The Crime of Begging, a Comparative Study of the Jordanian, French, Belgian and German Laws

Abstract

The significant increase in the number of beggars is a dangerous indication of what the situation will be in the future, especially since most of them take begging as a profession or a craft and consider it a means of subsistence, and many of them have become an excellent way for criminals to achieve their goals by exploiting them in exchange for small sums. This applies to Jordan, France, Belgium and Germany. Therefore, there is a need to talk about this important topic. This research leads to many findings and recommendations, the most important of which is that most of the laws agreed to criminalize begging by stipulating it in the penal codes thereof. Each law has conditions for considering this act criminal. However, they vary in severity. The most severe punishment was in the Jordanian law, then comes the French law, then the Belgian law, and finally the German law. I hope the legislators in Jordan, France, Belgium and Germany will increase the punishment for beggars and those who use beggars to work in begging and I hope they will set up a special system for beggars that regulates all the matters related thereto, as this will give greater importance to this serious crime in society. I also hope that the Jordanian legislator will give the court and the competent judge, not the Minister of Social Development, the powers to release beggars, because the competent authority is fundamentally the judicial authority, not the executive authority.