Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls; Or, War on the White Slave Trade

by Unknown

It is believed that the statutes passed by the recent legislature of Illinois present model laws which may well be copied by any state. These laws are therefore published in full. They are as follows:

SESSION LAWS, 1909, P. 179.

An act to prevent the detention, by debt or otherwise, of female persons in houses of prostitution or other places where prostitution is practiced or allowed, and providing for the punishment thereof.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly. That whoever shall by any means keep, hold, detain, against her will, or restrain any female person in a house of prostitution or other place where prostitution is practiced or allowed; or whoever shall, directly or indirectly, keep, hold, detain or restrain or attempt to keep, hold, detain or restrain, in any house of prostitution or other place where prostitution is practiced or allowed, any female person, by any means, for the purpose of compelling such female person, directly or indirectly, to pay, liquidate or cancel any debt, dues or obligations incurred or said to have been incurred by such female person, shall, upon conviction for the first offense under this Act be punished by imprisonment in the county jail or House of Correction for a period of not less than six months nor more than one year, and by a fine of not less than three hundred dollars and not to exceed one thousand dollars, and upon conviction for any subsequent offense under this act shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a period of not less than one year nor more than five years.

SESSION LAWS, 1909, PAGE 180.

An Act to amend an Act entitled "An Act in relation to pandering; to define and prohibit the same; to provide for punishment thereof; for the competency of certain evidence at the trial thereof, and providing what shall be a defense," approved June 1, 1908; in force July 1, 1908, and also the title of said Act.

Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly. That an Act entitled "An Act in relation to pandering; to define and prohibit the same; to provide for the punishment thereof; for the competency of certain evidence at the trial therefor, and providing what shall be a defense," approved June 1, 1908; in force July 1, 1908, including the title of said Act, be amended so as to read as follows:

Section 1. Any person who shall procure a female inmate for a house of prostitution, or who, by promises, threats, violence, or by any device or scheme shall cause, induce, persuade or encourage a female person to become an inmate of a house of prostitution; or shall procure a place as inmate in a house of prostitution for a female person; or any person who shall, by promises, threats, violence, or by any device or scheme cause, induce, persuade or encourage an inmate of a house of prostitution to remain therein as such inmate; or any person who shall, by fraud or artifice, or by duress of person or goods, or by abuse of any position of confidence or authority procure any female person to become an inmate of a house of ill fame, or to enter any place in which prostitution is encouraged or allowed within this State, or to come into this State or leave this State for the purpose of prostitution, or who shall procure any female person, who has not previously practiced prostitution to become an inmate of a house of ill fame within this State, or to come into this State or leave this State for the purpose of prostitution; or shall receive or give or agree to receive or give any money or thing of value for procuring or attempting to procure any female person to become an inmate of a house of ill fame within this State, or to come into this State or leave this State for the purpose of prostitution, shall be guilty of pandering, and upon a first conviction for an offense under this act shall be punished by imprisonment in the County Jail or House of Correction for a period of not less than six months nor more than one year, and by a fine of not less than three hundred dollars and not to exceed one thousand dollars, and upon conviction for any subsequent offense under this act shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a period of not less than one year nor more than ten years.

Section 2. It shall not be a defense to a prosecution for any of the acts prohibited in the foregoing section that any part of such act or acts shall have been committed outside this State, and the offense shall in such case be deemed and alleged to have been committed and the offender tried and punished in any County in which the prostitution was intended to be practiced, or in which the offense was consummated, or any overt acts in furtherance of the offense should have been committed.

Section 3. Any such female person, referred to in the foregoing sections, shall be a competent witness in any prosecution under this Act, to testify for or against the accused as to any transaction or as to any conversation with the accused or by him with another person or persons in her presence, notwithstanding her having married the accused before or after the violation of any of the provisions of this Act whether called as a witness during the existence of the marriage or after its dissolution.