NCJ Number
78742
Journal
Criminal Law Review Dated: (December 1979) Pages: 749-764
Date Published
1979
Length
16 pages
Annotation
An analysis of issues related to laws concerning incest and recommendations for reforming the British law of incest are presented.
Abstract
The offense of incest should be removed from the statute book, and consensual incest between adults of 18 years and over should be legalized. The reasonable limits of the criminal sanction, as laid down by the Wolfenden Committee, rule out a law of incest which, judging from its origins and from certain features of its administration, is primarily concerned with morality. Consensual incest between brother and sister, whatever the age of the participants, should also be legalized on the ground that it is usually a form of adolescent sexual conduct best dealt with by other means than the criminal law. For offenses of incest against persons under 16 years-old, existing criminal prohibitions other than incest sections of the Sexual Offenses Act would suffice. The criminal law should deal with those forms of sexual conduct which exploit and corrupt young persons between 16 and 18 years of age and which would, in some cases, be unpunishable if reliance was only placed on existing offenses or on care and protection proceedings. The suggested reform is a general provision aimed at those who take advantage of positions of authority within the family context. This makes it possible to dispense with a specially designated crime of incest and the primitive emotions which it generates, while preserving a role for the criminal law in the protection of minors where the relationship between victim and offender casts a definite obligation of care on the latter. Sixty-five footnotes are listed. (Author summary modified)