Speech or conduct that urges, encourages or provokes another person or group to commit an act of violence, generally prosecuted as a distinct offense from the violent act itself because it targets the inciter's own conduct in encouraging harm rather than requiring the inciter to have personally carried it out. In the United States, incitement is narrowly defined by the Supreme Court's 1969 decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio as speech directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action and likely to actually produce such action, a high bar intended to protect broad political speech and advocacy short of a direct, immediate call to violence; other jurisdictions apply a broader standard.
Facts
Elements of OffenseIn the United States, advocacy of force or law violation may be proscribed only where directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and likely to do so 1 Classification
Offense GradeMinor or Summary Offense 1 Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
Sources
1. Brandenburg v. Ohio (Wikipedia)
Brandenburg testQuote, Brandenburg test
the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.
View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.