Sex Laws

Australia

• Commonwealth legislation including adultery, polygamy, and the act against arbitrary interferences with privacy
• New South Wales acts including several sexual assault laws, incest, bestiality, necrophilia, child prostitution, bigamy, obscene exposure, and prostitution,

Canada

• The Criminal Code of Canada contains Part V: sexual offenses, public morals, and disorderly conduct and Part VIII: offenses against the person and reputation

Islam

• Rules concerning Use of Lavatory
• Obligatory Baths
• Kinds of Blood Seen by Women
• Covering the Body in Prayers
• Sexual Intercourse (during fasting)
• Masturbation (during fasting)
• Marriage: Permanent, Temporary (only allowed by the Shi'a school, which makes up around 20 percent of the Muslim population), Divorce

United States

• Alabama bigamy, adultery and incest, prostitution and obscenity, offenses involving danger to the person, marriage protection act, marriage requirements,
• Alaska
• Arizona
• Arkansas sexual offenses
• California Code on sexual assault and crimes against public decency and domestic violence, and a Santa Monica sign ordinance
• Connecticut Penal Code sex offenses, public indecency, bigamy, incest, obscenity, Violation of probation by certain sexual offenders, Psychological counseling required for person convicted of sexual assault of a minor (All these laws are in one very large page)
• Georgia Sexual Offenses
• Idaho
• Indiana Code Title 35 articles on sex crimes, public indecency, prostitution, and voyeurism, stalking, abuse of a corpse, obscenity and pornography, and the definition of deviate sexual conduct.
• Kansas Sex Offenses
• Louisiana, Shreveport
• Minnesota Statutes
• Missouri Revised Statutes Sexual Offenses, Prostitution, Offenses Against the Family, Pornography
• Nebraska
• New York sex offenses
• Ohio sex offenses, bigamy, bigamy, endangering children, sexual predators, abuse of a corpse
• Utah State Code
• Virginia search and table of contents
• Revised Code of Washington sections on sex offenses, family offenses, indecent exposure/prostitution, abortion, obscenity/pornography, and sexual exploitation of children.

Related Links

• A table of international and U.S. state ages of consent for heterosexual and homosexual activity
• Sodomy law news and information from around the world
• The Criminal Justice and Sodomy Laws page by the ACLU
• Text of the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision Bowers v. Hardwick upholding the Georgia sodomy law
• Text of the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision Lawrence v. Texas declaring sodomy laws unconstitutional - "Bowers was not correct when it was decided, is not correct today, and is hereby overruled." The result of this decision is that any sodomy laws in the US cannot be enforced if the situation is private, non-commercial, and between consenting adults.
• USA state-by-state parental consent laws on abortion maintained by the Coalition for Positive Sexuality
• The World Sex Guide discusses prostitution around the world.
• A summary of laws about non-monogamous relationships on Howard Landman's Polyamory page
• Some legal history of zoophilia and the law
• The british Sexual Freedom Coalition "Promoting reform of Britain's silly old sex laws"
• The P.E.R.S.O.N. (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) Project Handbook
• Cornell law school has a nice collection of links to U.S. and state laws
• Yahoo's Sexuality & Legal Issues category
• Washburn Law Library's State Laws
• FindLaw's criminal law section
• Internet Legal Resource Guide's Topical Index of Legal Resoources
• The Mining Company's Sexuality and Sex Crime resources

Related Books

These books are available through Amazon. Helpful reviews are available for many of the books through the links for each book.

	A fun book with a libertarian message that I keep picking up and reading parts of is Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do; The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society, Peter McWilliams, 6/1996. Also available for reading online on the author's home page	paperback
	My favorite reference book on the subject is A Guide to America's Sex Laws, Richard Posner and Katharine Silbaugh, 10/1996. The authors have researched all the state laws and US code. In addition to discussing each state's current laws, they discuss the history of each type of law. Published by the University of Chicago Press	hardcover, paperback
	Sacred Secrets; The Sanctity of Sex in Jewish Law and Lore, Gershon Winkler, 4/1998.	hardcover
	Sex, Laws, and Cyberspace, Jonathan Wallace and Mark Mangan, 3/1996	paperback
	Laws and Nature; Shaping Sex, Preference, and Family, David Estlund and Martha Nussbaum, 12/1996.	hardcover, paperback
	Reconstructing the Household; Families, Sex, and the Law in the Nineteenth-Century South, Peter Bardaglio, 3/1998.	hardcover, paperback
	Hard Bargains : The Politics of Sex Linda Hirshman and Jane Larson, 10/1998.	hardcover, paperback
	Dearest Pet; On Bestiality, Midas Dekkers and Paul Vincent, 6/1994.	hardcover, paperback
	Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society), Mark Jordan, 5/1997.	hardcover, paperback
	Close Readers; Humanism and Sodomy in Early Modern England, Alan Stewart, 5/1997.	hardcover
	Sex Power and Justice : Historical Perspectives on Law in Australia, Diane Kirkby, 3/1996.	hardcover
	Sex Drugs Death and the Law : An Essay on Human Rights and Overcriminalization, David Richards, 4/82.	hardcover
	Sex, Morality, and the Law, Lori Gruen and George Panichas, 11/1996.	hardcover, paperback
	Unwanted Sex; The Culture of Intimidation and the Failure of Law, Stephen Schulhofer, 11/1998.	hardcover, paperback
Books on the lighter side...
	Ludicrous Laws and Mindless Misdemeanors, Lance Davidson, 4/1998.	paperback
	You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant: 101 Real Dumb Laws, Jeff Koon, Andy Powell, Ward Schumaker, 6/2002.	paperback

Explanation and Disclaimer

• hypertext can be a useful way to view the law
• definitions of and penalties for serious sex crimes vary from place to place
• some commonly accepted sexual activities are illegal in some states

• have any comments or corrections
• know of any similar efforts
• have an electronic version of any laws of another country, state, or city
• arrived here from a site not referenced above

I am not a lawyer nor do I ever plan to be. Nothing found in this site should be taken as legal advice. If you want legal advice, find a lawyer. The law books contain much more detail than has been included in this site. Many cross references and important judicial decisions noted in the books clarify the meaning of each law. Although reading the text of the law usually reveals much of the meaning, a complete understanding of the law is impossible without more research. Ask to see your state's code at your library. If they don't have a copy, they will know where you can find one.

If you provide a link to this page, you may want to know about the mirror at http://vatavia.net/laws/

Contact: Send Email
My home page

This page is hosted by the great folks at