Public Nuisance Crimes

Public Intoxication Laws and Penalties

Public intoxication, drunk in public, drunk and disorderly conduct—all refer to the same crime that's treated differently in different states.

Disorderly Conduct Laws and Penalties

Whenever people engage in conduct that is likely to cause a disturbance or lead to some sort of non-peaceful event, this behavior is often prosecuted as disorderly conduct, sometimes referred to as “breach of the peace.”

Disturbing the Peace

Disturbing the peace, also known as a breach of the peace, disorderly conduct, or by similar terms, occurs whenever someone acts in a way that disrupts the public order or disturbs the peace and tranquility of the community.

What is a vagrancy charge?

Historically, vagrancy laws made it a crime for a person to wander from place to place without visible means of support. Basically, these laws criminalized being homeless and jobless. States used vagrancy laws to arrest, prosecute, and harass homeless people and poor people who were suspected of criminal activity or who were considered undesirable.

Public Urination Laws and Penalties

Urinating in public is illegal in every state. Defendants may be charged under a law that specifically criminalizes the act, or the prosecutor may allege that the defendant presented a public nuisance or is guilty of disorderly conduct.

Obscenity Laws

Not many legal concepts reduce Supreme Court Justices to uttering, “I know it when I see it.” But that’s exactly what Justice Potter Stewart wrote about obscenity.

Illegal Dumping: Laws & Penalties

Illegal dumping has become an increasingly large problem throughout the United States. Offenders often dump late at night to avoid the cost and inconvenience of proper waste disposal.

Can the police question an intoxicated person whom they bring in to sober up?

Question: One of my buddies got picked up by the cops while we were out bar hopping. He was pretty loaded and they hauled him in for being drunk in public. While he was sobering up in the tank, the cops questioned him about whether he was on drugs and what drugs we had used that night. Can they do that?

If you were drunk at the time, can you be convicted?

Intoxication is not an excuse for criminal conduct, but it may deprive an intoxicated person of the mental capacity to form the intent required by law to be convicted of certain crimes. This is a very complex area of law and standards differ from state to state. This article gives a general summary of the law on intoxication as a defense to certain crimes.