9.Examination of trials for rape and sodomy during the eighteenth century at the Old Bailey
in London show the treatment of rape to have been lenient, while the treatment of sodomy
to have been generally severe. From the 1780s the number of cases grew. Blackmail for
sodomy also increased and was made a capital crime.In France in the eighteenth century, sodomy was still theoretically a capital crime, and
there are a handful of cases where sodomites were executed. However, in several of these,
other crimes were involved as well (for instance, one man, Pascal, had supposedly
murdered a man who resisted his advances). Records from the Bastille and the police
lieutenant d'Argenson, as well as other sources, show that many who were arrested were
exiled, sent to a regiment, or imprisoned in places (generally the Hospital) associated
with morals crimes such as prostitution. Of these, a number were involved in prostitution
or had approached children, or otherwise gone beyond merely having homosexual relations.
Ravaisson (a 19th century writer who edited the Bastille records) suggested that the
authorities preferred to handle these cases discreetly, lest public punishments in effect
publicize "this vice".
