LASCIVIOUS CARRIAGE
(bouvier) | LASCIVIOUS CARRIAGE, law of Connecticut. An offence, ill defined, created by
statute, which enacts that every person who shall be guilty of lascivious
carriage and behaviour, and shall be thereof duly convicted, shall be
punished by fine, not exceeding ten dollars, or by imprisonment in a common
gaol, not exceeding two months, or by fine and imprisonment, or both, at the
discretion of the court. This law was passed at a very early period. Though
indefinite in its terms, it has received a construction so limiting it, that
it may be said to punish those wanton acts between persons of different
sexes, who are not married to each other, that flow from the exercise of
lustful passions, and which are not otherwise punished as crimes against
chastity and public decency. 2 Swift's Dig. 343; 2 Swift's Syst. 331.
2. Lascivious carriage may consist not only in mutual acts of wanton
and indecent familiarity between persons of different sexes, but in wanton
and indecent actions against the will, and without the consent of one of
them, as if a man should forcibly attempt to pull up the clothes of a woman.
5 Day, 81.
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