Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

Controlling Vice: Regulating Brothel Prostitution in St. Paul, 1865-1883

by Joel Best
Save 17% Save 17%
Current price ₹2,668.00
Original price ₹3,202.00
Original price ₹3,202.00
Original price ₹3,202.00
(-17%)
₹2,668.00
Current price ₹2,668.00

Imported Edition - Ships in 18-21 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Paperback
  • ISBN13: 9780814250075
  • Binding: Paperback
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: Ohio State University Press
  • Publisher Imprint: Ohio State University Press
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 192
  • Original Price: GBP 18.47
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 291 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Criminology

For eighteen years following the Civil War, the police in St. Paul, Minnesota, informally regulated brothel prostitution. Each month, the madams who ran the brothels were charged with keeping houses of ill fame and fined in the city's municipal court. In effect, they were paying licensing fees in order to operate illegal enterprises. This arrangement was open; during this period, the city's newspapers published hundreds of articles about vice and its regulation.

Joel Best claims that the sort of informal regulation in St. Paul was common in the late nineteenth century and was far more typical than the better known but brief experiment with legalization tried in St. Louis. With few exceptions, the usual approach to these issues of social control has been to treat informal regulation as a form of corruption, but Best's view is that St. Paul's arrangement exposes the assumption that the criminal justice system must seek to eradicate crime. He maintains that other policies are possible.

In a book that integrates history and sociology, the author has reconstructed the municipal court records for most of 1865-83, using newspaper articles, an arrest ledger kept by the St. Paul police, and municipal court dockets. He has been able to trace which madams operated brothels and the identities of many of the prostitutes who lived and worked in them.

Joel Best is a professor of sociology and chair of the Department of Sociology at Southern Illinois University. He is editor of the journal Social Problems and coauthor of Organizing Deviance.

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us