Reconstructing the Law of Voyeurism and Exhibitionism [Audio]

Speaker(s): Professor Stuart Green | The work discussed in this lecture is part of a much larger, book-length project titled Criminalizing Sex: A Unified Theory. Although the incidence of voyeurism and indecent exposure is relatively low compared to other sexual offences, both crimes raise important questions about the proper scope of the criminal law in a liberal society, the resolution of competing rights to sexual autonomy, and the nature of privacy rights in our digital age. This lecture will consider four basic points: First, the wrongs entailed by voyeurism and indecent exposure are in some sense reciprocal. The former involves a violation of the victim’s right to exclude others from her private sexual domain; the latter involves a violation of the victim’s right not to be included in the private sexual domain of others. Second, the harms entailed by both voyeurism and indecent exposure are often elusive. While the exhibitionist typically intends to cause shock or dismay in his v