Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 5:27-30 (Adultery)
Jesus states, "Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery."
Adultery
Matthew 5:27–30 — The New International Version (NIV) 27 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Sex and the law
Adultery (from Latin adulterium) is extramarital sex considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal consequences, the concept exists in many cultures and is similar in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Adultery is viewed by many jurisdictions as offensive to public morals, undermining the marriage relationship.
Historically, many cultures considered adultery a very serious crime, some subject to severe punishment, usually for the woman and sometimes for the man, with penalties including capital punishment, mutilation, or torture. Such punishments have gradually fallen into disfavor, especially in Western countries from the 19th century. In countries where adultery is still a criminal offense, punishments range from fines to caning and capital punishment. Since the 20th century, criminal laws against adultery have become controversial, with most Western countries decriminalizing adultery.
However, even in jurisdictions that have decriminalized adultery, it may still have legal consequences, particularly in jurisdictions with fault-based divorce laws, where adultery almost always constitutes a ground for divorce and may be a factor in property settlement the custody of children, the denial of alimony, etc. Adultery is not a ground for divorce in jurisdictions that have adopted a no-fault divorce model.
International organizations have called for the decriminalization of adultery, especially in the light of several high-profile stoning cases in some countries. The head of the United Nations expert body charged with identifying ways to eliminate laws that discriminate against women or are discriminatory to them in terms of implementation or impact, Kamala Chandrakirana, has stated that: "Adultery must not be classified as a criminal offense at all." A joint statement by the United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women in law and practice states, "Adultery as a criminal offense violates women's human rights."
Most countries that criminalize adultery are those where the dominant religion is Islam and several Sub-Saharan African Christian-majority countries. In Muslim countries that follow Sharia law for criminal justice, the punishment for adultery may be stoning. In fifteen countries, stoning is authorized as lawful punishment, though in recent times, it has been legally carried out only in Iran and Somalia. However, there are some notable exceptions to this rule, namely the Philippines and several U.S. states. In some jurisdictions, having sexual relations with the King's wife or the wife of his eldest son constitutes treason.
Age of consent
The age of consent is the age at which a person is legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent cannot legally claim that the sexual activity was consensual. Such sexual activity may be considered child sexual abuse or statutory rape. The person below the minimum age is considered the victim, and their sex partner the offender. However, some jurisdictions provide exceptions through "Romeo and Juliet laws" if both participants are underage. One purpose of setting an age of consent is to protect an underage person from sexual advances.
The term age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes. ? Generally, a law will establish the age below which it is illegal to engage in sexual activity with that person. It has sometimes been used with other meanings, such as the age at which a person becomes competent to consent to marriage. However, consent to sexual activity is the meaning now generally understood. It should not be confused with other laws regarding age minimums, including, but not limited to, the age of majority, age of criminal responsibility, voting age, drinking age, and driving age.
Age of consent laws varies widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, though most jurisdictions set the age of consent in the range of 14 to 18. The laws may also vary by the type of sexual act, the gender of the participants, or other considerations, such as involving a position of trust; some jurisdictions may also make allowances for minors engaged in sexual acts with each other, rather than a single age. Charges and penalties resulting from a breach of these laws may range from a misdemeanor, such as corruption of a minor, to what is popularly called statutory rape.
There are many "grey areas" in this area of law, some regarding unspecific and untried legislation, others brought about by debates regarding changing societal attitudes, and others due to conflicts between federal and state laws. These factors make the age of consent an often confusing subject and a topic of highly charged debate.
Bodily Integrity
Bodily integrity is the sacredness of the physical body and emphasizes the importance of personal sovereignty, self-possession, and autonomy of human beings over their bodies. In fundamental rights, violation of the bodily integrity of another is regarded as an unethical infringement, invasive, and possibly criminal.
Censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done because such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient." Censorship can be conducted by governments, private institutions, and other controlling bodies.
