The "Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon"

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A series of highly controversial newspaper articles that appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette in the July of 1885. Written by crusading editor, W.T. Stead, the series was a tour de force of Victorian child prostitution. With sensational crossheads, such as "The Violation of Virgins" and "Strapping Girls Down", the "Maiden Tribute" threw respectable Victorians into a state of moral panic, and achieved, as a consequence, the implementation of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, which raised the age of consent in girls from 13 to 16. Stead and several of his accomplices were later brought to trial as a result of the unlawful investigative methods used in the "Maiden Tribute" (see the Eliza Armstrong Case) and Stead himself served three months in prison. Nevertheless, today the scandal is regarded as a high watermark in early investigative journalism and an early but potent example of the power of press.