Scandal, in a general sense, is any reprehensible word or deed that offends public conscience, harms the feelings of honest persons, and can cause spiritual damage or ruin to neighbors.

The term is used in specific criminal contexts:

1. Alarms and Scandals: The essence of this crime is the disturbance of public tranquility and peace. Acts punished include discharging explosives in a town or public place calculated to cause alarm or danger, instigating or taking part in disorderly meetings offensive to another or prejudicial to public tranquility, disturbing public peace while wandering at night or engaged in nocturnal amusements, and causing any disturbance or scandal in public places while intoxicated or otherwise, provided the act does not fall under Article 153 (tumults). An outcry or display of emblems/placards constitutes inciting to rebellion or sedition if done with the forethought to induce those crimes; otherwise, it may be simple public disorder.
2. Grave Scandal: This consists of acts offensive to decency and good customs, which, being committed publicly, cause public scandal to accidental witnesses. The elements are: the offender performs an act or acts; the acts are highly scandalous as offending against decency or good customs; the highly scandalous conduct does not expressly fall under any other article of the Code; and the acts are committed in a public place or within public knowledge or view. Decency means propriety of conduct and observance of modesty and good taste, while customs mean established usage and social conventions. The essence is publicity and the potential for the acts to cause public scandal. If the act falls under another article (e.g., acts of lasciviousness), Art. 200 is not applicable. If the offense lacks publicity, it does not produce grave scandal.
3. Scandalous Circumstances (in Concubinage): When a married man keeps a mistress elsewhere (outside the conjugal dwelling), sexual intercourse must occur under scandalous circumstances for the crime of concubinage to be committed. Scandal in this context arises when the man and his mistress appear together in public or perform acts in public view that cause criticism and general protest among neighbors. The imprudence and wantonness must offend the modesty and sense of morality and decency of people in the neighborhood. Weekly meetings for sexual relations in hotels/motels may be considered scandalous circumstances, though mere weekly meetings may not automatically constitute such circumstances unless they involve cohabitation or keeping the mistress in the conjugal dwelling. The people in the vicinity are the best witnesses to prove scandalous circumstances. If only spies observed the conduct and no one in the vicinity did, there is no evidence of scandalous circumstances.