Sinners and citizens : bestiality and homosexuality in Sweden 1880-1950

J. RydstrÃm

This study is based on an analysis of more than 2,300 court cases concerning acts of bestiality and same-sex sexuality in rural and urban Sweden 1880-1950. Other written sources are forensic psychiatric statements, mental hospital records, material from the Swedish Sex Reform movement, newspapers and scientific journals, and minutes of the Swedish Parliament and its subcommittees. In cooperation with the Nordiska Museet - The National Museum of Cultural History, a questionnaire was sent out to 286 informers born before 1945, asking about attitudes to bestiality and same-sex sexuality in their childhood. Finally, a limited number of interviews has been used.