ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the historical perspectives in the development of sexual offending. It discusses how these offenses can serve as a window into a society's ideology, religious beliefs, codes of morality, and structures of power and wealth. The chapter considers the relationship between the construction of historical sexual offenses and contemporary sexual offenses. It explains the historical relationship between social controls and sexual acts. Gender scholars have deconstructed the idea that sexuality is natural and fixed. In every society there are laws, religious strictures, and societal mores and expectations regulating sex. Sexual politics is not only about the power in any given sexual relationship, but also the ways in which a society views relationships. The political nature of sexual acts can be seen in some important historical court cases regarding reproductive policies. Under the Comstock Act of 1873, birth-control advocate and Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was arrested in 1914 for her role in distributing information for birth control.
