Editing Sex and the law (section)

==Definitions==
Sex crimes are forms of human sexual behavior that are considered sufficiently unacceptable and harmful to society to be regarded as criminal. Someone who commits one is said to be a ''[[sex offender]]''. Some sex crimes are crimes of [[violence]] that involve sex. Others are violations of social [[taboo]]s, such as [[incest]], [[sodomy]], [[indecent exposure]] or [[exhibitionism]]. There is much variation among cultures as to what is considered a crime or not, and in what ways or to what extent crimes are punished.

Western countries are often far more tolerant of acts, such as [[oral sex]], that have traditionally been held to be crimes in some countries, but combine this with lesser tolerance for the remaining crimes. By contrast, many cultures with a strong religious tradition consider a far broader range of activities to be serious crimes.

As a general rule, the law in many countries often intervenes in sexual activity involving young or adolescent children below the legal age of consent, non-consensual deliberate displays or illicit watching of sexual activity, sex with close [[Kinship|relative]]s (incest), harm to animals, acts involving the deceased ([[necrophilia]]). Intervention may also arise when there is harassment, nuisance, fear, injury, or assault of a sexual nature, or serious risk of abuse of certain professional relationships. Separately, the law usually regulates or controls the [[censorship]] of [[pornography|pornographic]] or [[obscenity|obscene]] material as well.