Crime and Disorder Act 1998
Encyclopedia
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (c.37) is an Act
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...

 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

. The Act was published on 2 December 1997 and received Royal Assent in July 1998. Its key areas were the introduction of Anti-Social Behaviour Order
Anti-Social Behaviour Order
An Anti-Social Behaviour Order or ASBO is a civil order made against a person who has been shown, on the balance of evidence, to have engaged in anti-social behaviour. The orders, introduced in the United Kingdom by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998, were designed to correct minor incidents that...

s, Sex Offender Orders, Parenting Orders, granting local authorities more responsibilities with regards to strategies for reducing crime and disorder, and the introduction law specific to 'racially aggravated' offences. The Act also abolished rebuttable presumption
Rebuttable presumption
Both in common law and in civil law, a rebuttable presumption is an assumption made by a court, one that is taken to be true unless someone comes forward to contest it and prove otherwise. For example, a defendant in a criminal case is presumed innocent until proved guilty...

 that a child is doli incapax (the presumption that a person between ten and fourteen years of age is incapable of committing an offence) and formally abolished the death penalty for treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

 and piracy
Piracy Act 1837
The Piracy Act 1837 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It abolished the death penalty for most offences of piracy, but created a new offence often known as piracy with violence, which was punishable with death...

.

Anti-Social Behaviour Orders

The Act introduced a civil remedy called the Anti-Social Behaviour Order
Anti-Social Behaviour Order
An Anti-Social Behaviour Order or ASBO is a civil order made against a person who has been shown, on the balance of evidence, to have engaged in anti-social behaviour. The orders, introduced in the United Kingdom by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998, were designed to correct minor incidents that...

 (or ASBO). These orders are made against people who have engaged in anti-social behaviour
Anti-social behaviour
Anti-social behaviour is behaviour that lacks consideration for others and that may cause damage to society, whether intentionally or through negligence, as opposed to pro-social behaviour, behaviour that helps or benefits society...

 which in the United Kingdom is defined as 'conduct which caused or was likely to cause alarm, harassment
Harassment
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive. In the legal sense, it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing...

, or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as him or herself and where an ASBO is seen as necessary to protect relevant persons from further anti-social acts by the Defendant
Defendant
A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute...

'.

In England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, the orders are made by the Magistrates Courts and in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 by the Sheriff Courts. The provisions of the 1998 Act have since been modified by the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003
Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which almost entirely applies only to England and Wales. The Act, championed by then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, was passed in 2003...

.

Sex Offender Orders

 Kingdom of England  Wales

A Sex Offender Order is a similar concept to the Anti-Social Behaviour Order with the key difference being that it is specifically aimed at those people in society that are deemed "sex offender
Sex offender
A sex offender is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and by legal jurisdiction. Most jurisdictions compile their laws into sections such as traffic, assault, sexual, etc. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a...

s". The Act allows a police officer to approach the Magistrates Court and show that he has reasonable cause to believe that there is a need for an order to be made to protect the public from harm.

The conditions placed in such an order are those that are needed to prevent harm to the public. The order can be made for a minimum of 5 years unless the court upholds a complaint for the order to varied or discharged.

A breach of a Sex Offender Order renders the person to which the order applies, liable for imprisonment, on summary conviction, for up to six months or on conviction on indictment
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...

, up to five years and/or a fine.

The act only applies to those people that are defined as a 'sex offender' per Section 3(1) of the act or namely that the person has been convicted of an offence under Part I of the Sex Offenders Act 1997
Sex Offenders Act 1997
The Sex Offenders Act 1997 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which made various sex offenders subject to notification requirements, thereby implementing a sex offenders registry. It also gave courts in the UK extraterritorial jurisdiction...

, wasn't found guilty as a result of insanity, or has been cautioned for such an offence and at the time admitted it or has been convicted of a similar offence in any country outside of the United Kingdom and the offence would have been deemed a sexual offence under UK law.

