adultery
Enable an AI agent to assess whether a reported act falls within an explicitly identified definition of adultery, represent uncertainty, and determine appropriate handling without treating an allegation as an established fact.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to assess whether a reported act falls within an explicitly identified definition of adultery, represent uncertainty, and determine appropriate handling without treating an allegation as an established fact.
Adultery is sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than that person's spouse, with its precise boundaries and moral or legal significance varying across traditions and jurisdictions.
It can be Compare a reported act against multiple explicitly attributed definitions of adultery.; Identify missing marital, temporal, or conduct information needed for classification.; Explain why adultery, broader infidelity, and breach of a relationship agreement may receive different classifications.; Maintain separate accounts of allegations, evidence, participant knowledge, and institutional determinations.; Identify which proposed responses require verified authority, additional evidence, or referral to a neighbouring model..
Distinguishing features
Identify whether at least one participant had a relevant marital relationship with someone outside the reported sexual conduct; do not equate all relationship infidelity with adultery.
Check whether the reported conduct meets the named framework's sexual-act threshold; emotional attachment or online interaction must not qualify merely by analogy.
Evaluate marital permission and adultery classification separately: whether permission changes classification depends on the framework.
Separate an act classified as adultery from a suspicion, accusation, admission, or institutional finding about that act.
Record voluntariness and attributed responsibility separately; being subjected to sexual violence must not be treated as evidence of voluntary marital betrayal.
Scope
+ Reported acts and the participants' marital relationships at the time
+ Definitions of adultery and the authorities or communities that hold them
+ Framework-specific boundaries around qualifying sexual conduct
+ Relationships between marital exclusivity, permission, concealment, and adultery classification
+ Evidence, disputed classifications, and context-specific responses
- Marriage formation, validity, and dissolution as complete processes
- Infidelity outside marriage as a broader category
- Sexual assault and coercion as independently modelled acts
- Divorce proceedings, criminal proceedings, and religious disciplinary systems
- General relationship counselling or judgments about a person's character
Characteristics
- Interpretive framework
- Named legal, religious, community, interpersonal, or research definition; version and applicability specified Determines which marital relationships and sexual acts qualify.
- Marital relationship at act time
- Participant linked to spouse or spouses, with relevant dates and recognized, disputed, or unknown status Classification depends on relationships when the act occurred, rather than only on present status.
- Reported conduct
- Framework-relevant conduct category; unspecified; disputed; unknown Allows comparison with a definition without collecting unnecessary intimate detail.
- Voluntariness
- Reported voluntary; reported coerced; capacity questioned; disputed; unknown, separately for each participant Prevents assumptions that every participant willingly engaged in the reported act.
- Marital agreement and permission
- Relevant exclusivity agreement and any permission, including scope, timing, and disputed or unknown status Distinguishes breaches of relationship agreements from classifications imposed by other frameworks.
- Knowledge of marital status
- Reported known; reportedly misrepresented; disputed; unknown, separately for each participant Some assessments of responsibility depend on what each participant knew.
- Claim status
- Alleged; admitted; corroborated in specified respects; contested; institutionally determined; unresolved Keeps the evidential standing of a report separate from its substantive classification.
- Framework-relative classification
- Meets specified definition; does not meet specified definition; indeterminate; framework inapplicable Supports different conclusions under different definitions without collapsing them into one verdict.
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Also registered as vr.tr.adultery
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 17 findings · 27 questions.
Definitions and sexual boundaries Represent what a particular framework means by adultery and which conduct it includes.
The missing registry definition must not be replaced with an unattributed universal rule.
Definition holders
Locate definitions within the authorities, communities, or research practices that use them.
Attributed adultery definition
Record each candidate definition with its holder, source, scope, and applicable period; these remain research targets until verified.
- How does this framework define adultery, and whose marriage must be involved? definition
- Which source establishes this definition, and for which community, jurisdiction, or study is it applicable? provenance
Qualifying conduct
Resolve the sexual-act threshold without assuming that every form of infidelity meets it.
Sexual-act threshold
Distinguish conduct explicitly included by a definition from emotional, digital, attempted, or other conduct whose inclusion requires support.
- What conduct is sufficient to count as adultery under this definition? definition
- How does the framework distinguish qualifying acts from emotional affairs, sexual messaging, attempts, or fantasies? boundary
Marital relations and timing Establish the marital relationships relevant to the reported act at the time it occurred.
Adultery classification requires a marital reference point and cannot be inferred from current relationship labels.
Relevant marriages
Represent participants, spouses, and framework-specific recognition of their relationships.
Marital reference point
Identify the marital relationship against which the conduct is assessed, allowing disputed recognition and multiple spouses.
- Which participant was married to whom, and does the selected framework recognize that marriage? boundary
- What evidence supports the relevant marital relationship without relying solely on an accuser's description? provenance
Relationship transitions
Position the act relative to marriage, separation, dissolution, and disputed transitions.
Act-time marital status
Preserve uncertainty about dates and distinguish separation from whatever event the framework recognizes as ending marital relevance.
- What is the supported time interval for the act relative to the relevant marital transitions? measurement
- How does this framework treat separation, pending dissolution, or a disputed marriage at that time? boundary
Agreement, agency, and knowledge Separate marital expectations, voluntary participation, and knowledge of marital status.
