MANN ACT

MANN ACT. Congress passed the White Slave Traffic Act on 25 June 1910. Commonly known as the "Mann Act" in honor of the bill's sponsor, Illinois Representative James Robert Mann, the act was designed to eliminate "white slavery," broadly understood as forced female prostitution. The act makes it a felony to transport in interstate or foreign commerce or in the District of Columbia "any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose." Conviction under the original law was punishable by a "fine not exceeding five thousand dollars" and/or "imprisonment of not more than five years."

The act was inspired, and possibly drafted, by Mann's friend Edwin W. Sims, United States District Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois (1906–1911), an early anti–white slavery crusader. Reform groups such as the American Purity Alliance and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union were influential in its passage, as were "purity journals" such as Vigilance and The Light. The dramatic rhetoric used to describe white slavery during the early twentieth century has led some historians to explain the law as a response to moral hysteria. The actual prevalence of white slavery in 1910 is a matter of debate.

Prostitution was traditionally considered a matter for the state and local police power; indeed, in 1910 every state had laws regulating prostitutes and "bawdy houses." Beginning in the early twentieth century, however, some crimes, like white slavery, were considered too widespread and insidious for states to handle without federal assistance. Congress passed the Mann Act under its power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce. It is one of several federal police power statutes enacted under the Commerce Clause during the Progressive Era (Pure Food and Drug Act, 1906; Harrison Narcotic Drug Act, 1914). The act met little opposition, despite some federalism objections. The Department of Justice and its newly formed investigative unit, the Bureau of Investigation (now known as the FBI), were primary enforcement agencies.

The act was passed with a narrow purpose: to allow federal prosecution of those who force women into prostitution. It has been used to punish both commercial and noncommercial sexual behavior. In the first few years after enactment, police officers and Bureau agents used the act to track prostitutes and drive brothels underground. In the late teens and 1920s noncommercial offenses, such as interstate adultery, were prosecuted with some enthusiasm. Under the leadership of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (1924–1972) the law was generally used to convict racketeers involved in prostitution; on occasion, it was used to convict noncommercial offenders and/or political miscreants. Prosecution plummeted during the 1960s and 1970s. Since the 1980s, prosecutors have used an amended version of the law, among other things, to combat rape, male prostitution, pornography, child abuse, and international human trafficking.

Federal judges have been largely sympathetic to the act, upholding it against federalism and right-based challenges. The law was first validated by the Supreme Court in Hoke v. United States (1913). Caminetti v. United States (1917) has become famous (and infamous) for its application of the ejusdem generis rule of statutory construction.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bristow, Edward J. Prostitution and Prejudice: The Jewish Fight against White Slavery, 1870–1939. New York: Schocken, 1983.

Connelly, Mark T. The Response to Prostitution in the ProgressiveEra. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980.

Langum, David J. Crossing over the Line: Legislating Morality and the Mann Act. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

Kimberly A.Hendrickson

See alsoPolice Power .