Circumcision
Laws restricting, regulating, or banning circumcision, some dating back to ancient times, have been enacted in many countries and communities. In modern states, circumcision is generally presumed to be legal, but laws about assault or child custody have been applied in cases involving circumcision. In the case of non-therapeutic circumcision of children, proponents of laws in favor of the procedure often point to the rights of the parents or practitioners, namely the right to freedom of religion. Those against the procedure point to the boy's right to freedom from religion. In several court cases, judges have pointed to the irreversible nature of the act, the grievous harm to the boy's body, and the right to self-determination and bodily integrity.
Criminalization of homosexuality
Criminalization of homosexuality is the classification of some or all sexual acts between men and, less frequently, between women, as a criminal offense. Such laws are often unenforced about consensual same-sex conduct, but they contribute to police harassment, stigmatization, and violence against homosexual and bisexual people. Other effects include worsening the HIV epidemic due to the criminalization of men who have sex with men discouraging them from seeking preventative care or treatment for HIV infection.
The criminalization of homosexuality is often justified by the now scientifically discredited idea that homosexuality can be acquired or by public revulsion towards homosexuality, in many cases founded on the condemnation of homosexuality by the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Arguments against the criminalization of homosexuality began to be expressed during the Enlightenment. Initial objections included the practical difficulty of enforcement, excessive state intrusion into private life, and the belief that criminalization was ineffective in reducing the incidence of homosexuality. Later objections included the argument that homosexuality should be considered a disease rather than a crime, on the human rights of homosexuals, and the belief that homosexuality is not morally wrong.
In many countries, the criminalization of homosexuality is based on legal codes inherited from the British Empire. The French colonial empire did not lead to the criminalization of homosexuality, as this was abolished in France during the French Revolution in order to remove religious influence from the criminal law. In other countries, the criminalization of homosexuality is based on sharia law. A significant wave of decriminalization started after World War II in the Western world. It diffused globally and peaked in the 1990s. In recent years, many African countries have increased enforcement of anti-homosexual laws due to politicization and a mistaken belief that homosexuality is a Western import. As of 2021, homosexuality is criminalized de jure in 67 U.N. member states and de facto in two others; at least six have the death penalty for homosexuality.
Deviant sexual intercourse
Deviant sexual intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse is, in some U.S. states, a legal term for "any act of sexual gratification involving the sex organs of one person and the mouth or anus of another, anus to mouth or involving invasion of the anus or vagina of one person by a foreign object manipulated by another person."
Typically, the act itself (whether consensual or not) used to be a crime, but the term is now used to describe forcible or otherwise involuntary acts that differ from the crime of rape (sometimes deviant sexual intercourse is included in the definition of rape), in the way that indecent assault might be used in other states and countries. In the United States, the term has replaced sodomy in the criminal codes of some states, including Texas and Kentucky.
Homophobia
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or antipathy, may be based on irrational fear, and is also related to religious beliefs.
Homophobia is observable in critical and hostile behavior such as discrimination and violence based on sexual orientations that are non-heterosexual. Recognized types of homophobia include institutionalized homophobia, e.g., religious homophobia and state-sponsored homophobia, and internalized homophobia, experienced by people who have same-sex attractions, regardless of how they identify.
Intersex rights
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, or genitals, that, according to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies."
Intersex people face stigmatization and discrimination from birth, mainly when an intersex variation is visible. In some countries (particularly in Africa and Asia), this may include infanticide, abandonment, and the stigmatization of families. Mothers in East Africa may be accused of witchcraft, and the birth of an intersex child may be described as a curse.
LGBT rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, as of July 2022, 32 countries recognized same-sex marriage. By contrast, not counting non-state actors and extrajudicial killings, only one country is believed to impose the death penalty on consensual same-sex sexual acts: Iran. The death penalty is officially law but generally not practiced in Mauritania, Nigeria (in the northern third of the country), Saudi Arabia, Somalia (in the autonomous state of Jubaland), and the United Arab Emirates. As well as, LGBT people face extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan under Taliban rule and in the Russian region of Chechnya. Sudan rescinded its unenforced death penalty for anal sex (hetero- or homosexual) in 2020. Fifteen countries have stoning on the books as a penalty for adultery, which would include gay sex, but this is enforced by the legal authorities in Iran only.
