'A field for private members': The Wolfenden committee and Scottish homosexual law reform, 1950-67.
'A field for private members': The Wolfenden committee and Scottish homosexual law reform, 1950-67.
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DOI：
10.1093/tcbh/15.2.174
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发表时间：
2004-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Davis, Gayle
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Davidson, Roger;Davis, Gayle
沃尔芬登卖淫和同性恋犯罪委员会（Wolfenden Committee on Prostitution and Homosexual Offences，1954- 1957）的记录和报告在20世纪后期英国同性恋史学中占有重要地位。然而，研究主要集中在委员会的社会政治及其对英格兰性法律改革的影响上，区域研究明显缺乏。本文利用一系列政府档案，重点介绍苏格兰证人向委员会提供的书面和口头证据。它记录了苏格兰处理“同性恋犯罪”的现有法律的和医疗规定，并调查了苏格兰支持和反对同性恋行为合法化的证据。此后，它审查了委员会苏格兰成员对《沃尔芬登报告》的意见。文章然后调查了广泛的反对同性恋法律改革在苏格兰在1957年至1967年期间，最终排除在1967年的性犯罪法。最后，它评估了苏格兰经验的影响，并得出结论认为，在一些重要的方面，它不符合创新和过渡的图片先进的许多以前的解释沃尔芬登委员会及其后果。
The proceedings and report of the Wolfenden Committee on Prostitution and Homosexual Offences (1954-7) figure prominently in the historiography of homosexuality in later twentieth-century Britain. However, in the main, research has centred on the social politics of the Committee and its implications for sexual law reform in England, and there is a notable lack of regional studies. Using a range of government archives, this article focuses on the written and oral evidence of Scottish witnesses to the Committee. It documents the pre-existing legal and medical provisions for the treatment of 'homosexual offences' in Scotland, and surveys the Scottish evidence for and against the decriminalization of homosexual practices. Thereafter, it examines the views of the Scottish members of the Committee in the context of the Wolfenden Report. The article then surveys the wide-ranging opposition to homosexual law reform within Scotland in the period 1957-67, culminating in its exclusion from the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. Finally, it evaluates the implications of the Scottish experience and concludes that, in some important respects, it does not conform to the innovative and transitional picture advanced in many previous interpretations of the Wolfenden Committee and its aftermath.