Sexuality, Public Space and the Criminal Law: The Cottaging Phenomenon
| Date | 01 December 2007 |
| Published date | 01 December 2007 |
| Author | Chris Ashford |
| DOI | 10.1350/jcla.2007.71.6.506 |
| Subject Matter | Comment |
COMMENT
Sexuality, Public Space and the Criminal
Law: The Cottaging Phenomenon
Chris Ashford*
Incidents of sexual behaviour in public places present a continuing
challenge to the police. Areas of public space become subject to transient
ownership with public parks, isolated car parks and public toilets being
redesignated queer spaces1by a subculture of public sexing that has led
to the phenomena of cottaging, cruising and, more recently, dogging
exploding across the headlines of local and national newspapers across
the country2.
For the police, these actions present particular problems.3Since 1967
there has been a general ‘progression’ in policy directed towards homo-
sexuals in England and Wales. From the Sexual Offences Act 1967
through to, more recently, the Equality Act 2006 and the Equality Act
(Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007, there has been a gradual ac-
ceptance in law of both homosexual acts and homosexual identity.
* Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Sunderland; e-mail
chris.ashford@sunderland.ac.uk.
1 A. Betsky, Queer Space (William Morrow and Company: New York, 1997) 141.
2 See e.g. ‘Doggers Collared by ASBOS, Daily Star, 18 September 2005; ‘Wildfowl Sex
Shock’, Sunderland Echo, 13 September 2005; ‘People Investigation: Park & Writhe,
Car Pervs’ Naked Lust Infests the Haunts of Innocent Children’, People, 11
September 2005; ‘Lying Doggo, Steve?’, Sun, 26 August 2005; ‘Dump the Dirty Old
Van, TV Bosses Order Steve’, Daily Star, 24 August 2005; ‘Dogger on the Prowl’,
News of the World, 14 August 2005; ‘Sexual Health—The Sex Doctor: Boss Watched
Me Having Group Sex’, Sunday Mirror, 31 July 2005; ‘Away From Prying Eyes,
Beauty Spot at Centre of Sex Claims’, Lancaster Guardian, 21 July 2005; ‘High
Season for the Low Life’, Sunday Times, 12 June 2005; ‘Car Park Call Is Thrown
Out’, Journal, 26 May 2005; ‘Some Lake it Hot: Windermere’s Top Spot to Get
Frisky Al Fresco’, Daily Star, 8 May 2005; ‘Sex and Speed Dog Site of Beauty Spot’,
Lancashire Evening Post, 14 February 2005; ‘Logging on to Dogging’, Sun, 22 January
2005; ‘Blitz on Gay Sex’, Daily Star, 22 May 2005; ‘Police Monitor Toilet Blocks’,
Morecambe Visitor, 23 February 2005; ‘Police Close Off Gay Lay-bys after Attacks’,
Coventry Evening Telegraph, 22 February 2005; ‘Plug Pulled on Gay Sex and Drugs
Loos’, Sentinel, October 28 2004; ‘Police Crackdown on Local Internet Perverts’,
Blackpool Gazette, 5 October 2004; ‘Toilets Become a Cottaging Worry’, Morecambe
Visitor, 15 September 2004; ‘Gay Sex Claims at Prom Toilets’, Morecambe Visitor,
25 August 2004; ‘Picnic Site Used by Gay Men May be Rebuilt’, Western Mail,
9 July 2004.
3 For an American analysis of the policing of the cottaging phenomenon and the
media frenzy that accompanied it, see D. Mohr , ‘Parks, Privacy and the Police’
(1996) 16 The Guide 16, L. Edelman, ‘Tearoom and Sympathy or the Epistemology
of the Water Closet’ in L. Edelman (ed.) Homographies: Essays in Gay Literary and
Cultural Theory (Routledge: London, 1993) 148 and more generally D. Bedfellows
(ed.), Policing Public Sex: Queer Politics and the Future of AIDS Activism (South End
Press: Boston, 1996).
506
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