Seduce in United Kingdom

Concept of Seduce

The following is an old definition of Seduce [1]: “Seduce” and “entice” are often used indifferently in the old, and some times in the later, books. A journeyman was said to be seduced when enticed away from his employer’s service. Although a general term, having a variety of meanings according to the subject to which it is applied, when referring to the conduct of a man toward a female is universally understood to mean: an enticement of her on his part to the surrender of her chastity, by means of some art, influence, promise or deception calculated to accomplish that object, and to include yielding of her person to him. Seduction. The use of some influence, promise, art, or other means on the part of a man by which he induces a woman to surrender her chastity and virtue to his embraces. While now a crime in most of the States, at common law was’ not so. An injured husband had an action for criminal “conversation;” but a parent or master had no standing in court unless the female as daughter or domestic owed him service, and, in consequence of the seduction, she was in some degree less able to assist in housewifery work; or, unless there was a trespass upon property. The law, while punishing even with death acts of violence against women, left her chastity exposed to the artifices on the seducer. An action for seduction grows out of the loss of service in the relation of master and servant. Some service, however trivial, must be shown to have been done and to have been due from the female to the plaintiff. The consent of a minor daughter is no defense to an action by the father; and he should be allowed compensation for his mental suffering as well as for the loss of services, etc. But the parent cannot recover damages when, with his knowledge, the defendant and his daughter slept together according to the custom known as ” bundling.” The age of consent, in at least twenty States, until recently, was ten years. It has been raised to fourteen in Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Vermont; to fifteen in Nebraska; to sixteen in Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and to eighteen in Colorado and Kansas. In England, since 1886, it has been sixteen. See Chaste; Conversation; Debauch; Fornication.

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Notes and References

1. Meaning of Seduce provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)