Miscegenation
Miscegenation (/m??s?d??'ne???n/) is the interbreeding of people who are considered members of different races. The word, now usually considered derogatory, is derived from a combination of the Latin terms miscere ("to mix") and genus ("race") from the Hellenic ?????. The word first appeared in "Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro", a pretended anti-Abolitionist pamphlet David Goodman Croly and others published anonymously in advance of the 1864 U.S. presidential election. The term came to be associated with laws that banned interracial marriage and sex, known as anti-miscegenation laws.
Marriageable age
Marriageable age (or marriage age) is a general age, legal age, or the minimum age subject to parental, religious, or other forms of social approval at which a person is legitimately allowed for marriage. Age and other prerequisites to marriage vary between jurisdictions, but in most jurisdictions, the marriage age as a right is set at the age of majority. Nevertheless, most jurisdictions allow marriage at a younger age with parental or judicial approval, and some also allow adolescents to marry if the female is pregnant. The age of marriage is most commonly 18 years old, but there are variations, some higher and some lower. The marriageable age should not be confused with the age of majority or consent, though they may be the same in many places.
Pornography
Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) portrays sexual subject matter for exclusive sexual arousal. A distinction between uncensored explicit or hardcore erotic art and pornography could be drawn. Pornography may be presented in various media, including magazines, animation, writing, film, video, and video games. The term does not include live exhibitions like sex shows and stripteases. The primary subjects of present-day pornographic depictions are pornographic models who pose for still photographs and pornographic actors who engage in filmed sex acts.
Various groups have considered depictions of a sexual nature immoral, addictive, and noxious, labeling them pornographic and attempting to have them suppressed under obscenity laws, censored, or made illegal. Such grounds, and even the definition of pornography, have differed in various historical, cultural, and national contexts. In the late 19th century, various films by Thomas Edison were denounced as obscene in the United States. Social attitudes towards the discussion and presentation of sexuality have become more tolerant in Western countries, and legal definitions of obscenity have become more limited, beginning in 1969 with Blue Movie by Andy Warhol, the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sexual intercourse to receive a wide theatrical release in the United States. It was followed by the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984), in which the best quality pornographic films became part of mainstream culture.
A growing industry for pornography developed in the latter half of the 20th century. The introduction of home video and the Internet saw a boom in the worldwide porn industry that generates billions of dollars annually. Commercialized pornography accounts for over $2.5 billion in the United States, including the production of various media and associated products and services. The porn industry was between $10–$12 billion in the U.S. in 2006. The world pornography revenue was 97 billion dollars. This industry employs thousands of performers along with support and production staff. Dedicated industry publications, award shows such as the AVN Awards, the mainstream press, private organizations (watchdog groups), government agencies, and political organizations. and Videos involving non-consensual content and cybersex trafficking have been hosted on popular pornography sites in the 21st century.
Greco-Roman world
There were stringent laws against adultery, but these applied to sexual intercourse with a married woman. In the Greco-Roman world, the jus tori belonged to the husband. In the early Roman Law, it was not a crime against the wife for a husband to have sex with an enslaved person or an unmarried woman.
The Roman husband often took advantage of his legal immunity. Thus we are told by the historian Spartianus that Verus, the imperial colleague of Marcus Aurelius, did not hesitate to declare to his reproaching wife: "Uxor enim dignitatis nomen est, non-voluptatis." ('Wife' connotes rank, not sexual pleasure, or more literally "Wife is the name of dignity, not bliss").
Later in Roman history, as William E.H. Lecky has shown, the idea that the husband owed a fidelity similar to that demanded of the wife must have gained ground, at least in theory. Lecky gathers from the legal maxim of Ulpian: "It seems most unfair for a man to require from a wife the chastity he does not know himself practice."
Abrahamic religions
Biblical sources
Both Judaism and Christianity base their injunction against adultery on passages in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament in Christianity), which firstly prohibits adultery in the Seventh Commandment: "Thou shalt not commit adultery." (Exodus 20:12). However, Judaism and Christianity differ on what constitutes adultery.
