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Forcible entry is "the unlawful taking of possession of real property by force or threats of force or unlawful entry into or onto another's property, especially when accompanied by force". The term is also sometimes used for entry by military, police, or emergency personnel, also called breaching. For the fire service, forcible entry is defined by the International Fire Service Training Association ( IFSTA) as:
Breaching doorways can be differentiated as "through the lock" or "through the door" depending on the techniques used.
Forcible entry is "the unlawful taking of possession of real property by force or threats of force or unlawful entry into or onto another's property, especially when accompanied by force". The term is also sometimes used for entry by military, police, or emergency personnel, also called breaching. For the fire service, forcible entry is defined by the International Fire Service Training Association ( IFSTA) as:
Breaching doorways can be differentiated as "through the lock" or "through the door" depending on the techniques used.
England and Wales
Forcible entry was acommon law offence
Common law offences are crimes under English criminal law, the related criminal law of some Commonwealth countries, and under some U.S. State laws. They are offences under the common law, developed entirely by the law courts, having no specific ...
in England and Wales
England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is ...
, but was abolished, along with forcible detainer, by the Criminal Law Act 1977. It was replaced with a new offence of "using violence to secure entry" under section 6 of that Act.
Formerly the Forcible Entry Act 1381
The Forcible Entry Act 1381 (5 Ric 2 St 1 c 7) was an Act of the Parliament of the Kingdom of England. It created a statutory offence of forcible entry which superseded the common law offence.
It is written in the Anglo-Norman language. The ori ...
, chapter 2 of 15 Ric 2 (1391), the Forcible Entry Act 1429, the Forcible Entry Act 1588 and the Forcible Entry Act 1623 (repealed).
Judge Donaldson considered the question of forcible entry in the UK, in ''Swales v. Cox'' (1981):
{{quote, ... he uses force if he applies any energy to the obstacle with a view to removing it. It would follow that, if my view is correct, where there is a door which is ajar but it is insufficiently ajar for someone to go through the opening without moving the door and energy is applied to that door to make it open further, force is being used. A fortiori
''Argumentum a fortiori'' (literally "argument from the stronger eason) (, ) is a form of argumentation that draws upon existing confidence in a proposition to argue in favor of a second proposition that is held to be implicit in, and even more c ...
force is used when the door is latched and you turn the handle from the outside and then ease the door open. Similarly, if someone opens any window or increases the opening in any window, or indeed dislodges the window by the application of any energy, he is using force to enter ...''Constitutional and administrative law'' (Pollard, Parpworth and Hughes), 2007, p.723
See also
For other crimes related to forcible entry, see: * Breaking and entering *Trespass
Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels
Trespass to chattels is a tort whereby the infringing party has intentionally (or, in Australia, negligently) interfered with ...
* Home invasion
A home invasion, also called a hot prowl burglary, is a sub-type of burglary (or in some jurisdictions, a separately defined crime) in which an offender unlawfully enters into a building residence while the occupants are inside. The overarching i ...
* Vandalism
Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property.
The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and #Defacement, defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owne ...
For methods used by military, police, and emergency services to enter buildings, see:
* Door breaching
Door breaching is a process used by military, police, or emergency services to force open closed or locked doors. A wide range of methods are available depending on the door's opening direction (inward or outward), construction materials, etc., ...
References