The Vagrancy Act (1824) and the Persistence of Pre-emptive Policing in England since 1750

Bibliographic Data

ID8401355
AuthorsPaul Lawrence (0000-0002-2248-5294, corresponding author)
Year2016
Pagesazw008
Publication date2016-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal of Criminology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-0955 • E-ISSN: 1464-3529
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/bjc/azw008
OpenAlexW2266218437
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited28

This article argues that research into preventive and pre-emptive crime control in the United Kingdom has marginalized the historical persistence of the power to arrest and convict on justified suspicion of intent. It traces the genesis of this power in statute law (particularly the Vagrancy Act of 1824) and demonstrates its consistent use in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It shows how this pre-emptive power was fiercely defended by police authorities, particularly during the rise of the 'civil liberties' agenda during the 1930s, only losing ground when use of these powers became entangled with debates about race relations in the 1970s. Overall, the article argues that 'pre-emptive' arrest and conviction on suspicion of intent have been a significant component of UK police powers since the later eighteenth century, and seeks to demonstrate the value of historical criminology in problematizing contemporary debates.

Convict · Conviction · Criminal justice · Criminology · Political science · Power (physics) · Sociology · Statute · Vagrancy · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Law · Policing Practices and Perceptions

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