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The Dungeon ("Did You Know...?")
Ancient Ways to Go to Jail
"Being Evil"
Back in 1861, the Court of Common Pleas in England confirmed that the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University had the power to imprison people for crimes the university had created. A woman unsuccessfully sued the Vice-Chancellor for false imprisonment after being jailed by him for being "suspected of being evil", after she was found by patrolling university proctors (security guards) in a carriage in the city, with other "common women" and "in the company of scholars".
(With thanks to the erudite David Mitchell)
Wrecking
The old and ugly practice of "wrecking", in which shore-bound pirates on the English coast would use false lights at night to lure unwary navigators onto the rocks, and then steal their cargoes, is still outlawed in our Criminal Code (s. 78.1(3)), and is punishable by life imprisonment.
Prize Fighting
It's still a criminal offence (s. 83) to participate in a "prize fight". Participation can include encouragement, promotion or even reporting. A prize fight is any planned fight between two people with hands or fists, but without proper boxing gloves or without proper authority under amateur boxing laws.
Rustling Cattle and Scavenging Logs
Akin to the old offence of cattle rustling (still in the Criminal Code, at section 338), there is an offence which could be called "log rustling". Section 339 lays down a maximum five years in prison for anyone who steals lumber found adrift on the water or that has washed up on the shore.
Loan Sharking
Shylocks beware! The ancient profession of loan sharking is a criminal offence, defined by section 347 as charging an effective annual interest rate of over 60 per cent on credit. That may seem like a lot, but people sometimes get themselves in trouble by charging a much smaller percentage for a loan over a short time period. Just one per cent interest on a loan that is repaid within a few days can work out to over 60 per cent a year.
Buggery
S. 159 of the Criminal Code starts out by saying that anal intercourse is a crime that could still get you up to ten years in prison. It then goes on, though, to narrow the offence down significantly: buggery is permitted between husband and wife, or between any two people at least 18 years old, so long as both parties consent, and the act is done in private. "In private" means both in a non-public place, and with only two people present. So a "threesome" can become a crime if any two participants engage in anal intercourse.
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FIRST LINE CRIMINAL LAW INFORMATION