Introduction

The introductory chapter fulfils three objectives. First, it locates this study within the existing, somewhat disparate, historiography relating to sexuality and sexual practices in twentieth-century Scotland and summarises the aims of the book. Secondly, it explores the strengths and weaknesses of Scottish High Court and Crown Office records as a source for the social historian. In particular, it examines the importance of precognitions − witness statements, including testimony from medicsl experts and the police compiled by the Procurator Fiscal prior to any prosecution. Thirdly, it provides an overview of the structure and contents of the study.

‘Culpable and Reckless Conduct’: Criminalising the Transmission of HIV in Scotland, 1983–2014

The chapter examines the criminalisation of HIV transmission in Scotland after 1983. First, as historical perspective, it reviews the series of largely abortive attempts by Scottish lawmakers to criminalise the transmission of VD since 1900. Secondly, it addresses the response of Scottish governance to the rising demand for additional public order and public health powers to contain the spread of HIV between 1983 and 2001, fuelled after 1997 by media coverage of cases in which it was alleged that innocent victims had been carelessly or knowingly infected. There follows a detailed narrative of the trial and sentencing of Stephen Kelly at the High Court in Glasgow in February 2001 for knowingly infecting his partner with HIV. A further section reviews the protracted medical, ethical and legal debate arising out of the case. Finally, the main strands of policy-making on the issue of amending the law during the period up to 2015 are outlined. This is set against the backdrop of three additional High Court cases between 2005 and 2010 and the publication of guidelines by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in 1912 for the prosecution of ‘intentional or reckless’ transmission of sexually transmitted infections.

‘Cure or Confinement’? Law, Medicine and the Treatment of Homosexual Offenders in Scotland, 1950–801

Chapter 7 investigates the medical perception and treatment of homosexual offenders in Scotland in the period 1950−80, and, in particular, the role that medical evidence played in the prosecution and sentencing of such offenders in the Scottish High Court. Two main sources of evidence are explored. First, the verbal and written evidence of Scottish witnesses before the Wolfenden Committee (1954−57) is examined in order to identify how homosexual offenders were medically treated within the legal process in the 1950s. Secondly, with the benefit of privileged access granted by the Lord Justice General, a systematic analysis is undertaken of the medical reports on homosexual offenders submitted by psychiatrists and other doctors to Scottish High Court trials and appeals during the period 1950−80, and of their role in court proceedings. This throws important light on the degree to which medical views and practices pertaining to homosexual offenders in Scotland changed over the quarter century following Wolfenden and how far and in what ways they influenced the legal process.

Conclusion

The conclusion explores the implications of this volume for an understanding of the interplay between the law, sex and society in Scotland since 1900. An outstanding feature is the degree to which the legal process reflected and reinforced contemporary moral concerns that occupied public and professional debate. Secondly, rather than a monolithic, neutral dispenser of justice, in dealing with sexual offences the law involved the interaction of numerous individuals within the political, legal, and forensic communities with differing social and professional agendas. Furthermore, the law in practice is seen to sustain important norms of sexual behaviour and masculinity. While identifying areas of illicit sexual practice that reflected women’s agency, the volume reveals the degree to which the legal process continued to embrace a double moral standard. Another leitmotiv is the enduring struggle to balance the right of the law to intrude into the domain of private morality in the interests of public order, public decency and public health against the preservation of civil liberties. From a comparative perspective, conclusions are drawn with respect to the impact of the peculiarities of Scots Law and legal procedures on the policing, prosecution and punishment of offenders

‘An Open and Notorious House of Lewdness’: Dora Noyce and the Danube Street Brothel

Chapter 6 explores the life of Dora Noyce and her business enterprise at 17 and 17a Danube Street, Edinburgh, as a peg upon which to hang a broader review of how the law operated at the local level to regulate prostitution and brothel-keeping in late twentieth-century Scotland. Primarily based on oral history interviews and newspaper reports, the study reveals the social background and outlook of Dora Noyce before describing the operation of her brothel, including details of sexual transactions and the social status and motivation of the women employed as prostitutes. Thereafter, the history of the Danube Street brothel is located within a more general review of the law relating to brothel keeping in Scotland and its previous implementation prior to the Second World War. The study then focuses on the possible reasons for the degree of tolerance shown by the police authorities in Edinburgh to Dora Noyce from the 1950s through to the 1970s and the extent to which this signified a more complex and nuanced relationship between the law and the sexual underworld than is conventionally conveyed in police and court records.

