Making Adultery A Crime?

T

thecurly1

Registered Senior Member
Should the act of adultery, specifically cheating on your spouse while married, be a crime?

If the government issues a marriage licence it is understood that you will be involved in a relationship with one person, not more than one. Bigamy and polygamy are banned.

Aren't you breaking a "contract" with your partner when you cheat on them, without concent and without divorce?

If so, this is defying the institution of marrage, which is sanctioned by government, therefore making it a crime.

Do you agree?
 
thecurly1:
Aren't you breaking a "contract" with your partner when you cheat on them, without concent and without divorce?
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No. You're thinking of slavery, which is illegal and immoral.

If so, this is defying the institution of marrage, which is sanctioned by government, therefore making it a crime.
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Since when was defying an institution a crime?
 
Just because you're engaged in a contract doesn't mean it's slavery. When you get married, it is understood by law, and both parties that you are sticking with eachother and no one else. Doesn't this almost amount to a crime when you break that convenant?

I would make it a criminal offense of some sort. Not even a penality really. If it came to a divorce and you were cheating then you would get very little if anything. Of course the cheating would have to be the primary reason for the divorce.
 
You know, Wes, when someone takes your queen with a pawn by moving horizontally.

I've got a better idea.. how about we make marriage illegal? That way, no one would be able to cheat anymore and everyone would be happy. Right? Or is that totally illogical and stupid, kinda like this whole thread?
 
Don't be so quick to jump on Curly because of your beliefs. The fact is marriage is sanctioned by the governmnent, and the contract can breached on evidence of adultery: divorce. Now as to your question: should adultery whilst married be a crime? I gather it already is a crime in an opaque manner. Proof of infedility, in the absence of a prenuptial contract that disregards it, is enough for a divorce, custody, alimony, 50% of assets, etc. in Cali, Delaware?, etc.

Obviously there never shall be-- unless religion substantially merges with the state, a defined punishment as a fine, stoning :D or a jail term for adultery simply because the damn politicians would be the most threatened group-- next to the celebs of course.
 
curly1:
Just because you're engaged in a contract doesn't mean it's slavery.
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If giving one human complete dominion over the body of another isn't slavery, I don't know what is.
Voluntary? Yes it is, which is why it could be more reprehensible.
I somehow think that the function of government is to protect the nation from foriegn and domestic enemies, not regulate citizen's kinky sexual practices.

When you get married, it is understood by law, and both parties that you are sticking with eachother and no one else. Doesn't this almost amount to a crime when you break that convenant?
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No, it doesn't. The actual wording of a marriage contract is so vauge as to be legally useless. Calling the exchang of marriage vows a "contract" is really stretching it.

fountainhed:
What part of marriage is a "contract"?
 
Thanks for defending me fountainhed.

Why is my thread stupid? Is it because you disagree with it? That's hardly has anything to do with intelligence. Once again without a substantive argument you attack the person and not the argument.
 
Curly1:
Have you considered responding to the arguments presented, rather than the Marquis' characterization of your thread?
 
I stated my original position in the beginning of the forum, I just wanted to see people's opinions.

I thought of the odd subject upon hearing about Kobe Bryant committing adultery. He was on trial for sexual assault aka rape.

Just gaguing public opinion.
 
Kobe Bryant is accused of sexually assualting a woman. Since when has rape and sexual assualt (while one's wife is safe at home) been classified as 'adultery'?

Actually I agree with you. Adultery should be considered a crime punishable by death or a long jail term and having ones property confiscated. This way no one would bother with such a ridiculous institution and need not form a contract with the State. Instead people will pledge their undying love privately, live together and have children if they so desire, and leave when the relationship is no longer satisfactory.

I don't believe in enforced monogamy. No person or no institution (religious or secular) can force affection. Two people will remain monogamous if that is what they both desire, and within such a union no outside influence can change the resolve. For many however this is not the case and so I don't understand why you would feel the need to bring the State into the bedroom. What business is it of theirs anyway? The 'contract' with the State is not there to protect the private relationship between two people but their assets/property, not the love, affection or sexual commitment.
 
Originally posted by Xev
What part of marriage is a "contract"?
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Well, Xev I imagine that'd be the part where two people exchange vows and make certain promises to one another, that sounds like a contract to me.

I don't think that the idea of making adultery illegal is completely absurd, so long as it's based on the legal institution of marriage, and not the religious institute. But then the legal entity doesn't have any stakes or claims regarding sexual behavior of either spouse, and rightly it shouldn't.

