The increasing social visibility of Bondage/Domination, Discipline/submission and Sadism/Masochism (BDSM) within Western society has placed pressure on the criminal law to account for why consensual BDSM activities continue to be criminalised where they involve the infliction of even minor injuries on participants. With moralistic and paternalistic justifications for criminalisation falling out of favour, one key justification that is gaining traction within international commentary on BDSM is the “bogus BDSM argument”. The bogus BDSM argument contends that BDSM activities should be criminalised because otherwise false claims of BDSM will be used by defendants to excuse or minimise their criminal liability for nonconsensual abuse. This article refutes this argument by showing how it relies on premises that are unjustifiable, illogical and irrelevant. This article concludes that the decriminalisation of BDSM would not permit nonconsensual abuse so long as legal officials were equipped with sufficient knowledge about the norms and conventions of BDSM culture.

西方社会中奴役/支配、纪律/服从和施虐/受虐 (BDSM) 日益增加的社会知名度给刑法施加了压力，以解释为什么双方同意的 BDSM 活动继续被定为刑事犯罪，因为它们涉及对他人的轻微伤害参与者。随着对刑事定罪的道德和家长式理由不受欢迎，在国际关于 BDSM 的评论中越来越受到关注的一个关键理由是“虚假的 BDSM 论点”。虚假的 BDSM 论点认为 BDSM 活动应该被定为刑事犯罪，否则被告将使用 BDSM 的虚假声明来借口或最大限度地减少他们对非自愿滥用的刑事责任。本文通过展示它如何依赖不合理的前提来反驳这一论点，不合逻辑且不相关。本文的结论是，只要法律官员对 BDSM 文化的规范和惯例有足够的了解，BDSM 的非刑事化就不会允许未经同意的滥用。