Gross Indecency

Gross indecency is a UK and Canadian legal term which was used in the definition of the following criminal offences:

  • Gross indecency between men, contrary to section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 (known as the Labouchere Amendment) and later contrary to section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956.
  • Indecency with a child, contrary to section 1(1) of the Indecency with Children Act 1960.

It also titles a play by Moisés Kaufman about Oscar Wilde's conviction for the former offence: Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.

Famous quotes containing the word gross:

    “We are ashamed to seem evasive in the presence of a straightforward man, cowardly in the presence of a brave one, gross in the eyes of a refined one, and so on. We always imagine, and in imagining share, the judgments of the other mind.”
    —Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)