Research Methods

Alexandre Parent-Duchâtelet aimed to improve both the public hygiene and the morals of Paris, and to that end he devoted eight years of his life to the study of prostitution. Recognizing the scandalous nature of his new line of work, he sought to reassure others that he was a serious and respectable man, citing his “love of exactitude.” He thoroughly planned his methods and executed them with complete transparency and respect for protocols, attempting to turn from abstract attitudes and presuppositions about prostitution to verifyable information: numbers and facts.

Parent-Duchâtelet began by researching existing texts, mostly police documents. However, he was dissatisfied with most of what he read. In his published text De la Prostitution dans la ville de Paris au XIXe Siècle, he describes “the profound immorality of certain authors, the virtue of some others, and the absolute ignorance of them all” (1). He then visited prisons and hospitals designated to house prostitutes, interviewing doctors, surgeons, guards, chaplains, and prostitutes themselves. Throughout this process, he continually stressed that he was “always accompanied by an officer of the law.” (2)

Two of the prisons Parent-Duchâtelet visited were named Bicêtre and la Salpêtrière: the latter can be seen in the engraving above. In 1784, both institutions were decried by the Minister of the Interior as having “horrible conditions in which to live.” (3) These establishments existed solely for the isolation of their prisoners. Despite employing doctors and surgeons, these institutions would provide prostitutes would with medical attention only if they showed visible signs of illness (4). Parent-Duchâtelet felt that to improve prison conditions was a good first step. He helped to design blueprints for future prisons.

(1) Alexandre Parent Duchâtelet, De la prostitution dans la ville de Paris, (Paris: J. B. Baillière, 1836), v.1 p.64

(2) Ibid. v.1 p.70

(3) Ibid. v.2 p.14

(4) Ibid. v.2 p.7