La prostitution des mineurs dans le débat républicain à la Belle Epoque. L’expertise juridique et l’échec d’une politique.

The early XXth century is characterized by new scandals involving the Police administration in France. An extra-parliamentary commission is gathered to discuss the issue of establishing a legal framing. Although the statutory system is not abolished, a law is passed in 1908 about “the underage citizens who are used to indulge in debauchery or in prostituting themselves”. The commission (1903-1906) attached much importance to the jurists ‘judgment about issues that were so far dealt with by doctors. This major change had to do with the historical context: the republican mobilization on the matter of individual liberties after the Dreyfus affair. It also occurred because the concern about underage citizens (boys and girls) “who [indulged] in debauchery or in prostituting themselves” was then becoming one of the most important issues in a judicial policy of “protecting endangered children”. The jurists’ judgment justified the necessity of legislating. The debates also emphasized the rifts between the jurists on the legal frames, on the choice between penal and civil right and on the role of the judicial institutions in controlling the minors’ sexuality.