Sex, Crime and Morality

Over the last few decades, there has been a marked increase in media and debate surrounding a specific group of offences in modern Democratic nations which bear the brunt of the label ‘crimes against morality’. Included within this group are offences related to prostitution and pornography, homosexuality and incest and child sexual abuse. This book examines the nexus between sex, crime and morality from a theoretical perspective.

This is the first academic text to offer an examination and analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of sex-related crimes and social attitudes towards them and the historical, anthropological and moral reasons for differentiating these crimes in contemporary western culture.

The book is divided into three sections corresponding to three theoretical frameworks:



Part 1 examines the moral temporality of sex and taboo as a foundation for legislation governing sex crimes


Part 2 focuses on the geography of sex and deviance, specifically notions of public morality and the public private divide


Part 3 examines the moral economy of sex and harm, including the social construction of harm.

Sex, Crime and Morality will be key reading for students of criminology, criminal justice, gender studies and ethics, and will also be of interest to justice professionals.

Sharon Hayes is Senior Lecturer in Justice at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Sharon has been researching and teaching in the areas of criminal justice, criminology and ethics for the past twenty years, and has published extensively in the areas of sexuality/gender studies, specifically sex and crime, same-sex domestic violence and sexuality in the classroom.
Belinda Carpenter is Professor in the School of Justice, in the Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. She has published widely on the issue of prostitution, including the book: Rethinking Prostitution: feminism, sex and the self, New York, Peter Lang (2000).
Angela Dwyer is Senior Lecturer in the School of Justice, in the Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Techology, Brisbane, Australia. Her research interests include sexuality and criminal justice, sex and crime, sex trafficking, prostitution, the body and criminality, young people and popular culture, and qualitative research methods.

1. Introduction Part 1 2. Out of Time: The Moral Temporality of Sex and Taboo 3. Incest 4. Pornography Part 2 5. Out of Place: The Moral Geography of Sex and Deviance 6. Sex Offending 7. Sexuality Part 3 8.Out of Context: The Moral Economy of Sex and Harm 9. Sexual Commerce 10. Sex Trafficking 11. Conclusion