A Critical Evaluation of the Historical and Contemporary Justifications for Criminalising Begging

Baker, Dennis J.

doi:10.1350/jcla.2009.73.3.570

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In the United States, the Supreme Court has not issued a clear and standard definition of “aggressive panhandling.” As a consequence, even though the Constitution protects begging as a form of speech, some states and cities have been able to declare “aggressive begging” an illegal activity (Szanto 2010, 524). Likewise, in the United Kingdom, the government has stressed the importance of reducing the harmfulness and offensiveness of antisocial behavior (Baker 2009, 212; Whiteford 2013). Begging has recently been regulated by some enforcement interventions such as the “Anti-social Behavior Orders” introduced in 1998 by the Crime and Disorder Act.…”

Section: Normative Challenges To Dgssmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Beneficence, Street Begging, and Diverted Giving Schemes

Pérez-Muñoz

2018

Political Research Quarterly

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In recent years, some cities and localities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere have adopted or intend to adopt one potential solution to the difficulties inherent in addressing the needs of street beggars: diverted giving schemes (DGSs). A DGS is an institutional response designed to motivate people to donate money in charity boxes or donation meters rather than directly to street beggars. Their advocates believe that DGSs are both more efficient and more ethically permissible than direct giving to individual beggars. This article asks whether and how a DGS can be justified. It offers a normative evaluation of the main idea behind this policy, namely, that anonymous and spontaneous donations to charity boxes are in themselves an adequate policy instrument to address the problem of street begging. Ultimately, the paper argues against this idea and develops the case that DGSs can potentially compromise our ability to act on our moral duties toward truly needy beggars. Moreover, it explains why and under which circumstances this kind of program can potentially and seriously interfere with the freedom and opportunities of individuals in the begging population.

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Section: Normative Challenges To Dgssmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 15. For an account of antibegging policies in the United States and the United Kingdom, see, respectively, Szanto (2010) and Baker (2009). …”

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confidence: 99%

Beneficence, Street Begging, and Diverted Giving Schemes

Pérez-Muñoz

2018

Political Research Quarterly

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“…Laws that regulate the economic conduct of the most destitute members of society have a long history involving shifting patterns of legal justification (for a summary that traces this history in the British and then the US contexts, see Baker, 2009). As recent court cases, legal commentators and social critics make clear, the control of begging in US cities has (particularly in the last 30 years) become an issue of legal and public debate between those who would regulate it in the name of 'public order' (for two influential examples see Ellickson, 1996;Wilson & Kelling, 1982) and those who defend begging as a right (e.g.…”

Section: Outline Of a Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

The political chaff from the economic grain? Rhetorical accounts of the embeddedness of begging

Cockburn¹

2013

Economy and Society

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The idea that economic activities may be described and studied as 'embedded' in social relations has been central to much debate in recent economic sociology. The present paper analyses legal struggles over the status of begging in US law and argues that conflicting rhetorical accounts of begging illustrate social actors' efforts to articulate the interconnectedness of their social world, including the ways in which economic practices are embedded in their social and institutional contexts. The paper thus suggests that embeddedness is not just something identified by social researchers, but also a problem faced by social actors as they try to understand the socio-economic order in which they live and act. By arguing for or against the claim that begging is simultaneously an economic action and the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, the voices in this debate attempted to affect the future of this marginal economic activity.

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“…Many scholars (Baker ; Blower et al ; Doherty ; Von Mahs ; Wacquant , ) have called upon the example of homelessness, begging, and other related public behaviour, to highlight the growing implementation of punitive and exclusionary laws and policing practices in a number of developed cities and developing countries. Some recent contributions, however, do not confirm the existence of a uniform ‘punitive turn’ (O'Sullivan ), demonstrating that a welfare approach (Maeseele et al ) and inclusive patterns rather than criminalization and exclusionary practices are dominant, although variable, within the majority of EU Member States (Benjaminsen et al ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Vagrancy Heterotopias to the Proximity of Homelessness. A Historical Ethnography of the State's Moral Dilemmas in the Management of Unease

Trovão¹

2016

J Historical Sociology

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This paper discusses the tension between the criminal justice system and the welfare state as expressed through practices focused on populations who are perceived as being ‘at risk’ and constituting ‘a danger’ to society, therefore challenging the national governance of social precariousness and public (in)security. The analysis of a paradigmatic institution of Portuguese Fascism has brought to light how the contradictions between the long‐term subjectivation of vagrancy processes and the uses of anti‐vagrancy policies promoted by the dictatorial state to arrest and punish a significant part of his citizens may justify the moral dilemmas underlying the current Portuguese State's response to homelessness and urban marginality.

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A Critical Evaluation of the Historical and Contemporary Justifications for Criminalising Begging

Cited by 17 publications

References 21 publications

Beneficence, Street Begging, and Diverted Giving Schemes

Beneficence, Street Begging, and Diverted Giving Schemes

The political chaff from the economic grain? Rhetorical accounts of the embeddedness of begging

From Vagrancy Heterotopias to the Proximity of Homelessness. A Historical Ethnography of the State's Moral Dilemmas in the Management of Unease

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