![The Causes of Prostitution JAMES P. WARBASSE [Illustration] Reprinted from the TWENTIETH CENTURY MAGAZINE of July, 1912](https://oldbook.b-cdn.net/kitaplar/6/pg58935-h/images/cover.jpg "The Causes of Prostitution JAMES P. WARBASSE [Illustration] Reprinted from the TWENTIETH CENTURY MAGAZINE of July, 1912")
THE CAUSES OF PROSTITUTION
The wonder is that there is not a greater degree of public
appreciation of the prostitute-making conditions
which society harbors because it foolishly
thinks that it profits by them.
By JAMES P. WARBASSE
A prostitute is a woman who offers herbody for hire to men for their sexualpleasure. Sexual promiscuity on thepart of women, not practised for money,does not constitute prostitution. Nordoes the mere granting of sexual privilegesfor money constitute prostitution;if it did, women who marry for moneywould fall within this class. Prostitutionmeans promiscuity for hire.
We should approach its study withsympathetic minds. The prostitute inAmerica is likely to be a weak characterwho has fallen a victim to the viciousconditions which society maintains. Theglamor and gayety, which flippantly arespoken of as associated with her traffic,really do not exist for her. Her lot byno means is a happy one. She reconcilesherself to this life usually becauseher mind is empty of better things.When once engaged in prostitution, itis difficult for the woman to escape fromit unless powerful social forces arebrought to bear.
The specific causes which promptwomen to enter this traffic may be classifiedas follows: (I) those affectingboth sexes, (II) those affecting first themale, and (III) those bearing especiallyupon the female.
Before proceeding with an enumerationof causative factors, let it be notedthat the two fundamental causes are (a)sexual lust on the part of men and (b)poverty on the part of women. Theother causes which will be given are subsidiaryto these two. Anything thatmakes for sexual looseness, that breaksdown the fiber of sexual morality,makes for prostitution. We may evengo so far as to include all agencieswhich provoke sexual excitement.Among these are many contributingconditions, some predominated by good,some by evil. Thus, as sexual excitants,on the one hand is music, with a maximumpower for good and a minimumpower for evil; and on the other, alcohol,with a minimum power for good anda maximum power for evil. An analysisof the causative factors is not completeunless it takes into account thesesecondary influences.
I. A chief subsidiary cause commonto both sexes is defective education,which is responsible for ignorance ofthe simple principles of sexual biology,sexual hygiene, and sexual disease. Boysand girls growing up, first learn ofthese things from their vulgar companions,stumble into love, courtship, andmarriage, blundering and groping--allbecause they have been denied instructionin one of the subjects which arevital for their health and happiness.Venereal diseases and sexual sins areaugmented because of the ignorancewhich prudishness insists upon. Womenfall; men patronize the prostitutes,contract gonorrhea and syphilis, andcarry them to their wives, because ofthis ignorance; and society reapswretchedness and vice.
Were girls told the dangers of extra-marital sexual congress--how it ultimately[pg 4]means either pregnanc