Difference between ss. 14, 15 & 16 of Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act, 1994

NatWW · 04-04-2010 02:44PM #1

Hi all,

Could someone please explain the difference between ss. 14, 15 and 16 of the 1994 Act, namely Riot, Violent Disorder and Affray?

It seems to me that they are all quite the same as they all require the use or threat to use unlawful violence + conduct which would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at that place to fear for his or another person's safety.

And also:

Riot = 12 or more people involved
Violent disorder = 3 or more people involved
Affray = 2 or more people involved

Dunno, but it kinda looks the same to me here... Let's say we have 23 people fighting in a public place and causing on-lookers to fear for their safety, it seems to me that it could be affray, violent disorder and riot all together, no?

Some clarification would be greatly appreciated here, I'm definitely missing something.

Cheers,
Nat

Tom Young · 04-04-2010 03:46PM

Riot S14 CJ (Public Order) 1994

12 or more persons who are present together at any place use or threaten to use unlawful violence for a common purpose, and the conduct of those persons, taken together, is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at that place to fear for his or another person's safety, then, each of the persons using unlawful violence for the common purpose shall be guilty of the offence of riot.

Violent Disorder S15 CJ (Public Order) 1994

Three or more persons who are present together at any place use or threaten to use unlawful violence, and the conduct of those persons, taken together, is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at that place to fear for his or another person's safety.

Affray S16 CJ (Public Order) 1994

Two or more persons at any place use or threaten to use violence towards each other, and the violence so used or threatened by one of those persons is unlawful, and the conduct of those persons taken together is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at that place to fear for his or another person's safety.

You are right in that there is a numbers game at play, in addition to slightly differing definitions.

NatWW · 04-04-2010 04:01PM

It's the 'violence towards each other' element that I was missing here...

Violent disorder does not involve violence towards each other, only affray does and that's it

Thanks Tom, finally got it. It was quite simple really...

Difference between ss. 14, 15 & 16 of Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act, 1994

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