Kennedy presents a new way of evaluating the regulation of deceptively induced intimacy, that is, sex and sexual/romantic relationships, on the basis of an innovative genealogy of legal responses to this conduct. This book traces the development of a range of civil and criminal laws across c. 250 years, showing how using deception to induce intimacy has been legally understood, compensated and punished. It offers an original interpretation of the form and function of these laws by situating them in their social and cultural contexts. It argues that prevailing notions of what makes intimacy valuable, including the role it plays in self-construction, have shaped and constrained the laws' operation. It shows how deceptively induced sex has come to be treated more seriously while the opposite is true of deceptively induced relationships and concludes by presenting a new framework for deciding whether and when deceptively induced intimacy should be regulated by law today.

‘Chloë Kennedy's new monograph breaks new ground by considering the law's response to deceptively induced intimacy across both civil and criminal law over more than two centuries. It demonstrates enormous breadth of research and aligns analytical rigour with sensitivity to the human stories to which the law has been required to respond. The broad sweep of Kennedy's work allows for modern day laws to be understood in their fullest context.'

James Chalmers - Regius Professor of Law, University of Glasgow

‘What role should the law (civil or criminal) play in responding to the various kinds of deception that people use to induce intimate relationships? Kennedy offers a rich and fascinating historical exploration of the ways in which this question has been answered, and of the shifting cultural and ethical understandings of such relationships that underpin those answers; and she suggests a fruitful way of tackling this question in our contemporary culture, by examining the ways in which such deceptions impinge on identity and self-construction.'

Antony Duff - Emeritus Professor, University of Stirling

‘This book makes a massive contribution to our understanding of the relationship between deception and intimate relationships. While most work in this area focuses mainly on recent developments in the criminal law relating to deceptively induced sexual relationships, by taking a longer historical view and including private law in the scope of her study, Kennedy is able to shed important new light on this area. This is a tremendous book, a major contribution to legal and historical scholarship, and deserves to be widely read.'

Lindsay Farmer - Professor of Law, University of Glasgow

‘Inducing Intimacy is an impressive and important book. Ranging widely over civil and criminal laws, and drawing a rich history up to the present day, this book offers a truly fresh examination of the intricate issues relating to deception in intimate relations, now one of the most significant if controversial parts of sexual offending. Inducing Intimacy deserves to be read widely, by scholars and students, but also by policy-makers and activists.'

Arlie Loughnan - Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Law Theory, University of Sydney

‘Chloë Kennedy's imaginative and meticulously argued book breaks new ground by situating its analysis of deceptive sex within the broader canvas of law's construction of induced intimacy from the mid 18th Century to the present day. Encompassing both criminal and civil law responses, this highly original book is a model of socio-legal history, and one which has important implications for law's treatment of induced intimacy today.'

Nicola Lacey - Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy, London School of Economics