Definition
In criminal law, pederasty is the sexual abuse of a boy by an adult male, historically classified as a specific form of sodomy. Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) defines it as "the unnatural carnal copulation of male with male, particularly of a man with a boy." In the historical legal framework, pederasty was not treated as a distinct offense but as a subcategory of sodomy, which itself was defined broadly to encompass various forms of sexual conduct deemed contrary to nature. Modern criminal law has largely replaced this terminology with statutes addressing child sexual abuse, sexual assault of a minor, and aggravated sexual battery, among other formulations that focus on age, consent, and the specific nature of the act rather than on historical moral-theological classifications.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Erotic love, sexually expressed or chaste, between a man and an adolescent boy; also, anal intercourse between a man and an adolescent boy.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The crime against nature; sodomy.
Editorial note: The gap between common and legal meaning here runs in two directions. The Wiktionary definition is broader than the traditional legal definition in one respect — it encompasses non-contact erotic attraction — but the legal definition was always exclusively concerned with criminal sexual conduct. The Webster's 1913 definition collapses pederasty entirely into sodomy, reflecting the historical legal treatment. Modern common usage, particularly the first Wiktionary sense, includes non-criminal or ambiguous historical and cultural contexts (as in classical antiquity) that have no place in legal analysis. Researchers encountering the term in legal sources should read it as referring to criminal sexual conduct, not to the broader cultural or historical phenomenon.
Common Confusion
Pederasty and sodomy were used interchangeably in many older legal sources, but they are not identical. Sodomy was the broader category, encompassing various forms of sexual conduct between adults as well as between adults and minors and, in some historical formulations, between humans and animals. Pederasty was the narrower subcategory specific to adult male–minor male conduct. In historical indictments and case law, pederasty was typically charged under sodomy statutes rather than under any independent offense. Researchers should also distinguish the term from the modern statutory concept of child sexual abuse or aggravated sexual assault of a minor, which are defined by statute without reference to this historical vocabulary.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a marker of historical legal vocabulary and should be treated as such. It will appear in 19th and early 20th century criminal law treatises, indictments, and appellate opinions, always as a subset of sodomy rather than as a stand-alone charge. After Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which struck down criminal sodomy statutes as applied to consenting adults, sodomy law as a category underwent fundamental restructuring in U.S. jurisdictions. The conduct historically described as pederasty is now prosecuted under modern child protection statutes that carry substantially different — typically far more severe — penalties and that apply regardless of the sex of the offender or victim.
Researchers working in historical criminal law records should be aware that the absence of this term does not indicate the absence of prosecutions for the underlying conduct; it may simply have been charged under sodomy, crimes against nature, or lewdness statutes without further specification. Conversely, the presence of this term in a historical source does not always indicate that the accused was charged with conduct involving a minor — some sources used the terms pederasty and sodomy interchangeably without the age distinction that Black's Law Dictionary preserves.
For comparative or cross-jurisdictional research, note that civil law systems and non-English-speaking jurisdictions developed distinct vocabulary for this conduct, and that international instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child use different frameworks entirely.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) is the sole historical legal dictionary source available for this entry, and its definition is characteristically sparse: it supplies the taxonomic placement (sodomy) and the specific application (man with boy) without elaboration on elements, defenses, or penalties. Webster's 1913 does not distinguish pederasty from sodomy at all, confirming that in general usage of that period the two terms were effectively synonymous. Black's is more precise in preserving the age-specific connotation.
What the historical dictionaries do not capture: the significant variation in how courts and legislatures defined the ages involved, the question of whether consent of the minor was ever treated as a defense (it generally was not), the evidentiary rules that applied to prosecutions, or the shift over the 20th century toward victim-centered statutory frameworks. Researchers should not rely on dictionary definitions alone when working with historical prosecutions; treatises on criminal law from the relevant period and the applicable state penal codes are necessary to reconstruct the operative legal standard.
Jurisdictional Note
Sodomy statutes — under which pederasty was historically prosecuted — varied significantly by state in their definitions, grading, and penalties. After Lawrence v. Texas, states revised or repealed their sodomy statutes, but the conduct formerly described as pederasty remains criminalized under child sexual abuse and assault statutes in every U.S. jurisdiction. Researchers working in non-U.S. jurisdictions should be aware that comparable conduct may be addressed under entirely different statutory frameworks and terminology.