John Everett Millais "The Blind Girl": vagrant musicians

See also vagrancy (biology) for an alternative use of the term. Sir John Everett Millais 1st Baronet, PRA ( June 8, 1829 &ndash August 13, 1896) was an English painter See also Vagrancy (people for an alternative use of the term Vagrancy is a phenomenon in Biology whereby individual animals appear well See The Vagrants for the mid-sixties Long Island rock band.

A vagrant is a person in a situation of poverty, who wanders from place to place without a home or regular employment or income. Poverty (also called penury) is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life including food clothing shelter and safe Drinking water, and A home is a place of Residence or Refuge. It is usually a place where an individual or a family can rest in and be able to store Personal property. Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. Income, refers to consumption opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame which is generally expressed in monetary terms Many towns in the Developed World have shelters for vagrants. A town is a type of settlement ranging from a few to several thousand (occasionally hundreds of thousands inhabitants although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan The Human Development Index ( HDI) is an index combining normalized measures of Life expectancy, Literacy, Educational attainment, and GDP Homeless shelters are temporary residences for homeless people

Vagrancy was a crime in some European countries, but most of these laws have been abandoned. In the sociological field, crime is the breach of a rule or Law for which some governing authority or force may ultimately prescribe a Punishment This is a list of countries in Europe with their English and domestic language long and short names and associated capital cities Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society Laws against vagrancy in the United States have partly been invalidated as violative of the due process clauses of the U. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Due process (more fully due process of law) is the principle that a person has a right to receive notice and be heard in an orderly proceeding in order to protect his or her S. Constitution. However, the FBI report on crime in the United States for 2005 lists 33,227 vagrancy violations. In legal terminology, a person with a source of income is not a vagrant, even if he/she is homeless.

History

In the fairy tales of medieval Europe, beggars cast curses on anyone who insulted the beggar, or who were stingy with the money they gave a beggar. A fairy tale or fairy story is a fictional Story that may feature folkloric characters (such as fairies, enchantments]] often involving "Beggar" redirects here Distinguish from Begga and Bega. A curse (also called execration) is any manner of Adversity thought to be inflicted by any supernatural power (such as a spell, a Prayer, an Witches would beg door-to-door for "milk, yeast, drink, pottage" in England. Witchcraft, in various historical anthropological religious and mythological contexts is the use of certain kinds of Supernatural or magical powers Milk is an opaque white liquid produced by the Mammary glands of female Mammals (including Monotremes. Yeasts are a growth form of eukaryotic Microorganisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with about 1500 Species currently described A drink, or beverage, is a Liquid specifically prepared for Human consumption Pottage is a Stew of Meat or Fish with Grains Herbs and /or Vegetables It was the staple food of people living in England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland ^[1] In some East Asian countries, vagrants are still revered and feared, believed to possess semi-religious spiritual powers.

In the 16th century and 17th century in England, a vagrant was a person who could work, but preferred not to (or could not find employment, so took to the road in order to do so), or one who begs for a living. As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar Vagrancy was illegal, punishable by branding, whipping, conscription into the military, or at times penal transportation to penal colonies. Transportation or penal transportation refers to the deporting of Convicted Criminals to a Penal colony, for example by France A penal colony is a Settlement used to detain Prisoners and generally use them for Penal labour in an economically underdeveloped part of the state's Vagrants were different from impotent poor, who were unable to support themselves because of advanced age or sickness. Impotent poor was a classification of Poverty used in Britain during the 1600s It referred to those poor who were unable to support themselves either through However, the English laws usually did not distinguish between the impotent poor and the criminals, so both received the same harsh punishments. The Poor Law was the system for the provision of social security in operation in England and Wales from the 16th century until the establishment of the Welfare State in the 20th century. This article deals chiefly with the English Poor Laws covering England and Wales Social security primarily refers to a Social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions including poverty old History The Roman occupation of Britain was the first period in which the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit (with the exception This article refers specifically to the Welfare state of the United Kingdom. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on

In colonial America, if a person wandered into a town and did not find work, he/she was told to leave town or be prosecuted. In the U. S. , vagrancy laws were vague and covered a wide range of activities and crimes associated with vagrants, such as loitering, prostitution, drunkenness, and associating with known criminals. Loitering (ˈlɔɪtərɪŋ is an Intransitive verb meaning to stand idly to stop numerous times or to delay and procrastinate Prostitution is the act of performing Sexual activity in exchange for Money. Drunkenness or inebriation is the state of being intoxicated by consumption of Alcoholic beverages to a degree that mental and physical faculties are noticeably Under the vagrancy laws, police arrested people who were suspected of crime, but who had not committed a crime. Eventually, punishments were changed to a fine, or several months in jail.

After the U. S. Civil War, the South passed Black Codes, laws that tried to control freed black slaves. Vagrancy laws were included in these codes. Homeless unemployed black Americans were arrested and fined as vagrants. Usually, the person could not afford the fine, and so was sent to county labor or hired out to a private employer.

In the U. S. , good children were encouraged to go door to door to get treats from homes and shops, to keep troublemakers away on Halloween. By the 1930s, these “beggar’s nights” were widespread. The term “trick or treat” was popular from the late 1930s.

In the U. S. of the 1960s, vagrancy laws were found to be too broad and vague, and in violation of the due process requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as citizens were not informed of which behaviors were illegal. Due process (more fully due process of law) is the principle that a person has a right to receive notice and be heard in an orderly proceeding in order to protect his or her The Fourteenth Amendment ( Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution is one of the post- Civil War Reconstruction Amendments, first Police had too much power in deciding whether or not to arrest someone. Vagrancy laws could no longer violate Freedom of Speech, such as when police use them against political demonstrators and unpopular groups. Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without Censorship or Limitation. U. S. vagrancy laws became clearer, narrower, and more defined. Since then, the status of being a vagrant is punished by the vagrancy laws, while other actions are punished under other laws.

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Florida vagrancy law was unconstitutional because it was too vague to be understood, in Papachristou v. Jacksonville, 405 U. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. Papachristou v Jacksonville, 405 US 156 ( 1972) was a United States Supreme Court case resulting in a Jacksonville vagrancy ordinance being S. 156, 92 S. Ct. 839, 31 L. Ed. 2d 110. When court such as this strike down the vagrancy laws, vagrancy becomes mostly legal.

In the 1990s, new local laws in the U. S. were passed to reduce aggressive panhandling, begging, and other activities by vagrants. "Beggar" redirects here Distinguish from Begga and Bega.

In the U. S. , some local officials encourage vagrants to move away instead of arresting them. The word vagrant has been replaced by homeless person. Prosecutions for vagrancy are common. England eventually changed its poor laws, and today vagrancy is legal, while crimes are punished separately. [1]

See also

• Vagabond (person)
• Hobo
• Squatting
• Homelessness

External links

• Encyclopædia Britannica Article on Vagrancy

References