Trafficking, Rape, or Deceptive Sex? A Historical Examination of Procurement Offences in England

This article examines the origins of procurement offences and their historical development in England. Procurement offences were created in 1885 to tackle so-called white slavery, as trafficking in women was then sensationally called. Through an analysis of a series of lower-level and appeal cases h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social & legal studies 2023-08, Vol.32 (4), p.499-518
Main Author: Lammasniemi, Laura
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abused children
Child abuse & neglect
Child sexual abuse
Criminal law
Deception
Historical development
Human trafficking
Kidnapping
Legal history
Legal system
Offenses
Organized crime
Poverty
Prostitution
Purchasing
Rape
Sex crimes
Slavery
Social environment
Trafficking
Women
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Summary:This article examines the origins of procurement offences and their historical development in England. Procurement offences were created in 1885 to tackle so-called white slavery, as trafficking in women was then sensationally called. Through an analysis of a series of lower-level and appeal cases heard between the years of 1885 and 1925 and their social context, this article dispels myths about procurement for prostitution as an international, organised crime, showing instead how it was localised and poverty driven. The article also shows how procurement transformed from a narrowly defined trafficking-related offence into a broadly applied sexual offence. It came to be used as a ‘catch-all’ sexual offence that had the potential to encompass various distinct offences, from trafficking, rape and child sex abuse to deceptive sex. The legal history of the procurement is of particular importance as deception and questions of conditional consent remain deeply contested in modern criminal law.
ISSN:0964-6639
1461-7390
DOI:10.1177/09646639221129107