JULIA LAITE Lecturer in Modern British History at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. She has published several articles on prostitution in Britain and is presently researching women's migration, sexual labour, and human trafficking in the twentieth century world.

• List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Criminalizing Commercial Sex Selling sex: Women, Work, and Prostitution Buying Sex: Men and the Marketplace The Crusade Begins: The Criminal Law Amendment Act and London's 'Brothels' Before the First World War Women in Public and Public Women: Controlling Street Prostitution 1887-1914 'Down on Whores' and 'Living on the Earnings': Violence, Vulnerability and the Law after 1885 White Slaves and Alien Prostitutes: Trafficking, Protection, and Punishment in the Early Twentieth Century Making War, Taking Fingerprints, and Challenging the Law: Policy Changes and Public Debates after 1914 Behind Closed Doors: Off-Street Commercial Sex in the Interwar Years Sex, War, and Syndication: Organized Prostitution and the Second World War The Shame of London: Prostitution and Panic in the Post-War Metropolis Risking the Dangers: Reconsidering Commercial Sex in 'Permissive Britain' Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography Index