Vagrancy

A historical and, in some jurisdictions, still current offense criminalizing homelessness, wandering without a fixed abode or visible means of support, or loitering in public without a lawful purpose, dating back in the English legal tradition to statutes enacted from the fourteenth century onward to control the movement of the poor. Vagrancy laws have been widely criticized and substantially repealed or narrowed in many countries since the mid twentieth century on the grounds that they effectively criminalize poverty and homelessness rather than any specific harmful act, though variants of the offense, and closely related loitering and public nuisance statutes, remain on the books in a number of jurisdictions.