Cultural/Institutional Changes Inspired by Parent-Duchâtelet's Research
Parent-Duchâtelet played an important role in dispelling several of the myths that surrounded prostitution and prostitutes at the time. His research in many ways humanized these women at a time when people were understood simplistically by their “physiologie” (pseudo-scientific social typologies). The impact becomes apparent when looking at the literature that followed the publication of his treatise: literature that portrayed prostitutes as complex characters, often with admirable morals or backstories that explained the reasons behind their lives as prostitutes. Parent-Duchâtelet’s work also resulted in institutional changes in prisons, hospitals, and healthcare.
As one example of this work, Parent-Duchâtelet advocated for the installation of treadmills in prisons as a form of mandatory exercise. He was inspired by English prisons, where prisoners were required to walk 4000 meters per day, six days per week (1). Members of the French government were hesitant to believe the benefits purported by the English: Magistrate Barbé-Marbois worried that treadmills, while helpful for male prisoners, would be devestating to the health of women. But, as Parent-Duchâtelet insisted, that belief was widely discredited in England: at a general inquiry held in Newington in 1824, of the 49 magistrates in attendance, all "with the exception of one, declared that the treadmills had the best results, concerning the physical condition of the prisoners" (2). In an attempt to further convince the French government, Parent-Duchâtelet submitted himself to the treadmill treatment. He reports: "at first, it seemed to me that it would grow fatiguing, but in the end it did not exceed the strengths of even a delicate man" (3).
(1) Alexandre Parent Duchâtelet, De la prostitution dans la ville de Paris, (Paris: J. B. Baillière, 1836), v.2 p.137
(2) Ibid. v.2 p.135
(3) Ibid. v.2 p.141