The encounter between those who beg in public spaces and those passing-by has become one of the most controversial issues in the politics and policing of urban life. This book examines how begging regulation â?? underpinned by the social character of charity, contract, money, and work â?? plays a central role in organizing how we feel responsible for one another in late capitalist society. The book develops the concept of the gift encounter to understand begging as a profound social phenomenon that is intricately tied to the exercise of political power. Drawing on a range of eclectic empirical sources, Policing Compassion examines how criminal begging is governed through specialized police operations and diverted giving programs, as well as the way in which official and legitimate begging â?? such as charity collections and performing in public spaces for donations â?? is ordered as vital aspects of the gift encounter landscape which the public negotiates. It explores how the control of begging is central to a current preoccupation with policing disorder and it reviews the current constitutional state of anti-begging laws in the US, Canada, and Britain.