Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte Österreichs 9. Jahrgang Heft 1/2019, pp. 158-172, 2019/05/21
Sexualität vor Gericht
Deviante geschlechtliche Praktiken und deren Verfolgung vom 14. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert
The article deals with heavy sexual criminality before town courts of justice in the Kingdom of Bohemia in the course of the 16th and early 17th centuries. For the purpose of this study, this includes sexual delicts and delicts against marriage punishable by the death penalty according to the law of the period studied. This penalty was applied to cases of rape (kidnapping of a woman) (raptus), violation, violation of a child (stuprum violentum infantis), resp. sexual abuse, bigamy, incest, sodomy in the form of sexual contact with an animal, sodomy in the form of homosexuality and other forms of it (transsexuality, transvestism, exhibitionism). Amongst the several thousand recorded criminal cases decided by the the investigated courts of justice during the period studied, such heavy sexual delicts are found only in a few dozen cases. In relatively higher numbers appear only bigamy, sexual contact with an animal and violation. Other heavy sexual delicts are recorded only sporadically, or in isolated cases.
Keywords: 16th century – courts of justice – Kingdom of Bohemia – sexual criminality – town
