Social Control of Human Sexuality in the Criminological Perspective

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to highlight, in a panoramic way, key characteristics and problems concerning formal and informal, pro- and re-active control of human sexuality (in the past and particularly in the present). The text is divided into three thematic sections. In the introduction, it deals with various and culturally quite changeable ways of delimiting socially problematic and acceptable sexual activities. The central part includes analysis of the repression of erotic life. It also addresses the chief empirical and normative changes due to the so-called sexual revolution in the second part of the twentieth century. It pays special attention to the actually forbidden and punishable forms of sexual actions, such as sexual violence and pedophilia. The paper concludes with the description of some common difficulties that torment individuals in the field of normal (and normatively expected) eroticism.