Leviticus 20:10 goes on to define what constitutes adultery in the Hebrew Bible and prescribes the punishment as capital punishment. This verse, however, defines adultery in precise and narrow terms. Thus in the Jewish tradition, adultery is no less than actual sexual intercourse between a man and a married woman that is not his lawful wife:
Moreover, the man who commits adultery with another man's wife, even the man who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer, and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Significantly, the Hebrew Bible's definition of adultery and the penalty for adultery does not apply to either participant if the female participant is unmarried, irrespective of the marital status of the male participant (he could be married or unmarried, it is irrelevant).
This means that if the man was married to another woman, but the woman he had sexual relations with was unmarried, both might be guilty of fornication, but the actions of neither of them taint or risk contaminating the genetic lineage of a married man; thus their actions do not fall under the Hebrew Bible's definition of adultery in these passages.
The Biblical definition of adultery concerns the debasement or potential debasement of an innocent husband's genetic lineage. Since sexual intercourse between a wife and a man other than her husband can result in that other man's impregnation of the wife with that other man's adulterant genetic material, the genetic lineage of a child conceived from that act would be debased, that is, not genetically the husband's. However, such a child would nevertheless be deemed in Biblical law the husband's legal child due to its birth to the wife while she was in a marital contract (lawful wedlock) with the husband. This debasement of a victimized husband's family lineage (blood kinship) by the wife's adulterous conception of a child would detrimentally impact the lawfully wedlocked husband and his birth family, as all the responsibilities, burdens, and privileges of and for the child, due to the contract of marriage, attach to the husband and his birth family. By contrast, an unmarried woman becoming pregnant or risking pregnancy as a result of sexual intercourse with a man married to another woman does not create the same situation because the unmarried woman's child would not be regarded in law as his. Since there is no aggrieved party whose genetic lineage can be adulterated by their act, it is not defined as adultery per the Hebrew Bible.
Adultery in the Hebrew Bible is prohibited and capitally punished because it would result in the unjust and fraudulently diverted imposition of financial burdens on a husband to a child which is not his own (until its adulthood), the usurpation of Biblical inheritance rights from the rightful blood-related heirs of the husband then converted to the male offender's family via the adulterated child (from the moment the child is born and for its lifetime), including rights to inherit the property of the aggrieved husband's birth family and his own personally accumulated property and assets, citizenship rights into one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel to which the aggrieved husband belongs, usurpation of inherited priestly status with all its accompanying rights and responsibilities if the aggrieved husband was a Kohen) or a Levite, up to a violation of royal status and line of succession rights for an aggrieved husband of the royal lineage, including the King himself.
Thus, adultery was regarded as the highest and most despicable form of fraudulent theft meriting capital punishment because the crime affected not only the husband but his family and rightful heirs, depriving the husband of genetic posterity and killing off his family's genetic line. The form of capital punishment employed to execute those convicted of adultery is Biblically required to be more torturous if the guilty wife was a Bat-Kohen (daughter of a Kohen).
If a married woman is raped by a man who is not her husband, only the rapist is guilty of adultery against the husband of his married victim; the victim herself is not guilty of adultery against her husband.
Furthermore, a wife who has intercourse with another man at her husband's instigation still commits adultery against her husband and is as guilty as that other man. Her husband is guilty of adultery against himself and his birth family. For this reason, in the modern era, with advancements in assisted reproduction, the position of Jewish religious law (Halacha) on the use of donor sperm is classified as adultery. In all cases of adultery, whether through traditional sexual intercourse or non-sexual assisted pregnancy, the crime of adultery is the adulteration of the genetic lineage. In contrast, sexual intercourse, the Petri dish, or the more unsophisticated turkey baster are weapons.
Judaism
Although Leviticus 20:10 prescribes the death penalty for adultery, the legal procedural requirements were exacting and required the testimony of two eyewitnesses of good character for conviction. The defendant also must have been warned immediately before performing the act. A death sentence could be issued only during the period when the Holy Temple stood and only so long as the Supreme Torah Court convened in its chamber within the Temple complex. Technically, therefore, no death penalty can now be applied.
The death penalty for adultery was strangulation, except in the case of a woman who was the daughter of a Kohen (Aaronic priestly caste), which was explicitly mentioned by Scripture by the death penalty of burning (pouring molten lead down the throat). The punishment of stoning for adulterers is directly mentioned in Deuteronomy 22:24.
