DISORDERLY HOUSE

disorderly house.  1.  A  dwelling where  people  carry  on  activities that  are  a  nuisance  to  the

neighborhood. [Cases: Disorderly House    1. C.J.S. Disorderly Houses § 2.] 2. A dwelling where

people conduct criminal or immoral activities. • Examples are brothels and drug houses. — Also

termed  (more  narrowly)  bawdy  house;  house  of  prostitution;  house  of  ill  fame;  lewd  house;

assignation house; house of assignation.

“The keeping of one type of disorderly house — the bawdy house — is punished because it

violates the social interest in maintaining proper standards of morality and decency…. As included

here  a  house  may  be  disorderly  for  other  reasons.  Any  house  in  which  disorderly  persons  are

permitted to congregate, and to disturb the tranquillity of the neighborhood by fighting, quarreling,

swearing  or  any  other  type  of  disorder,  is  a  disorderly  house;  and  the  keeping  thereof  is  a

misdemeanor at common law.” Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 487 (3d ed. [Blacks Law 8th]