Fornication typically refers to consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other.[1] For many people, the term carries a moral or religious association, but the significance of sexual acts to which the term is applied varies between religions, societies and cultures. The definition is often disputed. In modern usage, the term is often replaced with the more judgement neutral terms premarital sex, sex before marriage or extramarital sex.
Contents |
It is a common belief that the origin of the word derives from Latin. The word fornix means "an archway" or "vault" and it became a common euphemism for a brothel as prostitutes could be solicited in the vaults beneath Rome. More directly, fornicatio means "done in the archway"; thus it originally referred to prostitution.
The first recorded use of the noun in its modern meaning was in 1303 AD, with the verb fornicate first recorded around 250 years later.[2]
An alternative etymology is for the term to be derived from the biblical Greek term πορνεία (porneia) found in several contexts in the Greek version of the New Testament, where the term meant "sexual immorality" or "sexual perversions".
The term πορνεία (porneia) appears in several contexts in the biblical Greek version of the New Testament, where the term meant "sexual immorality" or "sexual perversions". The Greek term is often used as a blanket term to encompass all sexual activity and even sexual thoughts (i.e. sexual lust/fantasies) that were considered unrighteous by the Old Testament laws of Leviticus, in particular Leviticus 18, including: incest, bestiality, and "lying with a man as with a woman" (i.e. homosexuality). The term is also found in Matthew 5:32 in relation to a reason for divorce and in Acts 15 as part of the Apostolic Decree.
In the English translations of the Bible the term has given rise to some dispute. The traditional translation of the term into English has been fornication, [3] but more recent translations have preferred the alternate translation of sexual immorality.
Fornication laws have traditionally been tied to religion and the legal and political traditions within the particular jurisdiction. Laws differ greatly from country to country. Most Western countries and some secular Muslim countries like Turkey and Azerbaijan have no laws against fornication if both parties are above the age of consent.
Laws against fornication exist in some countries identifying with Islam. This is a list of countries where fornication is a criminal offense:
Afghanistan
Iran
Malaysia (consensual sex between non-Muslims is not prohibited)
Pakistan
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
Sudan
Somalia-parts under Islamist control
Maldives
Kuwait
Oman
Premarital sex, adultery, and other ethical issues arising from sexual relations between consenting heterosexuals who have reached the age of consent have generally been viewed as matters of private morality, and so, have not generally been prosecuted as criminal offenses in the common law.[4] This legal position was inherited by the U.S. from the U.K.. Later, some jurisdictions, a total of 16 in the southern and eastern United States, as well as the states of Wisconsin[5] and Utah[6] passed statutes creating the offense of "fornication" that prohibited (vaginal) sexual intercourse between two unmarried people of the opposite sex. Most of these laws either were repealed, were not enforced, or were struck down by the courts in several states as being odious to their state constitutions. See also State v. Saunders, 381 A.2d 333 (N.J. 1977), Martin v. Ziherl, 607 S.E.2d 367 (Va. 2005).
Some acts may be prohibited under criminal laws defining the offense of "sodomy", rather than the laws defining the offense of "fornication." The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) rendered the states' remaining laws related to "sodomy" unconstitutional. Lawrence v. Texas is also presumed by many to invalidate laws prohibiting fornication, as the decision declared sodomy laws unconstitutional due to the interference of such laws with private, consensual, non-commercial intimate relations between unrelated adults, and therefore are odious to the rights of liberty and privacy, such rights being retained by the people of the United States.
In recent years, political debate in the U.S. about abstinence-only sex education has brought the issue of premarital sex to the forefront of the "Culture Wars".