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:

    I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous ... as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both north and south. It is hard to have a southern overseer; it is worse to have a northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)