nl_e17

"Seduction a Felony," Sept 1888
Document 10: "Seduction a Felony," Philanthropist, 3 (September 1888), p. 4.
Introduction
This anonymous article reiterates the seduction story so prominent in social
purity literature in the 1880s and 1890s that portrayed men as sexual predators and
working girls as victims. Reformers often used a comparison of the theft of a girl's
virginity with the theft of her money to make their case for raising the legal age of
consent, arguing that the former was much worse and yet not legally punishable.
SEDUCTION A FELONY.
__________
Crimes against women and girls are of such frequent occurrence
as to render obvious the urgent need or more adequate legal
protection for womanhood and girlhood. Progress has been made
latterly in this and several other states, in raising the "legal age" of
consent, in cases of rape, from ten to sixteen years; in others to
thirteen and fifteen; and in two or three states to eighteen. But, alas! In
many states the legal age of protection is still at the shockingly low
period of ten years, and in Delaware at SEVEN! One of these is
Maryland, and a lady writing from Baltimore, mentions a recent case of
a lovely young girl, the daughter of a poor widow, betrayed by one who
should have been her protector, and when her friends determined to
make an effort to have her destroyer brought to justice, and carried the
matter to the court, they were coolly informed that nothing could be
done, because the girl was over ten years of age. Another lady, writing
from Ohio, says: "Even here; in our rural districts, we repeatedly mourn
over instances of neglected and unprotected girlhood, and we have no
recourse to law in case of seduction."
In the state of New York, and most others, there is no penalty for
seduction, except in cases of breach of promise of marriage. A man
who would be subject to arrest and imprisonment if he should rob a girl
or woman of her pocket book, may with comparative legal impunity
seduce her and despoil her person. Libertines not unfrequently boast
of the number of their sensual conquests. The loss of money is a
trifling matter, compared with the loss of purity and honor. It is quite
time that seduction as well as rape, should be made a punishable
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