Policing Sexuality: The Mann Act and the Making of the FBI
Abstract
Jessica Pliley links the crusade against sex trafficking to the FBI’s growth into a formidable law agency that cooperated with states and municipalities in pursuit of offenders. The Bureau intervened in squabbles on behalf of men intent on monitoring their wives and daughters and imprisoned prostitutes while seldom prosecuting their male clients.
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Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The Mann Act was aimed at controlling women's behavior, especially interracial relationships.
“However, Pliley (2014) shows that it was aimed at controlling women's behavior, especially interracial relationships.”
From To Protect and to Serve: Police, Power, and the Production of Inequality in the United States (2024) · cites this paper as Pliley 2014
Following the 1873 passage of the Comstock Act, attention to public decency, morals policing, and coercion of women who sold sex became a central component of police work.
“Following the 1873 passage of the Comstock Act, attention to public decency, morals policing, and coercion of women who sold sex became a central component of police work (Hicks 2010;Pliley 2014;Fischer 2022).”
From To Protect and to Serve: Police, Power, and the Production of Inequality in the United States (2024) · cites this paper as Pliley 2014
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Mass Criminalization of Black Americans: A Historical Overview
Hinton, E., & Cook, D. (2021) · Annual Review of Criminology · doi:10.1146/annurev-criminol-060520-033306 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
To Protect and to Serve: Police, Power, and the Production of Inequality in the United States
Felker-Kantor, M. (2024) · Crime and Justice · doi:10.1086/732194 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Pliley, J. R.
- Corresponding author
- Pliley, Jessica R.
- ORCID
- Pliley, Jessica R.
- Venue
- Harvard University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Harvard University Press
- Published
- 2014-11-03
- OpenAlex
- W4255308402
- Cited by
- 103
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 2.23
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Harvard University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Sex work and related issues
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
- Keywords
- sex trafficking, FBI, policing of sexuality, prostitution, male clients of sex workers, federal-state cooperation, criminalization of sexuality, gender and law enforcement
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