I can understand the spirit in which such a thing would be proposed, but it's really not the government's place to regulate sexual behavior. I could, however understand some sort of prenuptial agreement involving specific conditions and penalties in the event of adultery.
 
It's not a "crime."

Breach of contract is not a crime, it is a civil matter. You don't get thrown in jail for it unless there is a criminal vector to your behavior, such as use of force or fraud.

If you violate the terms of a contract, the other party in general has two options. Get you to stop violating the contract, either by convincing you or by getting a court injunction -- in this case, to start being a faithful spouse again. Or else they can try to collect damages, either out of court or after getting a court judgment.

The courts in the U.S. do not prosecute cases in which a wronged spouse wants the cheating spouse to come back. They just don't do it. Go to a marriage counselor or a priest or a sex therapist, but not a judge. No judge has ever slapped a wandering husband or wife with an injunction telling them to stay home, and then threw them in jail for violating the injunction.

And it's pretty difficult to get a monetary judgment out of a broken marriage contract. Private detectives produce photos and records of stuff that both parties did years ago that they forgot, and it makes them both look like sleazeballs.

The only way to be sure to get a monetary settlement from a broken marriage is to execute a pre-nuptial agreement.

In summary, you're on the wrong track entirely. Breaking a contract is not a crime. That's what civil courts are for. So there's no way you can treat adultery as a crime.
 
Mystech:
Well, Xev I imagine that'd be the part where two people exchange vows and make certain promises to one another, that sounds like a contract to me.
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A verbal contract! A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's not printed on, to quote an old law teacher of mine.
So in some murky postcoital state, I promise whomever I'm fucking that I'll love them forever and ever and ever. A year later we break up.
I should be jailed?
Silliness.

fountainhed:
Be as it may, marriage is sanctioned by the government-- it is an 'institution'.
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It's not an institution of government.
 
It's not an institution of government.
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When did I say it was? Reread the statement.

Here are examples:
From Guthrie, Logan Co, OK MARRIAGE RECORDS, BOOK 4, PAGE 339.



APPLICATION FOR MARRIAGE LICENSE:
Territory of Oklahoma, Logan Co

I, Elihu H COX of Logan Co, Territory of OK, aged 57 years and legally competent to make and take an oath, do solemnly swear that I am acquainted with Mr Elihu H Cox and Mrs Almira LITTLE who are parties for the marriage of whom a LICENSE is hereby applied for. That said parties, and each of them, are of sound contracting mind and unmarried, and not disqualified or incapable under the law of entering into the marriage relation. That said parties are not of the relationship prohibited by law and may lawfully contract and be joined in marriage.

I furthermore solomnly swear that the following schedule, containing the names of the aforesaid parties, their age, color, place of birth, and residence is correct in every particular, to the best of my knowledge, information and belief, to-wit:

NAME OF PARTIES/AGE/COLOR/PLACE OF BIRTH/RESIDENCE

Elihu H Cox-Groom/57/W/Indiana/Crescent PO
Almira Little-Bride/55/W/Illinois/Ingalls PO



Elihu H Cox Applicant

Subscribed and sworn to before me, June 19, 1900

JC Foster, Judge


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MARRIAGE LICENSE
The Territory of Oklahoma, Logan Co.
In the Probate Court
To any person authorized to perform the Marriage Ceremony, Greeting:

You are hereby authorized to join in marriage Mr Elihu H Cox and Mrs Almira Little, of the County aforesaid, whose ages, residence, etc are as follows:

NAME OF PARTIES/AGE/COLOR/PLACE OF BIRTH/RESIDENCE

Elihu H. Cox-Groom/57/W/Indiana/Crescent PO
Almira Little-Bride/55/W/Illinois/Ingalls PO



And of this license you will make due return to my office within thirty days from this date

In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of said Court, at my office in Guthrie, in said County, this 19th day of June

AD 1900,

JC Foster, Judge of the Probate Court



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


CERTIFICATE OF MARRIAGE
Territory of Oklahoma

I, WM JUDD, Church of Christ, Minister, of Mulhall in Logan Co, Oklahoma Territory, do hereby certify that I joined in marriage, the persons named in and authorized by this license to be married, on the 19th day of June AD 1900, at Mulhall in Logan County, OT in the presence of Huldah A JUDD of Mulhall and WM E BAKER of Guthrie.

WITNESSES:

Huldah A JUDD
Wm E BAKER

WM JUDD, Minister
 
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