Vagrancy

Abstract

This thesis was prompted by the vagrancy laws set down in ss.49-52 of the Police Offences Act 1927. Vagrancy laws are a survival of a long series of repressive statutes. History records the statutes being used to prompt the idle to industry, to ward off the fall of feudalism, to punish the runaway slave, to deal with some genuine evils wrought by large numbers of wanderers on the roads of England, to render poor relief, to impose censorship, to enforce a moral code, and to punish the suspected criminal. Harsh punishments were available - imprisonment, flogging, transportation, maiming, enslavement, and even death. Fining has been a recent innovation. Throughout the course of history the exact definition of "vagrant" and the classes of people included within it, has varied significantly. Blackstone quotes ancient statutes defining vagrants as: