About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

15 Vand. L. Rev. 797 (1961-1962)
Psychosexuality and the Criminal Law

handle is hein.journals/vanlr15 and id is 813 raw text is: Psychosexuality and the Criminal Law Ralph Slovenko* and Cyril Phillips0 All states have laws dealing with sexual conduct. All too often, the authors feel, these laws aggravate rather than resolve the problem of sexual misbehavior; furthermore, then freedom of the individual is ofttimes unnecessarily limited. Cufrrsequently, a re- thinking of the policy behind our sex laws is imperative in order to determine precisely what restrictions are necessary and how best to accomplish them. I. IMMODUCTION It is common knowledge that sexual mores vary in every culture. Sexual ethic and social structure are interrelated.1 Sexual morality is not the same in an industrially advanced society as it is in a primitive agriculture regime (the industrial revolution's influence upon sexual morals will so attest)2 Sexual mores vary in different parts of the same country (Puritan Massa- chusetts and pioneer Wyoming could not be expected to develop the same set of rules), and indeed between different social strata in the same one locality. Every society imposes regulations and codes upon sexual relations,3 and •Tulane University School of Law. *Tulane University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Neurology. 1. See Ford, A Brief Description of Human Sexual Behavior in Cross-Cultural Perspective, in PsycnosExuAL DEvELopmNT r HEALH AN DISEASE (Hoch & Zubin, eds. 1949). Ovid, the Roman poet, in his Art of Love tells the story of the Sabine women and proves the respectable antiquity of the art of picking up a girl in the theatre. All praise to Romulus, founder of Rome-You, Romulus, knew how your men to pay. Grant me such wage and I'll enlist today. Freud in his essay, The Taboo of Virginity, tells us that in the Philippines there were certain men whose profession it was to deflower brides. And he tells us of the jus primae noctis (right of the first night) of mediaeval feudal lords. See 4 FREUD, COLLECTED PAPEns 217, 229-230. In Japan public kissing is taboo, while the nude bathing of men and women together is accepted. See GurrlrrlvcH, SEX OFFENsEs (1951). 2. Life insurance and other forms of private saving would practically cease to exist if children were not reared by their biological parents. See RUssELL, MARrIAGE, MoRALs (1929); Ponrrm & PHmTnmq, MARuAGE IN THE MODERN WoPLD (1956). 3. Aditudes toward perversions have always varied widely from culture to culture. Ancient culture permitted a relatively free expression of sexual impulses. As Freud stated: The most striking distinction between the erotic life of antiquity and our own no doubt lies in the fact that the ancients laid the stress upon the instinct itself, whereas we emphasize its object. The ancients glorified the instinct and were prepared on its account to honour even an inferior object; while we despise the instinctual activity in itself, and find excuses for it only in the merits of the object. Faun, ThyxE CoNTRaBurToNs TO THE THEoRy OF SEX (1905). See also Friedman, Sexual

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most