"Shocking Neglect of an Illegitimate Child By Its Mother at Plymouth"

This article was written in Issue 354 of the Illustrated Police News on December 3, 1870.  The five year old daughter of Florence Rugg was found in an awful condition by Inspector Edwards.  The child was laying on a pile of filthy rags and obviously in a state of starvation.  She was Florence's illegitimate daughter, according to the article.  It also states that Florence had a drinking problem.  She had been "convicted many times for drunkenness, and on one occasion was sent to prison for fourteen days under the Contagious Diseases Act."  Florence appeared in court, however, nothing was said about her testimony regarding the child's condition, only a description of how wicked she appeared to look.  The article states, "Her appearance in court was most wretched and disgusting...and on her face were marks of severe bruises."  The bruises, she voiced, were because the man she was living with "illused her," showing how she was abused, yet there was no mention that she ever brought the man to court and there was no follow up of how the court reacted to this piece of information.  It seems that nothing would come of the man's abuse to her other than that his abuse is the reason for her unseemly appearance.  The article ended with Florence's trial being recessed until Monday and she was no longer placed in custody on the promise that she would turn up in court on Monday. 

After stating that the child is a five year old girl, the article calls the child 'it' instead of 'her,' dehumanizing the little girl.  One line reads, "It was quite unable to stand when removed, and its bones almost protruded through the skin."  This description does not sound like one of a human child, but a creature being examined.  This may be because she is an illegitimate daughter, born from a mother who engaged in sexual intercourse prior to marriage.  The article seems to veer away from the little girl's condition throughout the article, focusing on the mother and her personal life, rather than the mother's life in relationship to the child.  She seems to be used more as a tool to label Florence as a wicked and morally unsound women rather than someone who the court wants justice for.  The little girl was taken out of her mother's custody and sent to the workhouse.  This article's portrayal of the little girl, questions the general treatment of illegitimate children during the Victorian period.  Did society warrant sympathy to the children or were the majority of people more inclined to dehumanize the children as this article's diction suggests?

Due to Florence's imprisonment under the Contagious Disease Act, she may have been a prostitute.  the woman is portrayed as wicked and her prior history of sex and drunkenness were called into questioned, framing her as a morally corrupt outsider of society.  However, Florence's treatment of her child was still deemed as "Shocking" according to the article.  If society was so quick to equate a woman's sexual promiscuity with criminality during the Victorian era, and even in our present society, why was her treatment to the child seen as shocking?  Perhaps at least the author of the article believes women who were prostitutes or sexually active prior to marriage were morally tainted, however the characterizations of a mother being a 'nurturer' and caretaker are so prevalent that even a woman who would be defined by society as immoral, may still have been seen as possessing maternal instincts, suggesting that maternal attributes are present even in the most heinously cruel mothers.  This may be why the author titled the mother's neglect of her child as "shocking," even though stereotypes of sexually active women was still present in the author's delivery of the article. 
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