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Ahmed v H.M Advocate, public harassment of women and girls and the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 section 38(1).

Sharp, Laura

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Abstract

The Working Group on Misogyny in Criminal Justice in Scotland recommended in March 2022 that there should be a Misogyny and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act which would inter alia create a new statutory offence of public misogynistic harassment. This article examines the decision of the High Court of Justiciary in Ahmed v H.M. Advocate [2020] HCJAC 37 to show that the offence of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner contained in s38(1) of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 is not designed to deal with lower-level misogynistic abuse and public harassment of women. It also highlights the difficulties faced by police and prosecutors in deciding whether the threshold of criminality has been crossed in cases where the accused’s behaviour is not overtly abusive but is alarming and disturbing to the complainer and may have been intended by the accused to be so.

Citation

SHARP, L. 2022. Ahmed v H.M Advocate, public harassment of women and girls and the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 section 38(1). Juridical Review [online], 4, pages 197-211. Available from: http://legalresearch.westlaw.co.uk/

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 7, 2022
Online Publication Date Dec 9, 2022
Publication Date Dec 9, 2022
Deposit Date Nov 10, 2022
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Juridical review
Print ISSN 0022-6785
Publisher Sweet and Maxwell
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Issue 4
Pages 197-211
Keywords Misogyny; Criminal justice; Scotland; Public harassment; Aggravating factors; Harassment; Offences; Offensive behaviour; Women
Public URL https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1805922
Publisher URL http://legalresearch.westlaw.co.uk/

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