‘There’s the Man who Shifts the Babies’: Abortion in the Scottish High Court 1900–30

Based on a detailed analysis of every prosecution heard in the Scottish High Court in the period 1900−30 involving a charge of abortion or attempted abortion, Chapter 5 provides a comprehensive survey of the practice. It examines the age, marital status, class, occupation, and motivation of the women seeking an abortion. Abortion is revealed not as a single event but part of an elaborate process of social networking and medical intervention. An initial phase of self-treatment is explored followed by a review of the variety of ways in which women gained access to abortionists. Thereafter, the study provides a breakdown of the social and occupational status of the abortionists indicted before the High Court. A further section summarises the abortion procedure including a review of the drugs and instruments employed and the medical outcomes. The chapter then describes how the police were alerted to an offence, the legal framework and particular constraints operating under Scottish criminal law, and the process of assembling a prosecution case with particular reference to the role of forensic medicine. Finally, variations in convictions and sentencing are examined and conclusions drawn as to the implications of this study for the historiography of abortion..

‘Unnatural Carnal Connection’: Bestiality and the Law in Early Twentieth-century Scotland

Chapter 4 constitutes a pioneering study of the practice and prosecution of bestiality in twentieth-century Scotland. In turn, it examines the social status, background, lifestyle and possible motive of offenders, the nature and location of the crime committed, and the process by which it was brought to the attention of the law. The variety of roles undertaken by the police in investigating complaints and preparing evidence for the Procurators Fiscal is detailed. In addition, the significant contribution of forensic and veterinary medicine to building the prosecution case is illustrated, as is the limited use of psychiatric evidence after the First World War. The chapter also discusses the impact of the social taboo surrounding bestiality on the reluctance of Procurators Fiscal at times to initiate prosecutions and the secretive nature of many trial proceedings. Finally, sentencing practices in the period 1900−30 are examined and the degree of continuity and change in medico-legal perceptions of the offence identified..

‘This Pernicious Delusion’: Law, Medicine and Child Sexual Abuse1

Chapter 3 examines child sexual abuse in early twentieth-century Scotland and the competing discourses surrounding its prosecution. At the heart of the study is a set of High Court cases of sexual assault upon children involving the aggravated offence of communicating VD, and the role played by the enduring superstition that ‘having connection with a virgin’ was a cure for the affliction. The chapter traces how this ‘pernicious delusion’ figured in medical testimony to legal proceedings and government enquiries throughout the period. It explores the impulses and constraints shaping the response of the law to ‘child outrage’. The impact of these cases on the campaign by feminists, rescue workers, and purity activists to amend the criminal law and the conduct of investigation and trial in respect to sexual offences against women is documented, as is the growing importance of forensic medicine in securing convictions. Continuing resistance is revealed within the medical profession and judiciary, as well as within the family and local community, to recognising child sexual abuse. The chapter illustrates the many layers of denial that operated to deny the child victims justice and the extent to which the legal process stigmatised them as sexual dangers to be institutionalised..

‘Venereal Trouble’: The Case of ‘Professor’ Abraham Eastburn

Chapter 2 investigates the prosecution of ‘Professor’ Abraham Eastburn in 1919 as a means of exploring the interface between the law and the moral panic surrounding VD in early twentieth century Scotland that reached its peak during and immediately after the First World War. A detailed narrative of his background and practice, together with a content analysis of his posters and handbills, furnish valuable insights into the widespread and continuing recourse to unregistered healers and quack remedies. The failure of qualified practitioners and established therapies to meet the needs of those suffering from venereal infections is surveyed. Eastburn’s’ prosecution is then contextualised within the social politics shaping the creation of a nation-wide health system for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of VD, and the outlawing, under growing pressure from the medical profession, of all venereal advice and treatment by unqualified practitioners under the 1917 Venereal Disease Act..

‘Liable or Likely to Deprave and Corrupt the Morals of the Lieges’: Sex Shops and Moral Panic in Late Twentieth-century Scotland

An account of the prosecution and closure of Scotland’s first sex shop in 1971 forms a prelude to a review of the subsequent crusade of purity activists and moral vigilantes in Scotland’s cities against the spread of pornography and sexual display. While the Scottish Office initially was content to rely on obscenity clauses in local Acts to counter the proliferation of sex shops, it was increasingly forced to contemplate the need for new statutory powers. The study explores the various policy options advanced by Whitehall and Scottish departments of State, and the growing tension between advocates in Westminster of a new system of licensing of sex shops and the preference of Scottish officials and law officers for a more modest extension of existing planning controls that would not appear to legitimise the activities of retailers. The outcome of this debate, culminating in the creation of a modified licensing scheme under the 1982 Civic Government (Scotland) Act is charted. Finally, the chapter reviews the extent to which sex shops were licensed over the following decade and the findings of a Scottish Executive Task Force sub-group set up to review the workings of the scheme and its viability in the new millennium. .