NCJ Number
150427
Date Published
1991
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This chapter examines issues in the debate over public policy regarding vice crimes and public-order offenses, which typically have no complaining victims.
Abstract
The author notes that in most cases the outlawing of behaviors that do not issue in complaining victims involves the imposition of one group's definition of proper personal morality upon another group. There has also been a tendency in influential circles to view those who participate in such acts as mentally, emotionally, and, in some cases, physically ill; this has led to an emphasis on the medical model of deviance, whereby persons arrested for various "victimless" crimes are channeled into treatment programs designed to eliminate the offending behavior. The discussion of prostitution addresses a brief history, the legal status of prostitution, types of prostitutes, the socialization of prostitutes, and the victimization of prostitutes. A review of the legal status of homosexuality includes a brief history and the documentation of recent law enforcement activities that target homosexuality. A discussion of pedophilia considers the types and characteristics of pedophiles, as well as pedophile networks. The discussion of drug abuse focuses on opiates and cocaine, marijuana, public drunkenness, and drunk driving. Issues in pornography are also discussed. The author notes in his conclusion that the lack of a complaining victim is the crux of the vice-crime issue. Vice crime involves the government's entering the private worlds of consenting adults to sanction them for behaviors that do not directly interfere with the rights of those who do not wish to engage in the same behaviors. 1 table