Pursuing Johns: Criminal Law Reform, Defending Character, and New York City's Committee of Fourteen, 1920-1930In Pursuing Johns, Thomas C. Mackey studies the New York Committee of Fourteen and its members' attempts to influence vagrancy laws in early-20th-century New York City as a way to criminalize men's patronizing of female prostitutes. It sought out and prosecuted the city's immoral hotels, unlicensed bars, opium dens, disorderly houses, and prostitutes. It did so because of the threats to individual "character" such places presented. In the early 1920s, led by Frederick Whitin, the Committee thought that the time had arrived to prosecute the men who patronized prostitutes through what modern parlance calls a "john's law." After a notorious test case failed to convict a philandering millionaire for vagrancy, the only statutory crime available to punish men who patronized prostitutes, the Committee lobbied for a change in the state's criminal law. In the process, this representative of traditional 19th-century purity reform allied with the National Women's Party, the advanced feminists of the 1920s. Their proposed "Customer Amendment" united the moral Right and the feminist Left in an effort to alter and use the state's criminal law to make men moral, defend their character, and improve New York City's overall morality. Mackey's contribution to the literature is unique. Instead of looking at how vice commissions targeted female prostitutes or the commerce supporting and surrounding them, Mackey concentrates on how men were scrutinized. Book jacket. |
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Page 75
... Association was one of several antivice , social hygiene associations active in that period in New York City . Although no evi- dence exists that the Committee of Fourteen and the American Social Hygiene Association had previously ...
... Association was one of several antivice , social hygiene associations active in that period in New York City . Although no evi- dence exists that the Committee of Fourteen and the American Social Hygiene Association had previously ...
Page 129
... Association , including sections that would make possible " the apprehension and conviction of the customer of the prosti- tute . " Whitin thought the New Jersey statute flawed because it provided the defendant a jury trial that could ...
... Association , including sections that would make possible " the apprehension and conviction of the customer of the prosti- tute . " Whitin thought the New Jersey statute flawed because it provided the defendant a jury trial that could ...
Page 293
... Association , 20 Morrow , Prince A. , 109 Moskowitz , Mrs. Henry , 111 , 123 , 138 Moskowitz , Joseph , 69–72 Moss , George D. , 8 Municipal Affairs , 221n . 9 Myers , John Caldwell , 91 , 93–95 , 103 , 137 Nash , Howard P. , 177 , 249n ...
... Association , 20 Morrow , Prince A. , 109 Moskowitz , Mrs. Henry , 111 , 123 , 138 Moskowitz , Joseph , 69–72 Moss , George D. , 8 Municipal Affairs , 221n . 9 Myers , John Caldwell , 91 , 93–95 , 103 , 137 Nash , Howard P. , 177 , 249n ...
Contents
To Live Correctly Themes and the Significance of Character | 1 |
Only the Barbarian Waits New York Citys Committee of Fourteen | 15 |
Drifted Feminist Reformers and Prostitutions Changes in the Twenties | 35 |
Copyright | |
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Alger American Social Hygiene Annual Report antiprostitution antivice argued arguments arrest asked bill Book October 1920-May Box 86 Minutes Breitung Chairman Chicago Code of Criminal commit Committee of Fourteen committee's convicted Criminal Courts criminal law criminal law reform Criminal Procedure cultural customer amendment Customer Laws directors District Edward Edward Breitung enforcement February feminist File Fourteen Papers Frederick H Frederick Whitin History Ibid investigators issue Judge jump raids Kift Kift's Lawrence Veiller Legislation legislature lobbying Magistrate male McAdoo McGuire Medalie meeting ment Minute Book October Minutes & Reports moral reform National Woman's Party obituary police problem proposed amendment proposed customer amendment prosecuting prostitution purity/social hygiene reform Raines Law repression Ryttenberg sexual intercourse Slade Social Hygiene Social Hygiene Association social purity reform social purity/social hygiene Straus Tenement House tion University Press vagrancy statute vice William William McAdoo woman women Women's Court Woodson Worthington York City York State's