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Encyclopedia Britannica

INCEST (Lat. incestus, unchaste)

This article appears in Volume V14, Page 353 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: I27-INV

INCEST (Lat. incestus, unchaste) , sexual intercourse between persons so related by kindred or affinity that legal

marriage

MARRIAGE

cannot take place between them (see

MARRIAGE

MARRIAGE

, especially the section Canon Law). In England

incest

INCEST (Lat. incestus, unchaste)

formerly was not generally treated as a crime, although, along with other offences against morals, it was made punishable by death in 165o. Since the Restoration it had, to use Blackstone's phrase, been left to the " feeble coercion of the spiritual courts," but bills to make it a criminal offence have at various times been unsuccessfully introduced in

Parliament

PARLIAMENT (Anglo-Lat. parliamentum, Fr. parlement, from parler, to speak)

. In 1908 however, an act (The

Punishment

PUNISHMENT (from Lat. punire, to punish, from poena, punishment, Gr. 7rocvil)

Incest

INCEST (Lat. incestus, unchaste)

Act 1908) was passed, under which sexual intercourse of a male with his grand-daughter, daughter,

sister

SISTER

mother

MOTHER

is made punishable with penal servitude for not less than 3 or more than 7 years, or with imprisonment for not more than two years with or without hard labour. It is immaterial that the sexual intercourse was had with the consent of the female; indeed, by s. 2 a female who consents is on conviction liable to the same

punishment

PUNISHMENT (from Lat. punire, to punish, from poena, punishment, Gr. 7rocvil)

as the male. The act also makes an attempt to commit the offence of incest a misdemeanour, punishable by imprisonment for not more than two years with or without hard labour. The terms " brother " and "

sister

SISTER

" include half-brother and half-sister, whether the relationship is or is not traced through lawful wedlock. All proceedings under the act are held in camera (s. 5). The act does not apply to

Scotland

, incest being punishable in Scots law. Under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, s. 27, incestuous

adultery

ADULTERY (from Lat. adulterium)

is per se sufficient ground to entitle a wife to divorce her husband. The Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907, s. 3, retained wives' sisters in the class of persons with whom

adultery

ADULTERY (from Lat. adulterium)

is incestuous. In the law of

Scotland

, it was, until the Criminal

Procedure

PROCEDURE (Fr. procedure, from Lat. procedere, to go for-ward)

(Scotland) Act 1887, a crime nominally punishable with death, but the penalty usually inflicted was penal servitude for life. This sentence was actually pronounced on a man in 1855. In the United States incest is not an indictable offence at common law, but, generally speaking, it has been made punishable by fine and imprisonment by state legislation. It is also a punish-able offence in some European countries, notably Germany, Austria and Italy.

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