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

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: Dec 10, 2023
• 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/