Mann Act
Communities started to set up vice commissions, to look how widespread local prostitution was. They also looked into questions, if the prostitutes were forced, and if  cartel-type organizations ran local prostitution. These commissions also closed  the brothels and the red light districts. The laws in the cities, which were liberal at first became more and more restrictive. Throughout the last few decades of the 19th century, there was more and more opposiition to an open prostution on the streets. The Federal Government responded to this with the Mann Act. The purpose of the act was to make it a crime to "transport [...], or aid to assist in obtaining transportation for" or to "persuade, induce, entice or coerce" a woman to travel.  Many of the changes that occurred after 1900 were a result of tensions between social ideals and practical realities. Family form and functions changed in response to a complex set of circumstances that were the effects of economic class and ethnicity.