ABSTRACT
The areas of interest are incest, prostitution, sado-masochism, rape, and the sexual activity of those below the age of consent. Incest is a form of sexual activity characterised in terms of the nature of the relations which obtain between the parties to it. It is normally held to be objectionable in virtue of its being sex between persons so related. The social condemnation of incest is said to be socially invariant, even though in some societies there has been systematic and wilful violation of the supposed prohibition. Perhaps the worry about prostitution is not that sex is sold but that it is and cannot just be sex that is sold or that something is implicated in the sale of sex which makes its sale a morally graver matter than sale of some other service or commodity. In 1990 five men were convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and unlawful wounding under the 1861 British Offences Against the Person Act.
