Title Policing sexuality : the Mann Act and the making of the FBI / Jessica R. Pliley

Published Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : Harvard University Press, 2014

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Description 1 online resource (293 pages) Contents Introduction: the Mann Act and federal sexual surveillance -- The American myth of white slavery -- A national white slavery squad -- Endangered daughters -- Creating a moral quarantine -- Defining immoral purposes -- Policing seduction and adultery -- Coerced sex and forced prostitution -- The FBI's assault on sex trafficking -- Conclusion: can the country's moral borders be policed? Summary America's first anti-sex trafficking law, the 1910 Mann Act, made it illegal to transport women over state lines for prostitution "or any other immoral purpose." It was meant to protect women and girls from being seduced or sold into sexual slavery. But, as Jessica Pliley illustrates, its enforcement resulted more often in the policing of women's sexual behavior, reflecting conservative attitudes toward women's roles at home and their movements in public. By citing its mandate to halt illicit sexuality, the fledgling Bureau of Investigation gained entry not only into brothels but also into private bedrooms and justified its own expansion. Policing Sexuality links the crusade against sex trafficking to the rapid growth of the Bureau from a few dozen agents at the time of the Mann Act into a formidable law enforcement organization that cooperated with state and municipal authorities across the nation. In pursuit of offenders, the Bureau often intervened in domestic squabbles on behalf of men intent on monitoring their wives and daughters. Working prostitutes were imprisoned at dramatically increased rates, while their male clients were seldom prosecuted. In upholding the Mann Act, the FBI reinforced sexually conservative views of the chaste woman and the respectable husband and father. It built its national power and prestige by expanding its legal authority to police Americans' sexuality and by marginalizing the very women it was charged to protect Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes In English Print version record Subject United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation -- History SUBJECT United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation fast Subject Prostitution -- United States -- History -- 20th century Human trafficking -- United States -- History -- 20th century Vice control -- United States -- History -- 20th century SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Criminology. HISTORY -- United States -- 20th Century. Human trafficking Moral conditions Prostitution Vice control SUBJECT United States -- Moral conditions -- History -- 20th century Subject United States Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780674736115 0674736117 9780674745100 0674745108

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