The criminal offence of begging should be abolished. Criminalising begging is tantamount to criminalising poverty. It perpetuates, rather than alleviates, the marginalisation and disadvantage experienced by people who beg. It also violates the fundamental human rights of some of the most vulnerable in our society. When people need to beg, the last thing we should […]
Tag Archives: begging
On the streets of Geelong and Melbourne, and around the world, we often feel uncomfortable when people ask us for money. It seems as though the number of people begging on our streets is increasing, and I’m sure many of us struggle to know how to respond to people we don’t know asking us for […]