At the civil level, however, Jewish law (halakha) forbids a man to continue living with an adulterous wife, and he is obliged to divorce her. Also, an adulteress is not permitted to marry the adulterer. However, to avoid any doubt about her status as being free to marry another or that of her children, many authorities say he must give her a divorce as if they were married.
According to Judaism, the Seven Laws of Noah apply to all humankind, prohibiting adultery with another man's wife.
Christianity
'Thou shalt not commit adultery (Nathan confronts David). Adultery is considered by Christians immoral and a sin, based primarily on passages like Exodus 20:14 and 1 Corinthians 6:9–10. Although 1 Corinthians 6:11 does say, "and that is what some of you were. But you were washed", it still acknowledges adultery to be immoral and a sin.
Catholicism ties fornication with breaking the sixth commandment in its Catechism.
Until a few decades ago, adultery was a criminal offense in many countries where the dominant religion is Christianity, especially in Roman Catholic countries (for example, in Austria, it was a criminal offense until 1997). Adultery was decriminalized in Argentina in 1995 and Brazil in 2005, but it remains illegal in some predominantly Catholic countries, such as the Philippines. The Book of Mormon also prohibits adultery. For instance, Abinadi cites the Ten Commandments when he accuses King Noah's priests of sexual immorality. When Jesus Christ visits the Americas, he reinforces the law and teaches them the higher law (also found in the New Testament):
Behold, they write of old time, that thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman, to lust after her, hath committed adultery already in his heart.
Some churches, such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have interpreted "adultery" to include all sexual relationships outside marriage, regardless of the participants' marital status. Book of Mormon prophets and civil leaders often list adultery as an illegal activity, along with murder, robbing, and stealing.
Islam
Zina' is an Arabic term for illegal intercourse, premarital or extramarital. Various conditions and punishments have been attributed to adultery. Under Islamic law, adultery, in general, is sexual intercourse by a person (whether a man or woman) with someone to whom they are not married. Adultery is a violation of the marital contract and one of the major sins condemned by God in the Qur'an.
Qur'anic verses prohibiting adultery include:
"Do not go near to adultery. Surely it is a shameful deed and evil, opening roads (to other evils)." (Quran 17:32)
"Say, 'Verily, my Lord has prohibited the shameful deeds, be it open or secret, sins and trespasses against the truth and reason.'" (Quran 7:33)
Punishments are reserved for the legal authorities, and false accusations are to be punished severely. It has been said that these legal procedural requirements were instituted to protect women from slander and false accusations: i.e., four witnesses of good character are required for conviction, who was present at that time and saw the deed taking place; and if they saw it they were not of good moral character, as they were looking at naked adults; thus no one can be convicted of adultery unless both of the accused also agree and give their confession under oath four times.
According to a hadith attributed to Muhammad, an unmarried person who commits adultery or fornication is punished by flogging 100 times; a married person will then be stoned to death. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found support for stoning as a punishment for adultery, mostly in Arab countries.
Eastern religions
Hinduism
The Hindu Sanskrit texts present various views on adultery, offering widely differing positions. The hymn 4.5.5 of the Rigveda calls adultery papa (evil, sin). Other texts state adultery as a sin, like murder, incest, anger, evil thoughts, and trickery. The Vedic texts, including the Rigveda, the Atharvaveda, and the Upanishads, also acknowledge the existence of male lovers and female lovers as a basic fact of human life, followed by the recommendation that one should avoid such extramarital sex during certain ritual occasions (yajna). A woman's emotional eagerness to meet her lover is described in several similes in the Rigveda. One hymn prays to the gods that they protect the embryo of a pregnant wife as she sleeps with her husband and other lovers.
Adultery and similar offenses are discussed under one of the eighteen vivadapadas (titles of laws) in the Dharma literature of Hinduism. Adultery is termed as Strisangrahana in dharmasastra texts. These texts generally condemn adultery, with some exceptions involving consensual sex and niyoga (levirate conception) to produce an heir. According to Apastamba Dharmasutra, the earliest dated Hindu law text, cross-varna adultery is a punishable crime, where the adulterous man receives a far more severe punishment than the adulterous arya woman.
