VICTIMLESS CRIME

Victimless Crime

Victimless Crime

Introduction

The so-called victimless crimes are acts committed by individuals without causing direct harm to others, but perceived as illegal (drug use, various forms of gambling, prostitution). The notion of "victimless crime" is not quite accurate. In essence, the players or drug addicts are victims of organized crime. However, because the harm caused to the individual is actually caused by his own hand. Many believe that the government should not intervene in such activities and such habits should stop being assessed as "crime." (Meier and Gilbert, 2006)

Some authors believe that any act committed by people on their own, should not be considered illegal (as long as it does not infringe on the freedom and does not harm other people). Opponents, by contrast, argue that the state must uphold the morals, and therefore the classification of certain activities as crime is justified. Curiously, this argument is most often used by the conservatives who in some cases with the same fervor defend freedom of the individual from state interference. Of course, this is a very complex topic. (Meier and Gilbert, 2006)

But there is a sense in the historical context in which criminal law has been booted out of private hands by the State. When, in a free society, an individual harms another, there are institutions such as law, reinforced by the moral and the network of relationships that make costly anti-social behaviors that contribute to the restitution to the victim of the damage. (Siegel & Senna, 2008)

Thesis

The very idea of ??victimless crimes is absurd. Crime is a crime whether to self or others. I believe victimless crime should be treated as any other crime. (Roach, 1999)

Discussion

In the sixties a sector of American sociology coined the term “victimless crime” to refer to those behaviors that were penalized even though third parties are not harmed when they were made ??voluntarily by adults. The concept included prostitution, drug use, pornography, gambling with money, certain sexual orientation (in some states in USA still punishes sodomy, etc.). This sociology advocated the decriminalization of these behaviors, because the ban was contrary to individual freedom and generated mafias. (Siegel & Senna, 2008)

A victimless crime is an act that is punished or sentenced at least, at least u morally and socially. It is difficult to identify or distinguish the victims in the absence of determinable category. (Meier and Gilbert, 2006)

However, it is possible to distinguish categories:

acts only damaging to oneself - alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling, prostitution, polygamy

acts causing damages to entities who consent - cults, pornography, incest

acts of infringement of abstract entities - undermining the integrity of the State

In theory, these practices are not punished in modern democracies. But the laws are complex: it prohibits certain practices without punishing them. Prostitution, for example, is not subject to sanction, but the "solicitation." Ruwen Ogien opposed to the category of "victimless crime". For the author, there is no crime against solicitation. So, if there is no crime, then there is no ...