If there was no need for clothing, would it make the sexual crime rate higher or lower?

I don’t think sex crimes have anything to do with clothing, @DrBill. So I’d say no difference.

I agree with @bkcunningham. It might be disconcerting for a while with everyone walking around naked. However, what would we do without clothes when it comes to making a fashion statement? And the incidence of purse snatching might increase.

If you don’t wear clothing you have to have a towel to sit on for hygiene reasons, @Sunny2. If you must, your towel would be your fashion statement.

I agree with @bkcunningham and @Sunny2. It is my understanding that most sex crimes are crimes of anger not crimes of lust.

No difference. Only 4% of rapists even remember what their victim was wearing at the time, so it’s really, really not that the victim was wearing sexy things.

“Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.
And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain.
Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment,
For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.
...And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind?
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”
K Gibran

I don’t think it would make any difference in the rate of sex crimes. Fashion statement could be from makeup including body paint, hair styles including body hair, jewelry, maybe footwear.

I think it would go down in the long run. Nudity wouldn’t be particularly exciting, and would just be a normal thing. As a result, I think people’s ideas about bodies and sex would focus on who they are and less on what they look like. I think this would lead to fewer perverts.

I’d certainly be more concerned about commuting via subway. I’m not sure whether the rate of sexual crimes would increase, but during peak hour all sorts of parts are going to get squashed up against each other.