Note 100 — Chapter III

A large majority of prostitutes, then, have been placed upon the registers of the police while still under age. We may very well say, moreover, without fear of mistake, that a great part of those who are registered at a later period of life have already been among the clandestine prostitutes. Dr. Augagneur says: “How many of these women, devoted indefinitely to the life of a common prostitute, would not have fled all its horrors if a society, careless of the interests of its members, had furnished them with sufficient means of defense up to the age at which they all have succumbed,—under 21 years? When a woman has not prostituted herself before 21, she will not prostitute herself later. Look for exceptions to this rule and you will find that they are very few. The woman who is older and more experienced knows the consequences of her acts; less passionate, less weak, and less impressionable, she resists better a first temptation whose consequences she is fully aware of.100