So as to avoid giving offence to the sensibilities of Gothenburg’s respectable citizens passing along Östra Hamngatan, all suspected and known ‘public women’ were asked to enter the police building through a concealed passage at the back. Once inside, they were required to strip naked and form a queue. Sometimes, if the wait was a long one, they were ordered to stand in the outdoor courtyard, shivering in the cold, as the uniformed officers stood over them. For a young woman who had been raised in a religious community and drilled in her catechism, the indignity of this experience would have
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