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Victimless Crimes

Logic behind defining crimes as victimless

Defining the four major classes of Victimless Crimes.

The victim in "victimless" is inherently controversial. Laws are often purportedly intended to protect, so a criminal act is usually claimed by someone to cause someone or a group of people to be adversely affected to some degree, however abstract. There are four widely acknowledged distinct possible meanings of the term "victimless".

  • First, consensual crimes with (debately) no material harm.

  • Second, crimes in which the damage caused is overwhelmingly borne by the perpetrator, such as suicide or drug use. As the perpetrator has chosen to suffer the effects of these crimes, they are not a "victim" in the normal sense.

  • Third, crimes in which the cost is borne by an abstract society or group of people, without a clear, direct victim. This could be applied to driving without auto insurance (where mandated by law).

  • Fourth are crimes against non-"victims," or non-human entities, such as governments. These are victimless not because no harm occurs, but because the recipient of the harm is not properly considered a "victim." This is thus a question of the definition of victim, rather than a question of the effects of the crime.

Other types of victimless crimes

Prostitution is the act comitted by a person, usually of the female gender although there are instances of male prostitutes as well, wherein they sell their body for another person's sexual gratification for monetary gain.

Drug abuse is characterized by a chronic use of an illicit substance, usually to the detriment of the individual.

Gambling is the act committed by an individual where they assume that they will receive financal reward.

Pornography is media based outlet where the individuals partake in certain situations of a sexual variety to instigate sexual arousal in the viewer.

The Relationship between Victimless Crimes and Organized Crimes

Besides the four main types of victimless crimes there are other types that can be classified as low-level victimless activities. Some examples of low level victimless activities that may be criminalized include:

  • Riding a motorcycle or bicycle without a helmet
  • Individual purchase and consumption of recreational drugs
  • Driving a motor vehicle without a seatbelt
  • Public nudity and fornication

Victimless crimes usually regarded more seriously include:

  • Abortion
  • Unlicensed prizefights and similar activities of a sporting nature where the players consent and the audience actively approves of what they see.
  • Assisting someone to die at his or her request.
  • Many victimless crimes involve goods and services that are in great demand, the most extreme example being the drugs craved by addicts.

  • Criminal penalties thus tend to limit the supply more than the demand, driving up the black-market price and creating monopoly profits for those criminals who remain in business. This "crime tariff" reduces consumption possibilities for legal goods and encourages the growth of sophisticated and well-organized criminal groups.

  • Organized crime in turn tends to diversify into other areas of crime. In extreme cases, such as heroin or cocaine addiction, high prices force participants to commit other crimes, for example, drug sales and theft, to pay for the illegal goods.

  • Finally, because of the strong demand, a large number of otherwise law-abiding citizens (victimless crime perpetrators) are driven into association with the criminal elements (organized crimes perpetrators), who supply these goods and services. There is a danger that such citizens will come to view themselves as criminals, since society has labeled them as such; they will thus cooperate less with law enforcement generally, and are more likely to be drawn into other forms of crime.

To Sum It All Up

Victimful vs. Victimless

A victimless crime is defined as a crime wherein the participant(s) are both willing and consensual. Although seemingly an area of crime without a great deal of difficulty in classifying the act, there does exist many controversies. While these controversies do pose serious questions to both law enforcement and criminologists, our group had posed some possible solutions to the aforementioned problems. With this presentation there are hopes that the way people and society views victimless crimes would be more considerate towards the idea of how "victimless" these crimes truly are.

Historical Victimless Crimes

  • It is perhaps oversimplifying things when presenting the difference between victimful crimes and victimless crimes as an absolute. When it comes to these two types of crimes, they should probably be dealt with considering a continuum, on which the respective ends are clearly marked, but there is some grey area in the middle of those two extremes.

  • Examples of when it becomes difficult to classify a crime as either one or the other (victimful or victimless), would be in cases such as drunken driving. If the drunken driver hits a pedestrian or another vehicle, there is indeed a victim; but if he or she does not, is it still possible to argue that the driver's activity is at least socially harmful to others, or potentially harmful, and therefore should be punished.

What are Victimless Crimes?

The Volstead Act made the selling and consumption of alcoholic drinks illegal during the Prohibition in the U.S., and in Islamic countries, even the possession of alcohol could lead to severe penalties.

"A victimless crime is an illegal act that is consensual and lacks a complaining participant, including such activities as drug use, gambling, pornography, and prostitution" (Veneziano & Veneziano, 1993).

"These are mala prohibita crimes, that is, they are crimes because the state has said so and not because they are behaviors that are inherently evil" (Rush, J., & Rubenser, L. 2010).

Conflict Approach to Victimless Crimes

What Is Our Take On Victimless Crimes?

Questions?

