Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act to consolidate (with corrections and improvements made under the Consolidation of Enactments (Procedure) Act 1949) the statute law of England and Wales relating to sexual crimes, to the abduction, procuration and prostitution of women and to kindred offences, and to make such adaptations of statutes extending beyond England and Wales as are needed in consequence of that consolidation. |
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Citation | 4 & 5 Eliz. 2. c. 69 |
Territorial extent | England and Wales |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 2 August 1956 |
Commencement | 1 January 1957 |
Repealed | mostly 1 May 2004 |
Other legislation | |
Amended by | Sexual Offences Act 1985 |
Repealed by | Sexual Offences Act 2003 |
Status: Partially repealed | |
Text of statute as originally enacted | |
Revised text of statute as amended |
The Sexual Offences Act 1956 (4 & 5 Eliz. 2. c. 69) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated the English criminal law relating to sexual offences between 1957 and 2004. It was mostly repealed (from 1 May 2004) by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which replaced it, but sections 33 to 37 still survive. The 2003 Act also added a new section 33A. These sections create offences to deal with brothels.
Although the rest of the Act has been repealed, the repealed sections still apply to sex crimes committed before the repeal, such as in the Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004.
Sections 33, 34, 35 and 36 create summary offences. Section 33A creates an aggravated version of the offence in section 33, and is an indictable offence. Section 37 prescribes the penalties.
Section 33 reads:
It is an offence for a person to keep a brothel, or to manage, or act or assist in the management of, a brothel.
Section 33A reads:
(1) It is an offence for a person to keep, or to manage, or act or assist in the management of, a brothel to which people resort for practices involving prostitution (whether or not also for other practices).
(2) In this section “prostitution” has the meaning given by section 51(2) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
The difference between these offences arises because the definition of a brothel in English law does not require that the premises are used for the purposes of prostitution, since a brothel exists wherever more than one person offers sexual contact, whether for payment or not. [1]
"Prostitution" is defined by section 51(2) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 as follows:
In those sections “prostitute” means a person (A) who, on at least one occasion and whether or not compelled to do so, offers or provides sexual services to another person in return for payment or a promise of payment to A or a third person; and “prostitution” is to be interpreted accordingly.
"Payment" is defined by section 51(3):
In subsection (2), “payment” means any financial advantage, including the discharge of an obligation to pay or the provision of goods or services (including sexual services) gratuitously or at a discount.
It is an offence for the lessor or landlord of any premises or his agent to let the whole or part of the premises with the knowledge that it is to be used, in whole or in part, as a brothel, or, where the whole or part of the premises is used as a brothel, to be wilfully a party to that use continuing.
It is an offence for the tenant or occupier, or person in charge, of any premises knowingly to permit the whole or part of the premises to be used as a brothel.
It is an offence for the tenant or occupier of any premises knowingly to permit the whole or part of the premises to be used for the purposes of habitual prostitution.
Section 37 gives effect to Schedule 2 to the Act, which sets out the penalties for the above offences. For sections 33, 34, 35 and 36 the penalty is imprisonment for three months for a first offence, or six months "for an offence committed after a previous conviction" for any of those offences.
The maximum sentence for the offence under section 33A is six months in a magistrates' court, or seven years in the Crown Court.
Section 2 replaced section 3(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 3 replaced section 3(2) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 and section 36 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1951
Section 4 replaced section 3(3) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 5 replaced section 4 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 6(1) replaced section 5(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 6(2) replaced section 1 of the Age of Marriage Act 1929
Section 6(3) replaced section 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1922
Section 7 replaced section 5(2) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 8 replaced section 56(1)(a) of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913
Section 9 replaced section 56(1)(b) of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913
Section 10(1) replaced section 1(1) to (3) of the Punishment of Incest Act 1908
Section 10(2) replaced section 3 of the Punishment of Incest Act 1908
Section 11(1) replaced section 2 of the Punishment of Incest Act 1908
Section 11(2) replaced section 3 of the Punishment of Incest Act 1908
As a whole section 17 replaced sections 53 and 54 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. Section 17(1) replaced section 54 of that Act.
