A Little Respect: Swearing, Police and Criminal Justice Discourse

A Little Respect: Swearing, Police and Criminal Justice Discourse

Various Australian states and territories have offensive language crimes: laws that criminalise the use of offensive, indecent, obscene or insulting words, in or near a public place. One example is s 4A of the Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW), which makes it an offence to ‘use offensive language in or near, or within hearing from, a public place or a school’. The adjectives ‘offensive’, ‘indecent’, ‘obscene’, and so on, are not defined in legislation. Instead, broad definitions of these adjectives, many of which overlap, have been developed in case law (Methven 2017a: 81‐87).

Methven, Elise

2018

Journal Article

10.5204/ijcjsd.v7i3.428