Parenting Orders

 Kingdom of England  Wales

A Parenting Order is an order made against the parent(s) of a child which has been given an Anti-Social Behaviour Order, has been convicted of an offence, or the parent has been convicted of an offence under section 443 or 444 of the Education Act 1996. Its intention is that the parent must follow its requirements in order to prevent similar behaviour in their child as that which lead to the conviction/order being made against them. The order can be made for a period not exceeding 12 months. There are restrictions on orders being made that interfere with the parents' or child's religious beliefs or that interfere with the times which the parent normally attends work or an educational institution. If the parenting order is breached, the parent(s) could be liable to a fine, not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale
Standard scale
The standard scale is a system whereby financial criminal penalties in legislation have maximum levels set against a standard scale. Then, when inflation makes it necessary to increase the levels of the fines the legislators need to modify only the scale rather than each individual piece of...

..

Racially or religiously aggravated offences

 Kingdom of England  Wales

Sections 28 to 32 of the Act create separate offences for crimes that were aggravated by the victim's race or religion or presumed race or religion. They did not originally apply to crimes that are aggravated by the offender's perception of the victim's membership to a religion but it was amended by section 39 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 was formally introduced into the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 19 November 2001, two months after the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September. It received royal assent and came into force on 14 December 2001...

.

Racially or religiously aggravated assaults

Unlawful wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm

Section 29(1)(a) creates the distinct offence of racially or religiously aggravated wounding or infliction of bodily harm. A person is guilty of this offence if he commits an offence under section 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861
Offences Against The Person Act 1861
The Offences against the Person Act 1861 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to offences against the person from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act...

 (see grievous bodily harm
Grievous bodily harm
Grievous bodily harm is a term of art used in English criminal law which has become synonymous with the offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861....

) which is racially or religiously aggravated within the meaning of section 28.

Section 29(1)(b) creates the distinct offence of racially or religiously aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm. A person is guilty of this offence if he commits an offence under section 47 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861
Offences Against The Person Act 1861
The Offences against the Person Act 1861 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to offences against the person from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act...

 (see assault occasioning actual bodily harm) which is racially or religiously aggravated within the meaning of section 28.

A person guilty of either of these offences is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years, or to a fine, or to both, or on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both (s.29(2)).

Common assault

Section 29(1)(c) creates the distinct offence of racially or religiously aggravated common assault. A person is guilty of this offence if he commits a common assault
Common assault
Common assault was an offence under the common law of England, and has been held now to be a statutory offence in England and Wales. It is committed by a person who causes another person to apprehend the immediate use of unlawful violence by the defendant. It was thought to include battery...

 which is racially or religiously aggravated within the meaning of section 28.

This offence is triable either way
Either Way
"Either Way" is a song by The Twang, which was released as their second single under the B-Unique Records on May 28, 2007, and it is also the second single to be taken from the band's debut album Love It When I Feel Like This...

.

A person guilty of this offence is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine, or to both, or on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both (s.29(3)).

Racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage

Section 30(1) creates the distinct offence of racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage. A person is guilty of this offence if he commits an offence under section 1(1) of the Criminal Damage Act 1971 (see also criminal damage) which is racially or religiously aggravated within the meaning of section 28.

A person guilty of this offence is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years, or to a fine, or to both, or on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both (s.30(2)).

Racially or religiously aggravated public order offences

Fear or provocation of violence and intentional harassment, alarm or distress

Section 31(1)(a) creates the distinct offence of racially or religiously aggravated fear or provocation of violence. A person is guilty of this offence if he commits an offence under section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986
Public Order Act 1986
The Public Order Act 1986 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates a number of public order offences. They replace similar common law offences and parts of the Public Order Act 1936...

 (see fear or provocation of violence
Fear or Provocation of Violence
-The offence:The offence is created by section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986: A person is guilty of an offence if he - uses towards another person threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or distributes or displays to another person any writing, sign or other visible representation...

) which is racially or religiously aggravated within the meaning of section 28.

Section 31(1)(b) creates the distinct offence of racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress. A person is guilty of this offence if he commits an offence under section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986
Public Order Act 1986
The Public Order Act 1986 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates a number of public order offences. They replace similar common law offences and parts of the Public Order Act 1936...

 (see intentional harassment, alarm or distress
Intentional Harassment, Alarm or Distress
Intentional harassment, alarm or distress is a statutory offence in England and Wales. It is an aggravated form of the offence of harassment, alarm or distress under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.-The offence:...

