Indecent exposure is the deliberate public exposure by a person of a portion of their body in a manner contrary to local standards of appropriate behavior. Laws and social attitudes regarding indecent exposure vary significantly in different countries. It ranges from outright prohibition of the exposure of any body parts other than the hands or face to prohibition of exposure of certain body parts, such as the genital area, buttocks or breasts.
In England and Wales, the sus law was a stop and search law that permitted a police officer to stop, search and potentially arrest people on suspicion of them being in breach of section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824. According to a 2018 study in the British Journal of Criminology, stop and search had a marginal impact on crime in the UK.
Stass Paraskos was an artist from Cyprus, although much of his life was spent teaching and working in England.
The Obscene Publications Act 1857, also known as Lord Campbell's Act or Campbell's Act, was a piece of legislation in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland dealing with obscenity. For the first time, it made the sale of obscene material a statutory offence, giving the courts power to seize and destroy offending material. The Act superseded a 1787 Royal Proclamation by George III titled Proclamation for the Discouragement of Vice. The proclamation commanded the prosecution of those guilty of "excessive drinking, blasphemy, profane swearing and cursing, lewdness, profanation of the Lord's Day, and other dissolute, immoral, or disorderly practices". Prior to this Act, the "exposure for sale" of "obscene books and prints" had been made illegal by the Vagrancy Act 1824. but the publication of obscene material was a common law misdemeanour. The effective prosecution of authors and publishers was difficult even in cases where the material was clearly intended as pornography.
The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament, which significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. Before the passage of the Act, the law on publishing obscene materials was governed by the common-law case of R v Hicklin, which had no exceptions for artistic merit or the public good. During the 1950s, the Society of Authors formed a committee to recommend reform of the existing law, submitting a draft bill to the Home Office in February 1955. After several failed attempts to push a bill through Parliament, a committee wrote a viable bill, which was introduced to Parliament by Roy Jenkins and given royal assent on 29 July 1959, coming into force on 29 August 1959 as the Obscene Publications Act 1959. With the committee consisting of both censors and reformers, the actual reform of the law was limited, with several extensions of police powers included in the final version.
Events from the year 1966 in art.
The Metropolitan Police Act 1839 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act enlarged the district of, and gave greatly increased powers to the Metropolitan Police established by the Metropolitan Police Act 1829. It is one of the Metropolitan Police Acts 1829 to 1895.
Clothing laws vary considerably around the world. In most countries, there are no laws which prescribe what clothing is required to be worn. However, the community standards of clothing are set indirectly by way of prosecution of those who wear something that is not socially approved. Those people who wear insufficient clothing can be prosecuted in many countries under various offences termed indecent exposure, public indecency, nudity or other descriptions. Generally, these offences do not themselves define what is and what is not acceptable clothing to constitute the offence, and leave it to a judge to determine in each case.
The Parsonages (Amendment) Act 1838 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, signed into law on 4 July 1838. It amended the Parsonages Act 1838, passed that May, by correcting a verbal omission in section 7.
The Fires Prevention Act 1838 or the Fires Prevention (Metropolis) Act 1838 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It amended the provisions of the Fires Prevention Act 1785, which related to manufactories of tar, pitch and turpentine, by enacting that the penalty of £100 inflicted to the owners or occupiers of such buildings by that Act would only be applied when the building was within 75 feet of another building. If the adjacent building was occupied by the same tenant, and the whole premises were more than 75 feet from any other building, the penalty would not apply. It also established that no person would be liable for any penalties under that Act until January 1839, with proprietors or occupiers of such buildings remaining exempt until August 1840.
The Grand Jury (Ireland) Act 1838 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, signed into law on 27 July 1838. It established that bills of indictment laid before grand juries should be endorsed with the names of the witnesses, and empowered the juries to administer oaths or affirmations to the witnesses, which were to be taken under the normal penalties of perjury for falsehood.
The Quakers and Moravians Act 1838 was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom, signed into law on 10 August 1838. Prior to this Act, Quakers and Moravians had been able to give an affirmation in lieu of an oath where one was required; for example, when giving evidence in court. This Act extended that privilege to those who were previously members of these groups and had seceded from them, retaining the conscientious objection to oaths. Any person choosing to make an affirmation under this Act was required to give a declaration to that extent, and would remain subject to the normal penalties of perjury for falsehood.
The Indecent Displays (Control) Act is an Act of Parliament covering Scotland, England and Wales but not Northern Ireland. It is concerned with preventing the display of “indecent” material to the unsuspecting public. As with the Protection of Children Act, the Act does not define indecency, although it does give some directions as to how a display can be considered indecent. It establishes that “If any indecent matter is publicly displayed the person making the display and any person causing or permitting the display to be made shall be guilty of an offence”, making exceptions for the following:
Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, vagrancy was historically a crime punishable with forced labor, military service, imprisonment, or confinement to dedicated labor houses.
The Vagrancy Act 1824 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that makes it an offence to sleep rough or beg in England and Wales. The legislation was passed in Georgian England to combat the increasing number of people forced to live on the streets due to the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars and the social effects of the Industrial Revolution. Critics of the law included politician and abolitionist, William Wilberforce, who condemned the Act for making it a catch-all offence for vagrancy with no consideration of the circumstances as to why an individual might be homeless.
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin obscēnus, obscaenus, "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral repugnance and outrage in expressions such as "obscene profits" and "the obscenity of war". As a legal term, it usually refers to descriptions and depictions of people engaged in sexual and excretory activity.
The first signs of the modern distinction between criminal and civil proceedings were during the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The earliest criminal trials had very little, if any, settled law to apply. However, the civil delictual law was highly developed and consistent in its operation.
The Stass Paraskos obscenity trial was a notorious court case held in the northern English city of Leeds in 1966 involving an exhibition of paintings by the Cyprus-born British artist Stass Paraskos.
The Tetley is a contemporary art gallery in Leeds, England, located in the art deco headquarters of the former Tetley's Brewery. The gallery was opened on Friday 28 November 2013.
The Vagrancy Act 1898 was a piece of legislation in England and Wales that criminalised men who lived off the earnings of prostitution (pimping) and who solicited in public places. The bill was generally viewed as successful in its impact, leading to the similar Immoral Traffic (Scotland) Act.
