Unlawful Eviction and Harassment

Abstract

In 1990, nine per cent of a sample of those renting privately said that they had suffered from harassment by their landlord (Rauta & Pickering, 1992). Extrapolating this to the full size of the private rented sector would suggest 144,180 households who had been, or were being, harassed by their landlords (Jew, 1994). At the same time, however, just 104 people were prosecuted for unlawful eviction, and 77 for harassment (in a residential setting). Even allowing for the fact that the earlier survey effectively required the tenants to self-define harassment, there seems to be a massive under-prosecution rate in these cases (although this is true of most crimes). When one considers that the current principle underlying the criminal justice system in the UK is punitive, insisting that people are brought to book (in the most efficient and effective way, of course) for their crimes, then this begins to look even more suspicious. Just three people were given custodial sentences for unlawful eviction and harassment in 1990 (lest one thinks 1990 was a blip, just four were given custodial sentences in 1996). At a time when one Home Secretary after another (since 1991) has praised the penal motive under some sobriquet or other (‘prison works!’), it is time to reconsider why the penalties for unlawful eviction and harassment are so low.