The Florida criminal code is a series of documents that reflects both the early history of the state as well as modern revisions, says Florida criminal attorney John Musca. Older parts of the criminal code punish obsolete offenses that may have offended 19th century sensibilities, but are no longer deemed matters of concern for the modern public. In the first part of this article, we will examine a few of the sex crimes which are still on the books in Florida, but have not been enforced much, if at all, in the last few decades and are generally thought to be non-criminal offenses by many Floridians.
Chapter 847 of the Florida Statutes regulates criminal offenses under the category of obscenity. Most of the offenses under the statute deal with either child pornography or other sexual abuse of children, which are considered high priorities for law enforcement. There are also other lightly enforced parts of the section which deal with other regulations of obscenity. Florida statute section 847.0147 criminalizes any selling of obscene adult services or messages over the telephone. Under Florida and Federal law "obscenity" is a certain type of indecent communication which is not protected by the First Amendment. The United States Supreme Court has defined obscene material as that which "appeals to the prurient interest in sex."
Floridians might wonder, then, why there are still 900 numbers and other telephone services which seem to advertise obscene material available over the telephone in the state of Florida, there are two reasons why this practice continues on. First, state officials have not invested much time in preventing obscene telephone services, determining instead that other criminal offenses constitute higher priorities. Second, many telephone services of a sexual nature involve material which is considered indecent, but not obscene for purposes of a criminal conviction. In part two of this article we will look to other little-enforced sex crimes in Florida law.
