Prostitution has long been frowned upon by society, but at no time was it so despised as in the s. The media at the time were guilty of overstating the truth with regards to crime, and as such, it was widely thought that sex work was a scourge on society and was fast becoming an epidemic, but what really are the facts surrounding prostitution in Victorian times?
Was it as bad as it was made out to be, and what happened to women who were charged with it? Rather unsurprisingly, the reason many women started in sex work was for the same reason so many still do today: money. Jobs were hard to come by in Victorian London, especially for women who were so heavily restricted in what jobs they were allowed to undertake.
Wages scarcely covered living expenses, and so there was a need to find other ways to make money. For men, they often did this by pick-pocketing. For women, sex work proved to be relatively lucrative. There was certainly a demand for it, although many were forced into it.
Rape was common in the Victorian era, but prosecution for it was rare. If a woman was raped, her standing in society was almost certainly damaged beyond repair and her job prospects would be next to nothing, leaving sex work as the only other option to make a living. There were three main types of sex work women could undertake: lodging with sailors and soldiers, living in a brothel or walking the streets.
Most women did the latter, despite it being the riskier of the three options. Whilst physical abuse and rape were prevalent across all forms of prostitution, walking the streets had one much more dangerous risk: murder.
