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The British English term buggery
Buggery

The English term buggery is very close in meaning to the term sodomy, and is often used interchangeably in law and popular speech. It is also a specific criminal offense under the English common law....
 is very close in meaning to the term sodomy
Sodomy

Sodomy is a term used today predominantly in law to describe the act of anal intercourse, oral intercourse, as well as bestiality. When used in a religious context, it has a negative connotation....
, and is often used interchangeably in law and popular speech. It is also a specific criminal offense under the English common law
Common law

Common law refers to law and the corresponding Legal systems of the world developed through legal opinion of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through statute law or Executive ....
.

In law
Under most common law legal systems
Legal systems of the world

The three major legal systems of the world today consist of civil law , common law and religious law. However, each country often develops variations on each system or incorporates many other features into the system....
, the term buggery refers to a criminal offense and has a specific legal meaning. In English law
English law

English law is the Legal systems of the world of England and Wales, and is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth of Nations countriesand the United States ....
, "buggery" was first used in the Buggery Act 1533
Buggery Act 1533

The Buggery Act of 1533 was a sodomy law adopted in England in 1534 during the reign of Henry VIII of England, and was the first civil legislation applicable against sodomy in the country, such offences having previously been dealt with by ecclesiastical courts....
, while Section 61 of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861
Offences Against The Person Act 1861

The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland....
, entitled "Sodomy and Bestiality", defined punishments for "the abominable Crime of Buggery, committed either with Mankind or with any Animal".






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Encyclopedia


The British English term buggery
Buggery

The English term buggery is very close in meaning to the term sodomy, and is often used interchangeably in law and popular speech. It is also a specific criminal offense under the English common law....
 is very close in meaning to the term sodomy
Sodomy

Sodomy is a term used today predominantly in law to describe the act of anal intercourse, oral intercourse, as well as bestiality. When used in a religious context, it has a negative connotation....
, and is often used interchangeably in law and popular speech. It is also a specific criminal offense under the English common law
Common law

Common law refers to law and the corresponding Legal systems of the world developed through legal opinion of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through statute law or Executive ....
.

In law


Under most common law legal systems
Legal systems of the world

The three major legal systems of the world today consist of civil law , common law and religious law. However, each country often develops variations on each system or incorporates many other features into the system....
, the term buggery refers to a criminal offense and has a specific legal meaning. In English law
English law

English law is the Legal systems of the world of England and Wales, and is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth of Nations countriesand the United States ....
, "buggery" was first used in the Buggery Act 1533
Buggery Act 1533

The Buggery Act of 1533 was a sodomy law adopted in England in 1534 during the reign of Henry VIII of England, and was the first civil legislation applicable against sodomy in the country, such offences having previously been dealt with by ecclesiastical courts....
, while Section 61 of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861
Offences Against The Person Act 1861

The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland....
, entitled "Sodomy and Bestiality", defined punishments for "the abominable Crime of Buggery, committed either with Mankind or with any Animal". Neither Act defined what constituted buggery. Over the years the courts have defined buggery as including either:
  1. anal intercourse
    Anal sex

    Anal sex most often refers to the sex act involving insertion of the penis into the rectum. The term anal sex can also sometimes include other sexual acts involving the anus, including but not limited to Anal-oral sex and fingering #Anal fingering....
     by a man with a man or woman, or
  2. vaginal intercourse by either a man or a woman with an animal,
but not any other form of "unnatural intercourse".

At common law consent was not a defense; nor was the fact that the parties were married
Marriage

Marriage is a social, spirituality, or law union of individuals. This union may also be called matrimony, while the ceremony that marks its beginning is usually called a wedding and the married status created is sometimes called wedlock....
. As with the crime of rape
Rape

Rape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
, buggery required that penetration must have occurred, but ejaculation
Ejaculation

Ejaculation is the ejecting of semen from the penis, and is usually accompanied by orgasm. It is usually the result of sexual stimulation. Rarely, it is due to prostatic disease....
 is not necessary.

Most common law countries have now modified the law to permit anal sex between consenting adults.

In the UK the punishment for buggery was reduced from hanging to life imprisonment in 1861.

Etymology


The word bugger
Bugger

Bugger is a slang word used in the vernacular British English, Irish English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English, Indian English, and occasionally also in Malaysian English, Scots language and American English....
 and buggery are still commonly used in modern English as a mild profanity
Profanity

The original meaning of the adjective profane referred to items not belonging to the church, e.g. "The fort is the oldest profane building in the town, but the local monastery is older, and is the oldest sacred building," or "besides designing churches, he also designed many profane buildings"....
, and "buggery" is also synonymous with anal sex.

The word "bugger" was derived, via the French "bougre", from "Bulgar
Bulgars

The Bulgars were a seminomadic people, probably of Turkic peoples descent, originally from Southern Central Asia, who from the 2nd century onwards dwelled in the steppes north of the Caucasus and around the banks of river Volga ....
", that is, "Bulgarian", meaning the medieval Bulgarian heretical sect
Sect

In its historical usage in Christendom the term has a pejorative connotation and refers to a movement committed to Christian heresy beliefs and that often deviated from orthodox practices....
 of the Bogomils, which spread into Western Europe and was claimed by the established church to be devoted to the practice of sodomy,. "Buggery" first appears in English in 1330, though "bugger" in a sexual sense is not recorded until 1555.

Sources


  • Smith & Hogan, Criminal Law (10th ed), ISBN 0 406 94801 1