Common scold

In the common law of crime in England and Wales, a common scold was a public nuisance offense targeting a troublesome or quarrelsome person who habitually chastised, argued with, and disturbed the peace among neighbors. The great majority of people charged and punished as common scolds were women, although men could in principle be prosecuted under the same offense. Punishments historically associated with the offense included public humiliation devices intended to shame the offender before the community. The offense illustrates how early English common law criminalized certain forms of disruptive speech and behavior as threats to public order rather than as harm to any specific victim. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/