This article argues that research into preventive and pre-emptive crime control in the United Kingdom has marginalized the historical persistence of the power to arrest and convict on justified suspicion of intent. It traces the genesis of this power in statute law (particularly the Vagrancy Act of 1824) and demonstrates its consistent use in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It shows how this pre-emptive power was fiercely defended by police authorities, particularly during the rise of the ‘civil liberties’ agenda during the 1930s, only losing ground when use of these powers became entangled with debates about race relations in the 1970s. Overall, the article argues that ‘pre-emptive’ arrest and conviction on suspicion of intent have been a significant component of UK police powers since the later eighteenth century, and seeks to demonstrate the value of historical criminology in problematizing contemporary debates.

中文翻译：

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《流浪法》（1824 年）和自 1750 年以来英格兰持续存在的先发制人警务

本文认为，英国对预防性和先发制人的犯罪控制的研究已经边缘化了在有正当理由怀疑意图的情况下逮捕和定罪的权力的历史持续性。它追溯了这种权力在成文法中的起源（特别是 1824 年的《流浪法》），并展示了它在 19 世纪和 20 世纪的一贯使用。它显示了这种先发制人的权力是如何被警察当局猛烈捍卫的，特别是在 1930 年代“公民自由”议程兴起期间，当这些权力的使用与 1970 年代有关种族关系的辩论纠缠在一起时，才失去了阵地。总的来说，这篇文章认为，自 18 世纪后期以来，“先发制人”逮捕和因涉嫌故意而定罪一直是英国警察权力的重要组成部分，