ABSTRACT
Sex matters – to individuals, to be sure, but also to social groups. Consequently all societies
define and enforce norms of how to ‘‘do it,’’ with whom, when, where, how often, and why.
Yet how such sexual norms are enforced, indeed which acts are even considered to be sex
(‘‘it’’), varies tremendously. In some cases sexual regulation is informal, as when girls or
women admonish one another to control their sexual appetites lest one gain a ‘‘reputation.’’
In others, regulation is more formal, as when a female prostitute is arrested and sentenced for her
sexual misconduct. Of course, the legal system is not the only institution that formally regulates
acceptable and unacceptable sexual practices. Religion also helps construct and enforce ideals of
normal sex, defining some acts as sinful, others as righteous. In both cases, the moral language of
sin and crime renders the social control aspects of legal and religious sexual regulation apparent.
