Seduce

8 " Seduce " and " entice " are often used indifferently in the old, and sometimes in the later, books. A journeyman was said to be seduced when enticed away from his employer's service.' Although a general term, having a variety ' Hall V. Commissioners, 10 Allen, 102 (1865); 46 Vt, 786. 2 Hale V. Commissioners, 137 Mass. 114 (1884). As to watering railroad securities, see 21 Am. Law Rev. 696- 704 (1887), cases. s (aiurch V. Meeker, 34 Conn. 424 (1867).. * L. sec Utio, a going apart, dissension. ' Abbott's Law Diet. » Cooley, Const. Lira. 426-30; 2 Steph. Hist. Cr. Law Eng. 377; Queen v. O'Brien, 4 Cr. Law Mag. 424 (188.S); Whart. St. Tr. 22. ' 2 Story, Const. §§ 1293-94. 8 L. se-ducere, to lead aside, astray. of meanings according to the subject to which it is applied, when referring to the conduct of a man toward a female is universally understood to mean: an enticement of her on his part to the surrender of her chastity, by means of some art, influence, promise or deception calculated to accomplish that object, and to include yielding of her person to him.' Seduction. The use of some influence, promise, art, or other means on the part of a man by which he induces a woman to surrender her chastity and virtue to his embraces. ^ While now a crime in most of the States, at common law was' not so. An injured husband had an action for criminal "conversation;" but a parent or master had no standing in court unless the female as daughter or domestic owed him service, and, in consequence of the seduction, she was in some degree less able to assist in housewifery work; or, unless there was a trespass upon property. The law, while punisbing even with death acts of violence against women, left her chastity exposed to the artifices on the seducer." An action for seduction grows out of the loss of service in the relation of master and servant. Some service, however trivial, must be shown to have been done and to have been due from the female to the plaintiff.' The consent of a minor daughter is no defense to an action by the father; and he should be allowed compensation for his mental suffering as well as for the loss of services, etc.* But the parent cannot recover damages when, with his knowledge, the defendant and his daughter slept together according to the custom known as " bundling." * The age of consent, in at least twenty States, until recently, was ten years. It has been raised to fourteen in Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Vermont; to fifteen in Nebraska; to sixteen in Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and to eighteen in Colorado and Kansas. In England, since 1886, it has been sixteen.' See Chaste; Conversation, 1; Debauch; Fornication. ' State 11. Bierce, 27 Conn. 320 (1868), Storrs, C. J. ' [Croghan v. State, 22 Wis. 446 (1868), Cole, J. gee also 40 Ark. 482; 77 Ind. 334; 38 Iowa, 224; 108 Mass. 488; 11 Mich. 278; 17 Pa. 126; 100 id. 28. '3 Christian, Bl. Com. *140, 142; 4 Bl. Com. 212; 1 B. & Aid. 722. ■"Wood V. State, 48 Ga. 282 (1873); Kinney v. Laughenour, 89 N. C. 367-68 (1883); Wood, Master & S. § 246; Martin v. Payne, 9 Johns. 387 (1812): Bigelow, Ld. Cas. Torts, 286, 290-305, cases. ' Barbour v. Stephenson, 32 r. R. 66 (1887).

To procure unlawful sexual intercourse by persuasion, overcoming the natural scruples of a chaste character; to debauch by means of solicitations. Seduction: the wrong (in some jurisdictions a crime) of inducing a female to consent to unlawful sexual intercourse by enticements and persuasions, overcoming her reluctance and scruples. mit unlawful sexual intercourse with him." But this seems to include the ordinary request of a man to a prostitute, or of a paramour to his mistress. To constitute seduction, there should be, not previous virginity, perhaps not even entire purity of life, unless as a statute may require " previous chaste chai-acter," but some virtue opposing the request, some moral objection or reluctance on the part of the woman, overborne by excitements and persuasions, and urging. On the other hand, the words do not include intercourse obtained by force or fear, and against consent, which is rape. The principle volenti non Jit injuria has always been considered to forbid the woman seduced to maintain an action, directly, for damages; and, at common law, seduction was not esteemed punishable as a crime. A husband may, however, upon wellsettled principles, maintain an action for damages for the seduction of his wife. This action, and the wrong on which it is founded, is more frequently called criminal conversation. And if the female seduced is under any relation in which she owes service, as the case of a minor daughter to her father, and the value of the service is (in the least) diminished by the seduction, this scintilla of legal injury will sustain an action by the parent or other master, suing in the character of an employer who has lost the service of his servant through defendant's tort; and in this action the jury may give exemplary damages. By this fiction, a substantial redress for seduction, considered as a civil wrong, is often reached. And in several of the states, seduction of a female of previous chaste character is made a punishable offence. So, enactments of congress have made the seduction of female emigrants on board ship, by those in charge of the vessel, punishable. The word seduce, when used with reference to the conduct of a man toward a woman, has a precise and determinate signification, and ex vi termini implies the commission of fornication. An information for the crime of seduction need not charge the Seduce implies an act of fornication or adultery. Commonwealth ». Dorus, 108 Mass. 488. A man who obtains carnal intercourse with a woman solely by means of his promise of marriage, made to her at the time, and without which she would not have yielded to his desires, is guilty of the statutory crime of seduction. And where defendant obtained intercourse with a woman on his promise of marriage; the intercourse was afterwards broken off, and then again renewed solely on the ground of his renewed promise of marriage; the woman appeared otherwise to have always led a chaste life, — it was held that the man might be prosecuted for seduction at any time within one year of such last intercourse. People V. Millspaugh, 11 Mich. 278.