— Also termed exposure of person. Cf. LEWDNESS; OBSCENITY. [Cases: Obscenity
3. C.J.S. Obscenity §§ 9–10.]
“Indecent exposure of the person to public view is also a common-law misdemeanor. Blackstone did not deal with it separately. ‘The last offense which I shall mention,’ he said, ‘more immediately against religion and morality, and cognizable by the temporal courts, is that of open and notorious lewdness; either by frequenting houses of ill fame, which is an indictable offense; or by some grossly scandalous and public indecency, for which the punishment is by fine and imprisonment.’ In other words private indecency was exclusively under the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical court but public indecency of an extreme nature was indictable.” Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 473 (3d ed. 1982) (quoting 4 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 64 (1769)).