The Kamasutra discusses adultery, and Vatsyayana devotes "not less than fifteen sutras (1.5.6–20) to enumerating the reasons (Karana) for which a man is allowed to seduce a married woman". According to Wendy Doniger, the Kamasutra teaches adulterous sexual liaison as a means for a man to incline the involved woman to assist him, working against his enemies and facilitating his successes. It also explains the many signs and reasons a woman wants to enter into an adulterous relationship and when she does not want to commit adultery. The Kamasutra teaches strategies to engage in adulterous relationships but concludes its chapter on sexual liaison, stating that one should not commit adultery because adultery pleases only one of two sides in a marriage, hurts the other, it goes against both Dharma and Artha.
Buddhism
Buddhist texts such as Digha Nikaya describe adultery as a form of sexual wrongdoing that is one link in a chain of immorality and misery. According to Wendy Doniger, this view of adultery as evil is assumed in early Buddhist texts as having originated from greed in a previous life. This idea combines Hindu and Buddhist thoughts then prevalent. Like in Hindu mythology, states Doniger, Buddhist texts explain adultery as a result of sexual craving; it initiates a degenerative process.
Buddhism considers celibacy as the monastic ideal. For those who feel he cannot live in celibacy, he recommends never committing adultery with another's wife.] Engaging in sex outside of marriage, with the wife of another man, with a girl who is engaged to be married, or a girl protected by her relatives (father or brother), or extramarital sex with prostitutes ultimately causes suffering to other human beings and oneself. It should be avoided state the Buddhist canonical texts.
Other historical practices
According to legend, after being accused of adultery, Cunigunde of Luxembourg proved her innocence by walking over red-hot plowshares.
In some Native American cultures, severe penalties could be imposed on an adulterous wife by her husband. In many instances, she was made to endure bodily mutilation that would, in the mind of the aggrieved husband, prevent her from ever being a temptation to other men again. Among the Aztecs, wives caught in adultery were occasionally impaled, although the more usual punishment was to be stoned to death. Amputation of the nose – rhinotomy – was a punishment for adultery among many civilizations, including ancient India, ancient Egypt, Greeks and Romans, and in Byzantium and among the Arabs.
In medieval Europe, early Jewish law mandated stoning for an adulterous wife and her partner.
Most countries that criminalize adultery are those where the dominant religion is Islam and several Sub-Saharan African Christian-majority countries. However, there are some notable exceptions to this rule, namely the Philippines and several U.S. states. In Muslim countries that follow Sharia law for criminal justice, the punishment for adultery may be stoning. In fifteen countries, stoning is authorized as lawful punishment, though in recent times, it has been legally carried out only in Iran and Somalia.
Consequences
General
For various reasons, most couples who marry do so with the expectation of fidelity. Adultery is often seen as a breach of trust and of the commitment made during the act of marriage.] Adultery can be emotionally traumatic for both spouses and often results in divorce.
Adultery may lead to ostracization from certain religious or social groups.
Adultery can also lead to guilt and jealousy in the person with whom the affair is being committed. In some cases, this "third person" may encourage divorce (either openly or subtly). If the cheating spouse has hinted at divorce to continue the affair, the third person may feel deceived if that does not happen. They may simply withdraw with ongoing feelings of guilt, carry on an obsession with their lover, choose to reveal the affair, or in rare cases, commit violence or other crimes.
While there is a correlation, there is no evidence that divorces cause children to have struggles in later life.
Sexually transmitted infections
Like any sexual contact, extramarital sex opens the possibility of introducing sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) into a marriage. Since most married couples do not routinely use barrier contraceptives, STDs can be introduced to a marriage partner by a spouse engaging in unprotected extramarital sex. This can be a public health issue in regions of the world where STDs are common, but addressing this issue is very difficult due to legal and social barriers – to openly talk about this situation would mean to acknowledge that adultery (often) takes place, something that is taboo in certain cultures, especially those strongly influenced by religion. In addition, dealing with the issue of barrier contraception in marriage in cultures where women have very few rights is difficult: the power of women to negotiate safer sex (or sex in general) with their husbands is often limited.[162][163][164] The World Health Organization (WHO) found that women in violent relations were at increased risk of HIV/AIDS because they found it very difficult to negotiate safe sex with their partners or to seek medical advice if they thought they had been infected.
