Breach of the Peace
Pamela R. Ferguson
Abstract
What do the following behaviours have in common: shouting and swearing, painting graffiti, killing a fox by kicking it, glue-sniffing, cross-dressing in public, dangerous driving, discharging a fire-arm, engaging in a roof-top prison protest, throwing a lit firework in a bus, attempting to commit suicide, making threatening gestures, and kerb crawling? Incredibly, each of these behaviours has been successfully prosecuted in Scotland as the crime of ‘breach of the peace’. This book describes and critiques this commonly prosecuted crime. The author traces the development of the crime from the mi ... More
What do the following behaviours have in common: shouting and swearing, painting graffiti, killing a fox by kicking it, glue-sniffing, cross-dressing in public, dangerous driving, discharging a fire-arm, engaging in a roof-top prison protest, throwing a lit firework in a bus, attempting to commit suicide, making threatening gestures, and kerb crawling? Incredibly, each of these behaviours has been successfully prosecuted in Scotland as the crime of ‘breach of the peace’. This book describes and critiques this commonly prosecuted crime. The author traces the development of the crime from the mid-19th century to the present day, and also considers related statutory offences. The latter include those offences created by the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, and the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012. It is argued that breach of the peace remains an overly broad and ill-defined crime – despite the appeal court’s attempts at narrowing its definition.
Keywords:
Crime,
Criminal law,
Criminalisation,
Public order,
Scottish,
Harm principle,
Offensive behaviour
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781845861490 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: May 2015 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9781845861490.001.0001 |
