What are crimes against nature

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A polemic about global warming and the environmental crisis, which argues that ordinary people have consistently opposed the destruction of nature and so provide an untapped constituency for climate action.

Crimes Against Nature uses fresh material to offer a very different take on the most important issue of our times. It takes the familiar narrative about global warming — the one in which we are all to blame — and inverts it, to show how, again and again, pollution and ecological devastation have been imposed on the population without our consent and (often) against our will. From histories of destruction, it distils stories of hope, highlighting the repeated yearning for a more sustainable world.

In the era of climate strikes, viral outbreaks, and Extinction Rebellion, Crimes Against Nature moves from ancient Australia to the ‘corpse economy’ of Georgian Britain to the ‘Kitchen Debate’ of the Cold War, to present an unexpected and optimistic environmental history — one that identifies ordinary people not as a collective problem but as a powerful force for change.

‘Sparrow tells these stories with the lucidity and animation of a true crime podcast. He dissects the reactionary nature of placing mankind in opposition to nature: it not only erases millennia of Indigenous peoples’ relative harmony with the natural world, but seeks to preserve nature for the select few destroying it for everyone else. He is fearless too in his criticism of progressives who write off their fellow citizens as uncaring and complicit in global warming. That corporations invested in such sophisticated public relations campaigns shows they “understand something about ordinary peoples that escapes many environmentalists”: that ordinary people are not “innately greedy or selfish” … Amid the doom and gloom of so much contemporary environmentalism, this is worthy of applause.’

Conrad Landin, The Saturday Paper

‘I find it difficult to read about climate change at the moment, because the problem feels overwhelming and ultimately fatal to all of us. But Crimes Against Nature: Capitalism and Global Heating promises hope.’

Jo Case, InDaily

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Praise for Fascists Among Us:

‘This short but incisive book builds to a stirring and well-argued conclusion … What Sparrow does so eloquently … is overtly link fascism, historically and theoretically, with political violence.’

Kelsey Oldham, Books + Publishing, starred review

Praise for Trigger Warnings:

‘In the age of fake news and the seeming triumph of political populism, Jeff Sparrow’s Trigger Warnings is a vital book for our times. With the integrity of political thought and action under threat from social media sloganeering, with Donald Trump holding court in the White House and “political correctness” the catch-all suffocation of dissent, Jeff Sparrow challenges us to respond with intelligence and conviction.’

Tony Birch, author of Ghost River

‘The common narrative that pits humanity against nature assumes that our “innate greed” implicates us all in climate change. The environmental movement, too, buys into this myth with its longing for pristine wilderness unspoiled by humankind, argues Jeff Sparrow. This urgent, incisive work resoundingly refutes this arbitrary divide by showing how industrialisation, in the hands of the wealthy and powerful, drove a wedge between ordinary people and the natural world. Hence, the simplistic “jobs versus environment” binary that stymies our current climate-change debate. The alternative, however, is right under our noses. “In pre-capitalist Australia, humans did not despoil the land.” They worked in harmony with it, enhancing nature rather than plundering it. And it was a collective endeavour. It is in this understanding of human nature that Sparrow finds hope.’

Cameron Woodhead & Fiona Capp, The Sydney Morning Herald

Praise for No Way But This:

‘Sparrow shows how this admittedly splendid actor, this marvelous singer, this charismatic speaker, had somehow evolved into something more: he had for many people become the embodiment of the global longing for a better world, a juster dispensation … Sparrow has made perfect and haunting sense of him.’

Simon Callow, New York Review of Books

Jeff Sparrow is a writer, editor, broadcaster, and Walkley award-winning journalist. He is a columnist for The Guardian Australia, a former Breakfaster at Melbourne’s 3RRR, and a past editor of Overland literary journal. His most recent books are Fascists Among Us: online hate and the Christchurch massacre; Trigger Warnings: political correctness and the rise of the right; and No Way But This: in search of Paul Robeson. He lectures at the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne.

Crime against nature is an umbrella term encompassing sexual offenses that are deemed “unnatural” or "contrary to the order of nature." Some jurisdictions have codified laws against the individual offenses. For example, California originally used the term "the infamous crime against nature," to describe both sodomy and bestiality. However, this language was eventually discarded and the offenses of sodomy and sexual contact with animals were separately defined.

Other jurisdictions still commonly use the language "crime against nature.” For example, in North Carolina, any person who commits a crime against nature "with mankind or beast" is guilty of a felony. Although North Carolina's statute generally refers to the offenses of sodomy and bestiality, it is also broad enough to encompass prostitution and acts involving minors.

At common law, a crime against nature was historically synonymous with sodomy. This association of terms was particularly affected by the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas. The Court in Lawrence held that a Texas statute criminalizing intimate sexual conduct between two consenting male adults was unconstitutional as it impinged on the liberty interests protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Although the Supreme Court in Lawrence struck down anti-sodomy laws, the crime against nature remains relevant. North Carolina has held that Lawrence also articulated a limit on the sexual conduct protected by the Constitution (Lawrence provided protection strictly to consenting adults). Therefore, crime against nature statutes targeting sexual conduct outside that scope (e.g., between minors or nonconsenting parties), such as North Carolina's, remain constitutional.

See e.g., Rose v. Locke, 423 U.S. 48 (1975); Cook v. Reinke, Case No. 3:09-00358-MHW (D. Idaho May. 16, 2011)

[Last updated in July of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]