Section 18 replaced section 53 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861
Section 19 replaced section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 20 replaced section 55 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861
Section 21 replaced section 56(1)(e) of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913
Section 22(1)(a) replaced section 2(2) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 22(1)(b) replaced section 2(3) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 and section 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912
Section 22(1)(c) replaced section 2(4) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, section 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912 and section 1(b) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1951
Section 22(2) replaced the proviso to section 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 23(1) replaced section 2(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 and section 1(a) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1951
Section 23(2) replaced the proviso to section 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 24 replaced section 8 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 25 replaced section 6(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 26 replaced section 6(2) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 27 replaced section 56(1)(d) of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913
Section 28(1) replaced section 2(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933
Section 28(2) replaced section 2(2) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933
Sections 28(3) and (4) replaced section 17 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933
Section 28(5) replaced section 99(2) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933
Section 29 replaced section 56(1)(c) of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913
Section 30(1) replaced section 1(1)(a) of the Vagrancy Act 1898 and sections 7(2) and (5) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912
Section 30(2) replaced section 1(3) of the Vagrancy Act 1898 and section 7(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912
Section 31 replaced section 7(4) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912
Section 32 replaced section 1(1)(b) of the Vagrancy Act 1898 and sections 7(2) and (5) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912
Section 33 replaced section 13(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 34 replaced section 13(3) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Section 35(1) and 36 replaced section 13(2) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
Sections 38 replaced section 1(4) of the Punishment of Incest Act 1908
Section 40 replaced section 1 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912
Section 49(a) replaced section 2 of Criminal Law Amendment Act 1922
Section 49(b) replaced section 3 of Criminal Law Amendment Act 1922
This section created the felony, and later offence, of rape.
Section 1(1) replaced section 48 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. [5]
Section 1(2) replaced the final paragraph of section 4 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. [5]
This section created the felony, and later offence, of buggery.
Section 12(1) replaced section 61 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. [5]
Section 12(2) replaced section 15 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. [5]
Section 12(3) replaced section 99(2) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. [5]
This section created the offence of gross indecency between men.
Section 13 replaced section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. [5]
This section created the offence of indecent assault on a woman.
Section 14(1) replaced section 52 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. [5]
Section 14(2) replaced section 1 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1922. [5]
Section 14(3) replaced section 1 of the Age of Marriage Act 1929. [5]
Section 14(4) replaced section 56(3) of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913. [5]
This section created the offence of indecent assault on a man.
Section 15(1) replaced section 62 of Offences against the Person Act 1861. [5]
Section 15(2) replaced section 1 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1922. [5]
Section 15(3) replaced section 56(3) of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913. [5]
Section 15(4) replaced section 15 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. [5]
Section 15(5) replaced section 99(2) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. [5]
This section created the offence of assault with intent to commit buggery.
Section 16(1) replaced section 62 of Offences against the Person Act 1861. [5]
Section 16(2) replaced section 15 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. [5]
Section 16(3) replaced section 99(2) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. [5]
See Sexual intercourse in English law.
Section 44 replaced section 63 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. [5]
Child sex tourism (CST) is tourism for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children, which is commercially facilitated child sexual abuse. The definition of child in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is "every human being below the age of 18 years". Child sex tourism results in both mental and physical consequences for the exploited children, which may include sexually transmitted infections, "drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and death", according to the State Department of the United States. Child sex tourism, part of the multibillion-dollar global sex tourism industry, is a form of child prostitution within the wider issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Child sex tourism victimizes approximately 2 million children around the world. The children who perform as prostitutes in the child sex tourism trade often have been lured or abducted into sexual slavery.
Immorality Act was the title of two acts of the Parliament of South Africa which prohibited, amongst other things, sexual relations between white people and people of other races. The first Immorality Act, of 1927, prohibited sex outside of marriage between whites and blacks, until amended in 1950 to prohibit sex between whites and all non-whites. The second Immorality Act, of 1957, continued this prohibition and also dealt with many other sex offences. The ban on interracial sex was lifted in 1985, but certain sections of the 1957 act dealing with prostitution remain in force as the "Sexual Offences Act, 1957".
