Mischief or malicious mischief is the name for a criminal offenses that is defined differently in different legal jurisdictions. While the wrongful acts will often involve what is popularly described as vandalism, there can be a legal differentiation between vandalism and mischief. The etymology of the word comes from Old French ''meschief'', which means "misfortune", from ''meschever'', "to end badly".

Scotland

Malicious mischief is an offence against the common law of Scotland. It does not require actual damage to property for the offence to be committed; financial damage consequential to the act is sufficient, unlike vandalism which requires actual damage to property to form the offence, the latter being defined by section 52 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995.

United States

In United States criminal law, mischief is an offense against property that typically involves the intentional or reckless infliction of property damage, defacement,

alteration Alteration(s) may refer to: * Alteration (music), the use of a neighboring pitch in the chromatic scale in place of its diatonic neighbor. ** Alteration, in the mensural notation used by renaissance music, the lengthening of a breve, semibreve or ...

, or destruction of property. Common forms include vandalism, and graffiti. Governed by

state law State law refers to the law of a federated state, as distinguished from the law of the federation of which it is a part. It is used when the constituent components of a federation are themselves called states. Federations made up of provinces, cant ...

, criminal mischief is committed when a perpetrator, having no right to do so nor any reasonable ground to believe that he/she has such right, intentionally or recklessly damages property of another person, intentionally participates in the destruction of property of another person, or participates in the

reckless Reckless may refer to: Film and television Film * ''Reckless'' (1935 film), an American musical directed by Victor Fleming * ''Reckless'' (1951 film), a Spanish drama film directed by José Antonio Nieves Conde * '' The Reckless'', a 1965 Itali ...

damage or destruction of property of another person.

Canada

The country's Criminal Code makes mischief a hybrid offence, punishable by up to and including

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

if the mischief causes actual danger to human life. Public mischief is the term for the crime of

wasting police time Wasting police time is listed as a criminal offence in many Commonwealth countries. United Kingdom In England and Wales, one can be charged with the offence under Section 5(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1967 when one "causes any wasteful employ ...

References

External links

* Legal terminology Vandalism {{Crime-stub