) which is racially or religiously aggravated within the meaning of section 28.

A person guilty of either of these offences is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine, or to both, or on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both (s.31(4)).

Harassment, alarm or distress

Section 31(1)(c) creates the distinct offence of racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress. A person is guilty of this offence if he commits an offence under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986
Public Order Act 1986
The Public Order Act 1986 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates a number of public order offences. They replace similar common law offences and parts of the Public Order Act 1936...

 (see harassment, alarm or distress
Harassment, Alarm or Distress
Harassment, alarm or distress is a statutory offence in England and Wales. It is also a term of art used in sections 4A and 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 .-The offence:...

) which is racially or religiously aggravated within the meaning of section 28.

A person guilty of this offence is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale (s.29(3)).

Arrest

Sections 31(2) and (3) formerly provided a statutory power of arrest for offences under section 31(1). They were repealed by section 174 of, and Part 2 of Schedule 17 to, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
The Serious Organized Crime and Police Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom aimed primarily at creating the Serious Organised Crime Agency, it also significantly extended and simplified the powers of arrest of a constable and introduced restrictions on protests in the...

.

Racially or religiously aggravated harassment etc.

Harassment

A person is guilty of an offence under section 32(1)(a) if he commits an offence under section 2 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997
Protection from Harassment Act 1997
The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 is a piece of United Kingdom law which, among other things, criminalises and creates a right to protection from stalking and persistent bullying in the workplace.-Definition:...

 which is racially or religiously aggravated withtin the meaning of section 28.

A person guilty of this offence is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine, or to both, or on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both (s.32(3)).

Putting people in fear of violence

A person is guilty of an offence under section 32(1)(b) if he commits an offence under section 4 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997
Protection from Harassment Act 1997
The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 is a piece of United Kingdom law which, among other things, criminalises and creates a right to protection from stalking and persistent bullying in the workplace.-Definition:...

 which is racially or religiously aggravated withtin the meaning of section 28.

A person guilty of this offence is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years, or to a fine, or to both, or on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both (s.32(4)).

  Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...



Section 33 amended the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995
Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995
The Criminal Law Act 1995 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed to consolidate certain enactments creating offences and relating to the criminal law of Scotland.-Incest and related offences:...

 by inserting a new section 50A. This creates the offence of racially aggravated harassment.

Local authority responsibilities

 Kingdom of England  Wales

Each Local Authority in England and Wales was given the responsibility to formulate and implement a strategy to reduce crime and disorder in their area. The Act also requires the local authority to work with every police authority
Police authority
A police authority in the United Kingdom, is a body charged with securing efficient and effective policing of a police area served by a territorial police force or the area and/or activity policed by a special police force...

, probation authority, health authority
NHS Strategic Health Authority
NHS strategic health authorities are part of the structure of the National Health Service in England. Each SHA is responsible for enacting the directives and implementing fiscal policy as dictated by the Department of Health at a regional level. In turn each SHA area contains various NHS trusts...

, social landlords
Housing association
Housing associations in the United Kingdom are independent not-for-profit bodies that provide low-cost "social housing" for people in housing need. Any trading surplus is used to maintain existing homes and to help finance new ones...

, the voluntary sector, and local residents and businesses. Known as Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in England, and Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) in Wales, the Home Office may require any Partnership to supply details of their community safety arrangements.

Other provisions

Section 34 of the Act abolished the rebuttable presumption
Rebuttable presumption
Both in common law and in civil law, a rebuttable presumption is an assumption made by a court, one that is taken to be true unless someone comes forward to contest it and prove otherwise. For example, a defendant in a criminal case is presumed innocent until proved guilty...

 that a child (defined as a person under fourteen but over the age of ten) is incapable of committing an offence (doli incapax). Section 36 of the Act abolished the death penalty for all offences of treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

 and for the offence of piracy with violence (under the Piracy Act 1837
Piracy Act 1837
The Piracy Act 1837 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It abolished the death penalty for most offences of piracy, but created a new offence often known as piracy with violence, which was punishable with death...

), replacing it with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Further Reading

  • Card, R. and Ward, R. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Bristol: Jordans, 1998.
  • Padfield, N. A Guide to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. London: Butterworths, 1998.
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