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, or "An Act to make further provision for the Protection of Women and Girls, the suppression of brothels, and other purposes," was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the latest in a 25-year series of legislation in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland beginning with the Offences against the Person Act 1861. It raised the age of consent from 13 years of age to 16 years of age and delineated the penalties for sexual offences against women and minors. It also strengthened existing legislation against prostitution and homosexuality. This act was also notable for the circumstances of its passage in Parliament.
The Offences against the Person Act 1861 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to offences against the person from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the most part these provisions were, according to the draftsman of the Act, incorporated with little or no variation in their phraseology. It is one of a group of Acts sometimes referred to as the Criminal Law Consolidation Acts 1861. It was passed with the object of simplifying the law. It is essentially a revised version of an earlier consolidation act, the Offences Against the Person Act 1828, incorporating subsequent statutes.
In Great Britain, the act of engaging in sex or exchanging various sexual services for money is legal, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, and pimping, are illegal. In Northern Ireland, which previously had similar laws, paying for sex became illegal from 1 June 2015.
In English criminal law, a disorderly house is a house in which the conduct of its inhabitants is such as to become a public nuisance, or outrages public decency, or tends to corrupt or deprave, or injures the public interest; or a house where persons congregate to the probable disturbance of the public peace or other commission of crime. To persistently or habitually keep a disorderly house is an offence against the common law, punishable by fine or imprisonment.
In criminal law, the term offence against the person or crime against the person usually refers to a crime which is committed by direct physical harm or force being applied to another person.
Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, commonly known as the Labouchere Amendment, made "gross indecency" a crime in the United Kingdom. In practice, the law was used broadly to prosecute male homosexuals where actual sodomy could not be proven. The penalty of life imprisonment for sodomy was also so harsh that successful prosecutions were rare. The new law was much more enforceable. Section 11 was repealed and re-enacted by section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, which in turn was repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which partially decriminalised male homosexual behaviour.
Prostitution in Australia is governed by state and territory laws, which vary considerably, although none ban the selling of sex itself.
The Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed to consolidate certain enactments creating offences and relating to the criminal law of Scotland.
The Crimes Act 1961 is an act of New Zealand Parliament that forms a leading part of the criminal law in New Zealand. It repeals the Crimes Act 1908, itself a successor of the Criminal Code Act 1893. Most crimes in New Zealand are created by the Crimes Act, but some are created elsewhere. All common law offences are abolished by section 9, as are all offences against acts of the British Parliaments, but section 20 saves the old common law defences where they are not specifically altered.
Prostitution in Scotland has been similar to that in England under the State of Union, but since devolution, the new Scottish Parliament has pursued its own policies.
The Offences against the Person Act 1875 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Its purpose was to extend the scope of sexual offences against children.
There are a number of sexual offences under the law of England and Wales, the law of Scotland, and the law of Northern Ireland.
Canada inherited its criminal laws from England. The first recorded laws dealing with prostitution were in Nova Scotia in 1759, although as early as August 19, 1675 the Sovereign Council of New France convicted Catherine Guichelin, one of the King's Daughters, with leading a "life scandalous and dishonest to the public", declared her a prostitute and banished her from the walls of Quebec City under threat of the whip. Following Canadian Confederation, the laws were consolidated in the Criminal Code. These dealt principally with pimping, procuring, operating brothels and soliciting. Most amendments to date have dealt with the latter, originally classified as a vagrancy offence, this was amended to soliciting in 1972, and communicating in 1985. Since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms became law, the constitutionality of Canada's prostitution laws have been challenged on a number of occasions.
The Sexual Offences Act, 1957 is an act of the Parliament of South Africa which, in its current form, prohibits prostitution, brothel-keeping and procuring, and other activities related to prostitution. Before the law relating to sex offences was consolidated and revised by the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2007, it also prohibited various other sex offences, including sex with children under the age of consent and sex with the mentally incompetent. As the Immorality Act it was infamous for prohibiting sex between a white person and a person of another race, until that prohibition was removed by a 1985 amendment.
There are a number of sexual offences under the law of England and Wales.
There are a number of sexual offences under the law of Scotland.
There are a number of sexual offences under the law of Northern Ireland.