Judith Walkowitz has done some very fine work on the topic of
19C prostitution; see her _Prostitution and Victorian Society:
Women, Class, and the State_ (Cambridge UP, 1983).
For something more recent, try Philippa Levine's article
"Veneral Disease, Prostitution, and the Politics of Empire:
The Case of British India," in J of Hist of Sexuality, April
1994.
Harly Ramsey
University of Southern California
hramsey@chaph.usc.edu