CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Public urination

urinating in a public place other than a toilet or urinal

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ2109739 ↗
Source-derived summary

Public urination refers to urinating in a public space without using designated facilities such as toilets or urinals. This includes urinating against trees, lamp posts, house walls, doorways, or gardens. In modern times, public urination is increasingly frowned upon and is penalized in many countries.

Treatment

Austria

In Austria, public urination is penalized as an indecency offense. In Vienna, a fine of up to 700 euros can be imposed.

France

In Paris, a fine of 68 euros was introduced in 2017. A total of 5,381 men and a few women were fined.

Germany

Public urination is considered an administrative offense under § 118 of the Ordnungswidrigkeitengesetz, classified as a "public nuisance": "Whoever commits a grossly improper act that is likely to harass or endanger the public and disturb public order." The amount of the fine depends on the penalty catalogues of local authorities.

Some municipalities increase fines for specific occasions, such as Carnival, Oktoberfest, or other public celebrations.

In some cases, public urination can be classified as public indecency, which is a criminal offense under § 183a of the German Criminal Code: Whoever publicly engages in sexual acts and thereby intentionally or knowingly causes offense shall be punished with imprisonment of up to one year or a fine, unless the act is punishable under § 183."

Minors under the age of 14 are not criminally responsible and can only be reprimanded.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Public urination” as urinating in a public place other than a toilet or urinal. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Public, urination and urinating.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2017—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Public, urination and urinating providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Public urination”, the useful work is to connect “urinating in a public place other than a toilet or urinal” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2109739. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2017.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Public urination”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Public urination primary sources, Public urination archive and Public research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Public urination”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Public urination” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.