildings involved	No. separate addresses (Bldgs.)		No. separate disorderly apartments
1		..		..	..		..	..		..
2		..		..	..		..	..		..
5		1		1	2		2	1		1
6		2		2	4		4	5		9
7		1		1	2		2	1		1
8		..		..	..		..	..		..
10		2		2	2		2	..		..
12		5		5	6		5	1		1
13		27		23	38		28	10		10
14		1		1	1		1	1		3
15		38		35	46		42	58		69
16		1		1	4		4	2		2
17		4		4	15		14	5		5
18		..		..	3		1	25		26
21		3		2	7		4	6		6
22		4		4	18		15	75		123
23		3		3	8		7	28		44
25		..		..	..		..	1		2
26		12		10	13		11	102		396
28		14		12	17		13	95		164
29		..		..	..		..	..		..
31		1		1	3		3	3		3
32		16		14	22		18	85		206
33		..		..	..		..	..		..
35		..		..	2		2	2		5
36		12		11	14		13	58		81
39		..		..	3		3	4		4
40		..		..	1		1	..		..
43		6		6	16		16	10		11
Totals		153		138	247		211	578		1172

During the same period, 794 separate saloons and concert halls were investigated, of which almost one-half,—308—were found disorderly; in addition to which, 91 miscellaneous places of a disorderly character were reported. The distribution of such disorderly places by precincts was as follows:

				Miscellaneous Places
Precincts		Separate disorderly saloons, concert halls, etc.		Allied with prostitution		Semi-public used by prostitutes		Total disorderly saloons, etc. and miscellaneous places
1		..		2		..		2
2		..		..		1		1
5		..		..		..		..
6		11		..		..		11
7		..		..		..		..
8		..		..		..		..
10		..		..		..		..
12		..		..		..		..
13		4		..		..		4
14		2		..		..		2
15		11		15		..		26
16		7		..		..		7
17		..		..		..		..
18		18		8		..		26
21		13		4		..		17
22		38		7		1		46
23		26		13		5		44
25		12		2		..		14
26		50		11		3		64
28		15		1		3		19
29		2		..		1		3
31		..		..		..		..
32		20		3		5		28
33		1		..		..		1
35		..		..		..		..
36		26		..		1		27
39		26		3		..		29
40		3		1		..		4
43		23		1		..		24
Totals		308		71		20		399

The total number of actual vice resorts of all kinds discovered in Manhattan was 1,606, situated at 1,007 different addresses; in the 26th precinct, 174 were found,—29 parlor houses, 17 massage parlors, 102 tenement resorts, 10 furnished room houses, 16 hotels; in the 22nd precinct, 148 disorderly places were located, 22 parlor houses, 3 massage rooms, 75 tenement resorts, 41 furnished room houses, 7 hotels.

The investigator who succeeds in establishing himself on a footing of unsuspected familiarity in the underworld is soon admitted to confidences which show how the underworld accounts to itself for the comparative statistics above given. The credibility of the confidences in question each reader must decide for himself. Among themselves, as has already been pointed out, owners, madames and women talk freely. The conversations overheard are not staged, nor are they exceptional in character. Our agents participated in and reported in the form of affidavits frequent conversations and discussions, in which the relations between police and promoters formed the main or sole topic. Whether the details are literally accurate or not these conversations, reported from all sections of the city, and by different observers, working independently of one another, at least portray the state of feeling and opinion of the participants and their like.