-
Voyeurism
-
The secret viewing of another person in a place where that person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, for the purposes of the viewer's sexual arousal
Australia's Crimes Act of 1910, at §91J, defined voyeurism as a crime and as follows:
"A person who, for the purpose of obtaining sexual arousal or sexual gratification, observes a person who is engaged in a private act without the consent of the person being observed to being observed for that purpose, and knowing that the person being observed does not consent to being observed for that purpose, is guilty of an offence."
The 2009 Criminal Code of Canada, at §162, defines voyeurism as follows:
"Every one commits an offence who, surreptitiously, observes - including by mechanical or electronic means - or makes a visual recording of a person who is in circumstances that give rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy, if the person is in a place in which a person can reasonably be expected to be nude, to expose his or her genital organs or anal region or her breasts, or to be engaged in explicit sexual activity; the person is nude, is exposing his or her genital organs or anal region or her breasts, or is engaged in explicit sexual activity, and the observation or recording is done for the purpose of observing or recording a person in such a state or engaged in such an activity; or the observation or recording is done for a sexual purpose."
Examples from other jurisdictions abound. The Washington Penal Code defines voyeurism as follows:
"A person commits the crime of voyeurism if, for the purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of any person, he or she knowingly views, photographs, or films another person without that person's knowledge and consent while the person being viewed, photographed, or filmed is in a place where he or she would have a reasonable expectation of privacy; or the intimate areas of another person without that person's knowledge and consent and under circumstances where the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, whether in a public or private place."
REFERENCES: