![]() ![]() She explores why, at a time when sexual attitudes have grown more liberal, Americans remain largely unanimous in their disapproval of adultery, while US laws governing adultery have grown more anachronistic (I was staggered to read that 21 US states still have misdemeanour or felony prohibitions on adultery).Īuthor: Deborah Rhode £21.95, Harvard University Press In her comprehensive and colourful account of the legal and social consequences of infidelity, Rhode describes how the law governing adultery has an unbecoming history, marked by intrusive inquiries, inconsistent application, and racial, class and gender bias. ![]() Deborah Rhode’s Adultery: Infidelity and the Law accordingly makes for quite an education, even for someone like me who (professionally, I must stress, as a divorce lawyer) encounters adultery on a regular basis. ![]() It is an interesting paradox therefore that, as a focus of serious study, adultery has received relatively short shrift. This is probably why adultery has long been a favourite topic for novelists, not to mention the press – the latter taking a feverish and prurient interest in the sexual shenanigans of those in the public eye. They cannot help but revel in seeing others cut down to size for violating norms that may inconveniently constrain their own behaviour. ![]() People can rarely resist a sexual scandal. ![]()
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