De 'handel in blanke slavinnen'.

A meticulous legal study opens by tracing the early stirrings of an international crusade against the trafficking of young women, beginning with a British activist’s 1879 revelation of deceptive recruitment into continental brothels. The author weaves contemporary reports, parliamentary debates, and landmark legislation such as the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act into a vivid portrait of how public outrage turned into concrete legal action across Europe.

Building on this foundation, the dissertation parses the very definition of “white‑slave traffic,” comparing terminology and statutes in Germany, England, and France. It examines how misleading promises, coercion, and exploitation intertwine to create a criminal enterprise, and it outlines the challenges of drafting effective laws that balance individual liberty with state intervention. The work invites listeners into the scholarly debates of the era, offering a nuanced view of early twentieth‑century efforts to combat a disturbing social ill.