Gross indecency is a

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

in some parts of the English-speaking world, originally used to criminalize sexual activity between men that fell short of

sodomy Sodomy (), also called buggery in British English, principally refers to either anal sex (but occasionally also oral sex) between people, or any Human sexual activity, sexual activity between a human and another animal (Zoophilia, bestiality). I ...

, which required penetration. The term was first used in British law in a statute of the

British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

in 1885 and was carried forward in other statutes throughout the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

. The offence was never actually defined in any of the statutes which used it, which left the scope of the offence to be defined by court decisions.

History

The term ''gross indecency'' was first used in the

Labouchere Amendment Labouchere or Labouchère may refer to: * Labouchere (paddle steamer) * François de Labouchère (1917–1942), French aviator * Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton (1798–1869), British politician * Henry Labouchère (1831–1912), British politi ...

(section 11 of the

Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 ( 48 & 49 Vict. c. 69), or "An Act to make further provision for the Protection of Women and Girls, the suppression of brothels, and other purposes," was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the la ...

), which criminalized sexual acts between men, including those done in private. Gross indecency statutes consequently spread throughout the

. Canada adopted the term in section 178 of the

Criminal Code A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

in 1892. The term was also used in the

(sections 206 (1906, 1927), 149 (1953–1954), 157 (1970), 161 (1985)) as well as in the Criminal Law Amendment Act (1968–1969, section 7); however, all statutes that used the term were repealed in 1985 with an amendment to both the Criminal Code and the

Canada Evidence Act The ''Canada Evidence Act'' () is an act of the Parliament of Canada, first passed in 1893, that regulates the rules of evidence in court proceedings under federal law. As law of evidence is largely set by common law, the act is not comprehensive ...

. The United Kingdom later used the term in the

Sexual Offences Act 1956 The Sexual Offences Act 1956 (4 & 5 Eliz. 2. c. 69) is an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated the English criminal law relating to sexual offences between 1957 and 2004. It was mostly repealed (from 1 ...

and in section 1(1) of the Indecency with Children Act 1960.

Notable cases

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

was charged and convicted of gross indecency in 1895. His trial and punishment is the subject of the 1997 play '' Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde''.

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist. He was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer ...

pleaded guilty to the crime in 1952, the consequences of which led to his alleged suicide in 1954. Turing, who had been convicted of gross indecency for consensual, private homosexual acts, received a posthumous pardon in 2013. In 2017, under the

Alan Turing law "Alan Turing law" is an informal term for the portion of the Policing and Crime Act 2017 which serves in UK law to pardon men who were cautioned or convicted under obsolete laws criminalising homosexual acts. The provision is named after Ala ...

, all men convicted of gross indecency due to consensual, private sexual acts were pardoned. Everett George Klippert was the last person in Canada to be arrested, charged, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned for gross indecency for homosexuality before the decriminalization of homosexual acts in 1969; the reform was a direct result of the Klippert case. In 1965 Everett George Klippert was interrogated by the police as part of an arson investigation in the Northwest Territories. Klippert was arrested after admitting that he had had sex with other men. When psychiatrists determined that he was unlikely to stop having sex with men, he was declared a dangerous offender and sentenced to life in prison. ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'' is a Canadian magazine founded in 1905 which reports on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, trends and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian ...

'', Canada's popular newsweekly, then printed an article sympathetic to homosexuals. This led to increasing calls to reform Canada's law on homosexuality. Klippert was released in 1971.

Current legislation

Australia

South Australia

Gross indecency is an indictable offence in the state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, with gross indecency requiring the involvement of a person under 16 years of age. A minor indictable offence, gross indecency carries a maximum term of imprisonment of three years for a first time offence, and five years for a subsequent offence.

Kenya

Gross indecency between male persons of any age, in public or private, is a felony punishable by up to five years' imprisonment. Gross indecency is a lesser offence than sodomy, which is punishable by up to 14 years' imprisonment. LGBT rights activists are trying to repeal the law.

United States

Michigan

In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

is the only

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

that currently has gross indecency statutes. Michigan has three types of gross indecency crimes, all of which are five-year felonies: * Gross indecency between male persons * Gross indecency between female persons * Gross indecency between male and female persons Gross indecency between male persons was codified first, and the other two were made into laws later. Historically, the definition of gross indecency was unclear, and courts relied on nebulous notions such as the "common sense of society". The vagueness of the term allowed for adults who engaged in consensual sex with no monetary transactions in the privacy of their own homes to be charged with the crime, and men who had sex with men were particularly vulnerable to prosecution. Over time, the definition increasingly narrowed through

Michigan Supreme Court The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the s ...

decisions, and a 1994 decision officially narrowed it to sex acts that occurred in a public place or that involved a minor, the application of force, or a monetary transaction. Michigan now has separate statutes addressing all four aforementioned acts in statutes regarding indecent exposure, criminal sexual conduct (CSC), and prostitution; however, the gross indecency statutes remain in effect. The gross indecency statutes have been criticized by

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...

activists.

References

{{reflist 1885 establishments in the United Kingdom Obscenity law Sex crimes Common law legal terminology Governance of the British Empire