Nefarious Crimes, Contested Justice: Illicit Sex and Infanticide in the Republic of Venice, 1557-1789 Book

Though this book is a bit dated (1994), it is a very interesting report of an excellent survey of a whole gamut of sexual practices, preferences and lifestyles in the U.S. In some respects, the findings are reassuring that we are not in some kind of big decline in sexual morality. One of the more interesting findings is the big difference between men and women when it comes to the question of forcing sexual contact: in this respect men and women live on different planets. That is not to relativize the moral issue of rape; it is to say that men are much too cavalier on the question. That is just one of many insights in the book. I cannot recommend it enough; I learned a good deal. I read it quite deliberately as a starting point for the next book I am going to read, which is a critique of natural law theory.