ABSTRACT
Obscenity Conduct which is in itself obscene may well come within the ambit of particular criminal offences (e.g. indecent exposure (q.v.)), but the term ‘obscenity’ is generally reserved for portrayals of such conduct in publications and other representations. Various laws have sought to regulate this ever-contentious matter, ranging from out-and-out prohibition through systems of censorship to local by-laws, and the present position (but without reference to video-tapes) was fully reviewed by the Home Office Committee on Obscenity and Film Censorship (1979). In all such discussion freedom of expression, varying from that of hard pornography to work of artistic or scientific merit, has contended with the effects, psychological or social, it is thought to have. Of particular interest is the research of Kutchinsky (1978) indicating that the availability of pornography may have some beneficial social consequences in reducing the rates of some sexual offences. Here the criminal law currently regulates obscenity as follows:
