The factors associated with the policing of offensive language

A qualitative study of three Sydney Local Area Commands

Datos Bibliográficos

ID15310285
AutoresHannah Trollip (UNSW Sydney), Luke Mcnamara (0000-0002-8479-6469, UNSW Sydney), Helen Gibbon (UNSW Sydney, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen31
Número4
Páginas493-512
Fecha de publicación2019-07-31
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCurrent Issues in Criminal Justice (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1034-5329 • E-ISSN: 2206-9542
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10345329.2019.1639591
OpenAlexW2965909966
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas10

This article makes an original contribution to scholarship and the ongoing debate about the merits (or otherwise) of retaining the crime of offensive language in New South Wales – and equivalent offences around Australia. We present and discuss the findings of a qualitative study of how police utilised s 4A of the Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW) in three Sydney Local Area Commands during 2016. We identify the factors most commonly associated with a police decision to characterise a person’s language as criminally offensive and take action, either by laying a criminal charge or issuing a penalty notice. Offensive language laws are typically justified as a necessary device for ensuring that members of the community are protected from being caused ‘offence’ as a result of the use of inappropriate language in public places. However, our research demonstrates that offensive language laws more commonly operate as a police power – to control persons exhibiting ‘undesirable’ or ‘nuisance’ behaviour in public places and to exercise power over persons who demonstrate a lack of deference to the authority of the police

Criminology · Deference · Notice · Offensive · Operations research · Political science · Power (physics · Project commissioning · Public relations · Publishing · Scholarship · Sociology · Engineering · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · Law · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism