Criminal Law, Homelessness and Society: A Critical Assessment

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Introduction

The criminal law in Victoria has aimed to manage society’s confrontations with those who are “different” through restrictions of their movements in the public. The homeless population is judged as different and although the law did not explicitly target these individuals, the conducts associated with them are criminalised. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to critically assess how the law managed to reduce society’s encounters with homelessness, yet failed to fairly regulate society as a whole. Firstly, the three categories of homelessness will be defined and differentiation will be explained. Secondly, the criminalisation of begging will be explored, accompanied with Don Mitchell’s S.U.V. theory. Thirdly, the limitations …show more content…

Additionally, they have worse health outcomes and higher mortality rates than the wider populations (Saddichha et al. 2014, p204). However the most focused distinction is how some of these individuals reside in public spaces, thus they are the likely targets of regulations by the law. Due to their visibility, homeless individuals have become subjected to public order offences for activities that would not have been a crime if done in a private sphere (Saunders et al. 2014, pp46-47). Therefore, the ways in how behaviours of the homeless are governed to reduce encounters with the community will be examined in the next …show more content…

These people who supported the move-on powers has suggested their desire to reduce encounters with the homeless. According to Millie, four types of judgements: moral, prudential, economic and aesthetic formed the value judgements that are crucial in determining the accepted behaviours of society (2011, pp278-279) within a certain context and power (Millie 2011, p286). Since prudential judgement relates to personal quality of life, a person is less likely to tolerate behaviours that obstruct it (Millie 2011, p283). In the Melbourne context, the homeless individual’s behaviours such as sleeping in public, alongside with confronting others for loose change and cigarettes (Dow 2015) have hampered the quality of life for the residents, business owners and

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