Violence
Historically, female adultery often resulted in extreme violence, including murder (of the woman, her lover, or both, committed by her husband). Today, domestic violence is outlawed in most countries.
Marital infidelity has been used, as a legal defense of provocation to a criminal charge, such as murder or assault. In some jurisdictions, the defense of provocation has been replaced by a partial defense of provocation, or the behavior of the victim can be invoked as a mitigating factor in sentencing, especially in the past,
The Council of Europe Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member states on protecting women against violence states that member states should "preclude (exclude) adultery as an excuse for violence within the family."
Honor killings
Honor killings are often connected to accusations of adultery. Honor killings continue to be practiced in some parts of the world, particularly (but not only) in parts of South Asia and the Middle East. Honor killings are treated leniently in some legal systems. Honor killings have also taken place in immigrant communities in Europe, Canada, and the U.S. In some parts of the world, honor killings enjoy considerable public support: in one survey, 33.4% of teenagers in Jordan's capital city, Amman, approved of honor killings. A survey in Diyarbakir, Turkey, found that, when asked the appropriate punishment for a woman who has committed adultery, 37% of respondents said she should be killed, while 21% said her nose or ears should be cut off.
Crimes of passion
Crimes of passion are often triggered by jealousy and, according to Human Rights Watch, "have a similar dynamic [to honor killings] in that male family members kill the women and the crimes are perceived as excusable or understandable."
Stoning
Stoning, or lapidation, refers to a form of capital punishment whereby an organized group throws stones at an individual until the person dies, or the condemned person is pushed from a platform set high enough above a stone floor that the fall would probably result in instantaneous death.
Stoning continues to be practiced today in parts of the world. Recently, several people have been sentenced to death by stoning after being accused of adultery in Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Mali, and Pakistan by tribal courts.
Flogging
In some jurisdictions, flogging is a punishment for adultery. There are also incidents of extrajudicial floggings ordered by informal religious courts. In 2011, a 14-year-old girl in Bangladesh died after being publicly lashed when she was accused of having an affair with a married man. Villagers ordered her punishment under Sharia law.
Violence between the partners of an adulterous couple
Married people who form relations with extramarital partners or people who engage in relations with partners married to somebody else may be subjected to violence in these relations. Because of the nature of adultery – illicit or illegal in many societies – this type of intimate partner violence may go underreported or not be prosecuted when it is reported. In some jurisdictions, this type of violence is not covered by specific domestic violence laws meant to protect persons in legitimate relationships.
In the United States, Alfred Kinsey found in his studies that 50% of males and 26% of females had extramarital sex at least once during their lifetime. Depending on studies, it was estimated that 22.7% of men and 11.6% of women had extramarital sex. Other authors say that between 20% and 25% of Americans had sex with someone other than their spouse.
Three 1990s studies in the United States, using nationally representative samples, have found that about 10–15% of women and 20–25% of men admitted to having engaged in extramarital sex.
The Standard Cross-Cultural Sample described the occurrence of extramarital sex by gender in over 50 pre-industrial cultures. The occurrence of extramarital sex by women is described as "universal" in 6 cultures, "moderate" in 23 cultures, "occasional" in 9 cultures, and "uncommon" in 15 cultures. The occurrence of extramarital sex by men is described as "universal" in 6 cultures, "moderate" in 29 cultures, "occasional" in 6 cultures, and "uncommon" in 10 cultures.
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• Same-sex marriage
• Sex industry
• Sex workers' rights
• Sexual consent in law
• Sexual and reproductive health and rights
• Survival sex
• Child grooming
• Child pornography
• Child prostitution
• Criminal transmission of HIV
• Cybersex trafficking
• Fornication
• Incest
• Pimping
• Prostitution
o forced
o procuring
• Public indecency
• Rape
o statutory
o marital
• Seduction
• Sex trafficking
• Sexting
• Sexual abuse
o child
• Sexual assault
• Sexual harassment
• Slavery
• Sodomy
• U.K. Section 63 (2008)
• Violence
• Trafficking
• Voyeurism
• Sex offender registry
• Sex offender registries in the United States