If there are any questions, please feel

free to ask them now.

These crimes are misrepresented by being given the label of "victimless". This means that many of the victims pass under the radar, and therefore receive no assitance. It is also our belief that the way the court system judges victimless crimes stems from a more moral biased standpoint, whereas introducing a more health care based aspect would be more beneficial.

Victimless crimes are subjectively defines by religious and other persons who wish to use the power of the state in order to enforce behaviors consonant with their own religious, moral, or ethical views. As these views change, so does the definition of these activities as criminal or noncriminal. The moral force driving these acts to be classified as victimless crimes is especially apparent when considering acts such as prostitution due to there being a lot of moral stigma surrounding sexual activities. If the power in the possession of people who deem sexual acts as immoral or wrong then they will try to stop it by making it illegal, even if there is nothing inherently immoral about it. This is an example of conflict approach in terms of law making.

What Controversies are Produced by Victimless Crimes?

Societal Issues

Criminology 100

Kevin Burk

Agassiz

Dec.14, 2012

Karsen Yolland & Brie Robotham

Two Controversial Issues Pertaining Towards Victimless Crime:

  • Societal Based Issues
  • Degree of Victiminization
  • The cost of victimless crimes is quite steep. It is estimated that 50 billion tax dollars are spent annually on the prosecution and punishment of individuals guilty of victimless crimes.

  • This cost takes away from the prosecution of those guilty of crimes of a more serious nature, such as rape or murder.

  • Running a system like this creates an overburdened justice system, wherein crimes nor criminals are being dealt with properly.

Victimless Crimes with the Onset of Modern Technology

How Can Victimless Crimes Be Dealt With?

How Victimless Are They?

How Do These Solutions Obtain the Objectives of Dealing with Victimless Crimes?

When it comes to dealing with victimless crimes they need to be dealt with differently in terms of what type of controversy they implement: societal based issues or degree of victimization.

  • The class of so called "Victimless Crimes" such as gambling, prostitution, and drug use stem from addictions, which the participants fall victim to.
  • ie considering prostitution, although the act itself may be consensual, the prostitute rarely enters the profession without outside factors forcing the choice on her (such as a pimp).

  • The victimless crimes are defined by society on moral based claims- therefore, it is society who determines whether or not there are victims.
  • There has been an emergence of a new victimless crime, which has experienced a recent growth in the past decade. This new crime is the act of “sexting”.
  • Sexting is defined as the act of sending explicit pictures to an individual, usually a significant other. Though it is a consensual act for both parties, due to the fact that the majority of participants in the craze are minors, sexting is technically child pornography.
  • One case in Pennsylvania involved 6 teenagers being charged with the creation and possesion of child-pornography. However, were the teenagers deserving of a guilty charge and a minimum of 10 years on the Sex Offenders list when they themselves took the pictures, instead of being coerced into the act by a third party

  • Introducing the idea of legalizing and/or decriminalizing, allows for an introduction of a medical realm can increase opportunity to receive necessary medical treatments.
  • For instance, prostitution in Nevada has been legalized. The result of this action has been the ability to track and regulate the situation, as well as provide test for STD's and HIV/AID, this can also include taxes and licensing fees. These types of standards required around prostitution can allow for more security and lessen the chance of victimization occurring, when working as a prostitute.

  • By legalizing and/or decriminalizing allows reduces pressure on the justice system.
  • In doing so, the burden of running unnecessary crimes through the justice system will decrease stress and pressure placed on it.

Societal Solutions

Degree of

Victimization Solutions

  • A societal solution to the aforementioned victimless crime dilema of societal issues would be an introduction of a medical realm. This would include access to health care services which offer treatment and rehabilitation services.
  • Insite

  • The costs for these types of facilities to handle people with addictions and in need of treatment is obviously large, but with evidence of the positive outcomes of facilities such as Insite, this can lead to the consideration that the initial costs are worth it in the long run.

  • By legalizing or decriminalizing some of these particular victimless crimes will help alleviate tension and strain placed on the justice system.
  • When considering the degree of victimization, in terms of victimless crimes, offers the idea that if there is no victimization involved in these crimes, then perhaps there is no reason for it to be considered a crime at all. Allowing for legalization of particular victimless crimes can allow for the proper assistance for these people with addictions.

  • Completely legalizing certain drugs (ie. Marijuana) would eventually change the way drug dealers and users are viewed. Considering Cohen's quote, which replaces the moral conflicts, with more logical point of view.
  • "drug dealing would be considered a socially productive activity like any other retail trade" (Cohen, M. 2002).

  • There are numerous possibilities for changing the misconcenception of victimless crimes being without a victim.
  • For one, an awareness campaign could have great effect. Simply informing people about the harm "victimless crimes" can cause may have an impact on the situation.
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