Incest - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition incest

Definition :

Incest, carnal knowledge of persons within the Levitical degrees of kindred, at one time a capital offence (4 Bl. Com. 65); but subsequently left to the action of the spiritual courts, 4 Steph. Com. It is now within certain relationships, whether legitimate or illegitimate, including a half-brother and half-sister, a misdemeanor, punishable by seven years' penal servitude by virtue of the Punishment of Incest Act, 1908 (8 Edw. 7, c. 45). See R. v. Ball, 1911 AC 47. Sect. 5 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1922, repeals the provision in the Act of 1908 which necessitated the trial of all proceedings under that Act being held in camera (q.v.).

Means sexual relations between family members or close relatives, including children related by adoption. Incest was not a crime under English common law but was punished as an ecclesiastical offense. Modern statutes make it a felony, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 764.