Written on the body?: degeneracy, atavism and congenital syphilis: re-reading child prostitution in the nineteenth century

This paper examines the various meanings attributed to child sexuality from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Drawing on medical and legal discourse, art criticism and photographic evidence, it is shown that signs of sexual abuse upon the bodies of children were often read as proof of "innate depravity" in such children.