What Are Victimless Crimes

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A victimless crime is also known as a consensual crime and is really a crime against oneself. Generally, these crimes are labeled in such a way because there is no physical harm to a person or property “the only person being hurt is the person committing the crime themselves” (Schmallegar 2010, p.365). Victimless crimes are considered illegal, primarily because of statutory laws (Ward, 2003). These types of crimes typically involve willing participants and in most cases are violations by law. As a rule,” participants freely engage in the activities that are considered to be illegal or harmful” (Schmallegar 2010, p.365). Some examples of victimless crimes include “prostitution, drug dealing, lewdness, indecency, seduction, adultery and gambling” to name a few (Schmallegar 2010, p.365).The distinction of a victimless crime centers on the willingness of or agreeability of the individual engaging in the said activities.

Victimless crimes have to be approached carefully by law enforcement officials due to the laws surrounding them. They need to be certain they don’t infringe on a person’s 4th amendment rights. “Due largely to the victim's reluctance to report crimes regarding victimless crime because of self-incrimination or criminal liability law enforcement has to resort to extreme measures” (Unknown, 2003). With that being said, they need to use extreme caution when implementing measures such as: surveillance, wiretapping and other forms of monitoring which could be seen as entrapment (Unknown, 2003).

Victimless crimes are also frequently referred to as social order offenses (Schmallegar 2010, p.365). Social order offenses originated during medieval times (Schmallegar 2010, p.365). Significantly, they were dee...

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...t of desperation and necessity.

In summary, a victimless crime occurs when a person engages in an act that will ultimately hurt them self. They are sometimes referred to as social order offenses because at the time of their creation, they fell under the category of “crimes against public decency and morality” (Schmallegar 2010, p.365). When it comes to victimless crimes, there are many areas that should be taken into consideration. All things considered law enforcement needs to be particularly careful in order not to infringe on a person's 4th amendment rights.

Works Cited

Schmalleger, F. (2010). Criminal law today (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Learning.

Ward, d.s. (2003). Victimless crimes. Retrieved from http://www.halexandria.org/dward267.htm

Unknown. (2003). Victimless crimes. http://www.privacilla.org/government/victimlesscrimes.

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