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Thinking I had had a marvellous inspiration, I decided to go looking for information on prostitution at Oxford ( and Cambridge) in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century.
My object was to see if research revealed if prostitution was rife in university towns in that era.
Further, I wondered had any prostitutes been murdered (and er,mutilated after their murders).
Well, I did not find any varsity town prostitute murders, but I did discover a couple of people had taken the time to investigate- or at least mention prostitution- in their accounts of university life.
Basically, the Oxford ones spoke of Tutors having a devil of a job keeping the feisty young bucks away from neighbouring village, Abingdon, where girls were frequently importuning innocent young students.
Even worse, some students were complaining about being inappropriately propositioned by young ladies from those areas.
One paper, by a man named Engels, published in "Victorian Studies" was cited.
Living in Australia, it is hard to access things like that. Is anyone else interested in checking that angle. Someone a little closer than the Southern Hemisphere? I know I can write, but would be saving time if someone read the paper first.
My thinking, and here I have a young Oxford student named Montague Druitt in mind,is that mutilation murderers and sadists, do not suddenly embark upon a campaign of unmitigated slaughter: they gradually acclimatise to these things.
So, I am thinking there should be evidence of say, non-fatal mutilations,or attempted murders, amongst the prostitutes in university towns.
Say, when J.K Stephen was at Cambridge, or M.J.Druitt was at Oxford.
Does anyone have an opiniuon? Or can anyone discover further data?
JOHN RUFFELS.
My object was to see if research revealed if prostitution was rife in university towns in that era.
Further, I wondered had any prostitutes been murdered (and er,mutilated after their murders).
Well, I did not find any varsity town prostitute murders, but I did discover a couple of people had taken the time to investigate- or at least mention prostitution- in their accounts of university life.
Basically, the Oxford ones spoke of Tutors having a devil of a job keeping the feisty young bucks away from neighbouring village, Abingdon, where girls were frequently importuning innocent young students.
Even worse, some students were complaining about being inappropriately propositioned by young ladies from those areas.
One paper, by a man named Engels, published in "Victorian Studies" was cited.
Living in Australia, it is hard to access things like that. Is anyone else interested in checking that angle. Someone a little closer than the Southern Hemisphere? I know I can write, but would be saving time if someone read the paper first.
My thinking, and here I have a young Oxford student named Montague Druitt in mind,is that mutilation murderers and sadists, do not suddenly embark upon a campaign of unmitigated slaughter: they gradually acclimatise to these things.
So, I am thinking there should be evidence of say, non-fatal mutilations,or attempted murders, amongst the prostitutes in university towns.
Say, when J.K Stephen was at Cambridge, or M.J.Druitt was at Oxford.
Does anyone have an opiniuon? Or can anyone discover further data?
JOHN RUFFELS.
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