diff --git a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/View/JsonViewTest.php b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/View/JsonViewTest.php
index 5a661c78b..4e4eb2574 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/View/JsonViewTest.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/View/JsonViewTest.php
@@ -28,6 +28,11 @@ App::uses('JsonView', 'View');
  */
 class JsonViewTest extends CakeTestCase {
 
+/**
+ * setUp method
+ *
+ * @return void
+ **/
 	public function setUp() {
 		parent::setUp();
 		Configure::write('debug', 0);
@@ -156,6 +161,20 @@ class JsonViewTest extends CakeTestCase {
 		);
 	}
 
+/**
+ * Custom error handler for use while testing methods that use json_encode
+ * @param int $errno
+ * @param string $errstr
+ * @param string $errfile
+ * @param int $errline
+ * @param array $errcontext
+ * @return void
+ * @throws CakeException
+ **/
+	public function jsonEncodeErrorHandler($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline, $errcontext) {
+		throw new CakeException($errstr, 0, $errno, $errfile, $errline);
+	}
+
 /**
  * Test render with a valid string in _serialize.
  *
@@ -306,4 +325,56 @@ class JsonViewTest extends CakeTestCase {
 		$this->assertSame($expected, $output);
 		$this->assertSame('application/javascript', $Response->type());
 	}
+
+/**
+ * JsonViewTest::testRenderInvalidJSON()
+ *
+ * @return void
+ */
+	public function testRenderInvalidJSON() {
+		$Request = new CakeRequest();
+		$Response = new CakeResponse();
+		$Controller = new Controller($Request, $Response);
+
+		// non utf-8 stuff
+		$data = array('data' => array('foo' => 'bar' . chr('0x97')));
+
+		$Controller->set($data);
+		$Controller->set('_serialize', 'data');
+		$View = new JsonView($Controller);
+
+		// Use a custom error handler
+		set_error_handler(array($this, 'jsonEncodeErrorHandler'));
+
+		try {
+			$View->render();
+			restore_error_handler();
+			$this->fail('Failed asserting that exception of type "CakeException" is thrown.');
+		} catch (CakeException $e) {
+			restore_error_handler();
+			$this->assertRegExp('/UTF-8/', $e->getMessage());
+			return;
+		}
+	}
+
+/**
+ * JsonViewTest::testRenderJSONBoolFalse()
+ *
+ * @return void
+ */
+	public function testRenderJSONBoolFalse() {
+		$Request = new CakeRequest();
+		$Response = new CakeResponse();
+		$Controller = new Controller($Request, $Response);
+
+		// encoding a false, ensure this doesn't trigger exception
+		$data = false;
+
+		$Controller->set($data);
+		$Controller->set('_serialize', 'data');
+		$View = new JsonView($Controller);
+		$output = $View->render();
+		$this->assertSame('null', $output);
+	}
+
 }
diff --git a/lib/Cake/View/JsonView.php b/lib/Cake/View/JsonView.php
index 2f184139d..7953803de 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/View/JsonView.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/View/JsonView.php
@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@ class JsonView extends View {
  * Serialize view vars
  *
  * @param array $serialize The viewVars that need to be serialized
+ * @throws CakeException
  * @return string The serialized data
  */
 	protected function _serialize($serialize) {
@@ -145,10 +146,17 @@ class JsonView extends View {
 		}
 
 		if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.4.0', '>=') && Configure::read('debug')) {
-			return json_encode($data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
+			$json = json_encode($data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
+		} else {
+			$json = json_encode($data);
 		}
 
-		return json_encode($data);
+		if (function_exists('json_last_error') && json_last_error() !== JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
+			throw new CakeException(json_last_error_msg());
+		} elseif ($json === false) {
+			throw new CakeException('Failed to parse JSON');
+		}
+		return $json;
 	}
 
 }
diff --git a/lib/Cake/basics.php b/lib/Cake/basics.php
index 8dc20a015..9ca5a93db 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/basics.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/basics.php
@@ -1061,3 +1061,25 @@ if (!function_exists('convertSlash')) {
 	}
 
 }
+
+if (!function_exists('json_last_error_msg')) {
+
+/**
+ * Provides the fallback implementation of json_last_error_msg() available in PHP 5.5 and above.
+ *
+ * @return string Error message.
+ */
+	function json_last_error_msg() {
+		static $errors = array(
+			JSON_ERROR_NONE => '',
+			JSON_ERROR_DEPTH => 'Maximum stack depth exceeded',
+			JSON_ERROR_STATE_MISMATCH => 'Invalid or malformed JSON',
+			JSON_ERROR_CTRL_CHAR => 'Control character error, possibly incorrectly encoded',
+			JSON_ERROR_SYNTAX => 'Syntax error',
+			JSON_ERROR_UTF8 => 'Malformed UTF-8 characters, possibly incorrectly encoded'
+		);
+		$error = json_last_error();
+		return array_key_exists($error, $errors) ? $errors[$error] : "Unknown error ({$error})";
+	}
+
+}