Australian attitudes to social crimes

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32661, 17 July 1971, Page 10

Australian attitudes to social crimes

The Sexual Dilemma: Abortion, Homosexuality, and the Criminal Threshold. By Paul Wilson. University of Queensland Press. Notes, Index. Despite its arresting and somewhat flamboyant cover (orange, blue, and purple), this book is actually a scholarly, documented work on the Australian law as it stands in relation to the three activities. It is not a detached survey: the author regards himself as a “pew” sociologist, claiming that "in our present-day world it is not enough to be scholarly; one must also be concerned enough to shout. It is not enough to understand the world; one must also seek to change it.” He

thinks that abortion, homosexuality, and prostitution between consenting adults are threshold crimes because there is a considerable body of opinion which holds them as non-criminal, they have no “victim,” and there is no evil intention on the behalf of the perpetrator. For each activity, he discusses the relevant law, the attitude of the people who practise it, and issues in the controversies surrounding it, such as the effect on society. The book is not wholly argumentative. The author has undertaken extensive surveys on Australian public opinion towards these crimes, and provides a particularly interesting chapter on the results of relaxed laws in overseas countries. Finally, Mr Wilson provides a chapter on the laws he thinks should replace the old. The section on abortion shows that the legal position in Australia is similar to that in New Zealand, and, as the author states, modem contraceptive devices have not eliminated the market for abortions; these people turn to illicit channels, a crime almost free from punishment, which invites tempting prospects for police extortion, as a recent police, enquiry in Australia shows. The author suggests that abortion be allowed if the pregnancy would risk the physical or mental health of the mother, a defective child being born, or if the pregnancy was the result of illicit intercourse. In Australia, brothel-keeping, pimps, procuring, and soliciting are illegal, though prostitution itself is not. The author has interviewed prostitutes and found that after a while many became emotionally hardened and frightened of men, not liking the work but finding it difficult to leave because of the money and because they had forfeited respectability.. He claims that they do provide for people who would find it hard otherwise to obtain a sexual outlet, and for the unattractive, the fetishists, and "strangers among us.” He makes the point that “free” love is more dangerous to family life than prostitution, which does not generally

involve the emotions; severe control of prostitutes forces them into the hands of organised crime, and does not stop prostitution. At present in Australia there is a covert acceptance of prostitution which (the author claims) forces the police into hypocritical situations. He would like to see licensed prostitutes and brothels established, and soliciting on the street to remain a crime. Homosexuality seems tp be the area in which the present law causes the most misery to a large group of people, and yet, according to Mr Wilson’s questionnaire, it meets with the most disapproval with the Australian public; most people confuse it with "paedophilia,” and yet according to Kinsey this is the practice of only 3 per cent of homosexuals. Most reformers wish to legalise only relations in private between consenting adults. According to Mr Wllsoh’s account, detecting this crime has led the Australian police into reprehensible strategems, and prison sentences seldom deter a homosexual and can have quite the opposite effect. In this, he finds a flagrant example of a majority punishing a minority for being different. The author is Careful to point out that legalisation of these activities does not necessarily imply moral approval. The book is thoroughly argued and well documented, its only real limitation being in that it is prepared for the Australian case rather than the New Zealand. After weighing the impressive amount of objective evidence Mr Wilson provides, one cannot help wondering whether he is right in asserting that, whatever one’s opinion of these goings-on, they certainly go on, and it would be better to reform the laws concerning them rather than leave them in their present anomalous position, a target for racketeers. Apart from the lurid cover which fell off under the pressure of arduous reviewing, this is an excellent, book, commendable for its clarity, completeness, and scholarliness of a type which Is not without compassion for the socially disorientated individual.