A marital connection alone does not establish an agreement breach or equal responsibility among participants.
Marital exclusivity
Describe relevant relationship agreements and their relationship to external definitions.
Permission and agreement breach
Record whether the conduct breached an applicable relationship agreement separately from whether a framework calls it adultery.
- What exclusivity agreement or permission reportedly applied to this conduct at the time? provenance
- Does permission alter adultery classification in this framework, or only the assessment of agreement breach? boundary
Participant agency
Assess voluntariness and knowledge individually rather than attributing a shared intention.
Individual participation and awareness
Keep coercion, capacity, deception about marital status, and voluntary conduct distinct in each participant's account.
- What supports or disputes voluntary participation and awareness of the relevant marriage for each person? provenance
- How does the framework distinguish act classification from responsibility when coercion, incapacity, or deception is reported? boundary
Allegations, evidence, and classification Connect adultery claims to supported facts and explicit decision criteria.
Accusations about intimate conduct require careful separation of reported events, interpretations, and determinations.
Claim provenance
Track who asserts what and which parts of the claim the available material supports.
Support for adultery allegations
Distinguish direct accounts, admissions, indirect indications, and repeated reports without assuming that any category settles the claim.
- Who reported the conduct, on what basis, and which elements remain inferred rather than observed? provenance
- Which marital, sexual-conduct, timing, and agency elements are supported, contradicted, or still unknown? measurement
Framework-relative decisions
Produce bounded classifications and preserve disagreement between frameworks.
Classification with unresolved elements
Record the conclusion, definition applied, decision standard, and missing elements rather than converting uncertainty into a categorical allegation.
- Under the stated decision standard, do the supported facts meet every required element of the selected definition? measurement
- What additional information could change the classification, and should the present result remain indeterminate? action
Responses, disclosure, and consequences Connect a bounded classification to authorized handling and documented consequences.
An adultery label does not itself authorize disclosure, punishment, or assumptions about harm.
Contextual consequences
Distinguish reported relationship effects from consequences asserted by institutions or normative frameworks.
Consequence attribution
Record actual, anticipated, and prescribed consequences separately, with their evidential or authoritative basis.
- Which consequences are reported to have occurred, and which are predictions or prescriptions associated with an adultery classification? provenance
- Which consequences require a separate legal, religious, or relationship process before any action is justified? action
Handling intimate allegations
Limit recording and disclosure to the authorized task while preserving the status of disputed claims.
Authorized use of adultery records
Determine who may receive the assessment and what minimum information is needed, including any reported risk associated with disclosure.
- What authority and task purpose justify recording or sharing this adultery allegation or assessment? action
- How should disclosure preserve uncertainty and account for any reported risk of retaliation or exposure of intimate information? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- This describes the general marital-sexual sense, not a particular jurisdiction's legal definition.
- Single and double adultery are traditional distinctions rather than a universal contemporary classification.
- Current legal status, qualifying conduct and evidence requirements require jurisdiction-specific verification; no sources were consulted.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of adultery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Single adultery: only one participant is married
- Double adultery: both participants are married to other people
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of adultery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- The Ten Commandments prohibit adultery in Jewish and Christian scriptural traditions.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of adultery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Classifying conduct in religious ethics and teachings about marriage
- Describing a breach of marital sexual exclusivity
- Classifying conduct under legal systems that attach consequences to extramarital intercourse
- Studying marital relationships and sexual behaviour
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of adultery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Treating a culturally specific definition as universal
- Conflating sexual intercourse with emotional or online infidelity
- Assuming adultery necessarily entails deception or lack of a spouse's consent
- Stigma, retaliation or violence arising from allegations
- Unequal treatment based on sex, gender or marital status
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of adultery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Legal systems differ in whether adultery carries criminal consequences, civil consequences or no distinct legal consequence.
- Religious and customary traditions differ over qualifying acts, marital status and evidentiary requirements.
- Some historical definitions treated a married woman's extramarital intercourse differently from a married man's.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of adultery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Infidelity - Infidelity concerns breaches of relationship expectations and can include unmarried relationships or nonsexual conduct; adultery specifically depends on marriage.
- Fornication - In traditions distinguishing these categories, fornication concerns intercourse between unmarried people, whereas adultery involves a married participant.
- Consensual non-monogamy - Consensual non-monogamy depends on partners' agreement; some definitions of adultery classify extramarital intercourse regardless of that agreement.
- Bigamy - Bigamy concerns entering another marriage while already married; adultery does not require another marriage.
- Emotional affair - An emotional affair involves intimacy understood to violate relationship expectations without necessarily involving sexual intercourse.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of adultery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Which reference works and primary sources should anchor the registry's default definition while preserving legal, religious, interpersonal, and research differences?
- How do selected frameworks treat sexual conduct beyond intercourse, digital activity, and nonphysical affairs?
- How do selected frameworks recognize marriages, multiple spouses, separation, and disputed dissolution when classifying an act?
- How do selected frameworks distinguish spousal permission, voluntary participation, and ignorance of marital status in classification and responsibility?
- Which operational definitions and evidence standards are used in research, and how can their results be compared without treating self-reports as verified acts?