Are victimless crimes only hurting the person committing the crime or do you think that society as a whole suffers as well? Should some of these crimes/actions be decriminalized? Thoughts...
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15 comments:
Victimless crimes do not only hurt the people who commit them, but also their families and friends. For example, illegal gambling hurts the person as well as those who he/she borrows from. Same with Drug use; drug users are directly harming themselves, but by harming themselves they hurt those who care about them. These single events can create a domino effect and lead to society suffering. People who take part in these crimes, usually know others in the same boat, therefore causing a problem in society.
If any of these crimes were to be legalized, I would say vagrancy should. It is not always a persons' fault for being poor, and they shouldn't be punished for trying to live.
I agree with Leann when she stated that victimless crimes don't only hurt the people committing them. Not only does it hurt their family and friends, but the crimes that are categorized can be harmful to society. Illegal gambling, illegal drug use, and vagrancy can harm a person as an individual and society. If more than one victimless crimes are committed at a time, or in a sequence, society is bound to be harmed. If one person is illegally gambling, chances are they aren't alone. More than one person committing victimless crimes together I don't feel are victimless because together, these people can do damage to society. I completely agree with Leann when she said if one of these crimes were to be decriminalized it should be vagrancy. I believe this because under certain circumstances, people don't have any control if they are poor and can't afford a home. These people have to work extrememly hard to barely get by.
Society as a whole definitely suffers when a "victimless crime" occurs. Regardless of what it's labeled as, drug use, for example, can hurt others in addition to the user. Families, friends, and co-workers of the user will indefinitely suffer when drug use occurs. The user will not only destroy their life, but chances are they'll have a negative effect on the others that are close to them. Same with prostutition, illegal gambeling, etc. All of these are labeled as victimless crimes, however, if you look at the grand scheme of things, many more people besides the suspects themselves suffer due to these occurances.
I feel like victimless crimes should be decriminalized simply because of the fact that they only hurt the people committing them. I do agree that certain crimes, such as illegal gambling, do hurt others as well, but in the beggining everybody had a choice. Somebody made a choice to lend money to a gambling addict, and they take the chance that they may not get that money back. And all the drug addicts, they are making the decisions to buy the drugs that they think they need. And although this can lead to death, they had a choice. The choice to purchase those narcotics, the choise to use, and in some cases abuse, those drugs... Who's to say what people can, or can not, do to their own bodies?
Victimless crimes really do hurt other people not just themselves. Not only gambling involves hurting your family and friends, almost like an addiction to drugs, but yet some people don't have the ability to stop. For example if a girl is committing prostitution, not only is she hurting herself, her family, and her friends, but she's also hurting that other person that is involved. That person may have a family, and could lead to other consequences like their spouse may divorce them and take their children if they have any. Drugs also play a part too, cause your addicted and it hurts the people around you to see that your practically dying right before their eyes, financial stress can also take a part too. So you can never really hurt yourself without hurting other people in the process, you never win.
Victimless crime generally speaking does techincally emotionally and/or physcically hurt yourself,for example drug use,it's hurting your own body because you're intaking whatever drug of your choice. Prostitution is emotionally damaging because you're lowering the value of yourself just for money. Victimless crimes should be decriminalized because the harsh punishments of some victimless crimes are outrageous, but never should they be legalized because then it makes these crimes availible to everyone. Victimless crimes to me, also choses the lifestyle you live, which affects friends and family because victimless crimes are just bad habbits and what was learned can be unlearned but its not physically doing them the physical harm it's doing to you.
The fact that victimless crimes are called victimless is completely ironic since they can have victims. As a result of hurting oneself, others can suffer as well. For example, illegal drug use hurts the drug user and possibly the people around this person when using. A person under the influence of illegal drugs could cause damage to other people or property. Another example can be seen with prostitution. Both the solicitor and the prostitute can be arrested for violating public decency laws. As Leann mentioned, these supposed "victimless" crimes can create a domino effect and lead to the suffering of society. Again I agree with the majority that vagrancy should be decriminalized. There are not many cases with homeless people acting out violently against the public. Although in some cases it can be debatable as to whether or not they are responsible for their living condition, they shouldn't be punished for trying to survive with what they have and use their resources.
Victimless crime not only hurts the people who commit them, but also harms others in society and the ones who are always around them such as family, friends and colleagues. For example, if a teenager is smoking cannabis around his friends, not only does it harm himself but also his friends around him both physically and mentally. It hurts the friends physically because they're inhaling the smoke and mentally because now the friends may think "Maybe I should try this to fit in." Also consider the family members, what if the younger sibling sees his older brother smoking cannabis and when he grows up, and is in his teenage years, he may think "If he did it and he's ok then what's the big deal?" Now what if one day the younger brother gets cannabis laced with other harmful drugs or chemicals? Then the older brother using cannabis from that one day, affected the younger brother for the rest of his life. Illegal gambling can affect the gambler's entire family. If the gambler becomes so addicted that he begins to use family funds such as the family bank account or even the kids' college fund, that can affect that family for the rest of their lives. The question of legalization of certain activities has always been into question. The only victimless crime that I believe should be legalized is the use of cannabis. If the government taxed it like cigarettes maybe that younger brother from the previous example wouldn't have gotten laced drugs. Therefore if the government facilitated these drugs, then society would be safer and the government can make money in these bad economic times.
Victimless crimes hurt more people than just the one person. While ruining themselves, they ruin the lives, reputations, and jobs of others. A good example is prostitution. Prostitutes ruin their bodies and could ruin the lives of their clients. We hear about this kind of thing all the time on the news. Recently we heard about how Charlie Sheen spent a great amount of money on prostitutes (and drugs). Basically, since the story came out, it has pretty much ruined his TV career and overall reputation. The actual prostitutes ruined their bodies, self-respect, and whatever kind of reputation they had by going along with him. Sheen's drug use is hurting him and other people also. By doing those drugs he is giving himself an earlier death sentence. People who are close to him are very worried about him physical and emotional state. All of these victimless crimes makes all of society suffer. Even if you aren't dircetly involved in one of these crimes, you are still affected by it. Those who are directly involved but not taking part in the crime could get pulled into to it if someone close to them is doing it. If that happens, the well-being of society is worse since it is losing one more good person.
If some of these crimes were to be legalized, I would want drug use and prostitution to be legalized. Drug use should be since it would save the states money. If it's legalized, then the police don't have to arrest people, they don't have to waste their time in court, and spend time in jail. Prostitution shoule be legalized since it has been around for hundreds of years. I just don't see the point in wasting all that time and money. There are so many people who are arrested for these crimes, and the tax-payers are losing money to pay for their trial and for their jail time if they go. If there crimes are legalized, we would save a lot of money in the long-run.
Victimless crimes are not victimless at all. Not only do the perpetrators harm themselves by committing the crime, they harm everyone in society. As mentioned by others above, an individual's participation in crimes such as gambling or drug use directly hurt those close to them as well. But on an even broader scale, participation in victimless crimes hurts society as a whole. While technically only harming the people involved, these crimes create a general sense of immorality which breeds the initiation of other, more serious crimes. This is why, in many cases, individuals who commit victimless crimes will also be guilty of another type of crime, usually violent. In short, victimless crimes, while intially only hurting those involved, eventually have much more devasting effects on society.
Victimless crimes are not victimless. They hurt everyone around them. If someone has a gambling problem they might be affecting the ones closes to them because they might be stealing money or always asking for money to support their gambling problem. If someone has a drug problem it affects the society becuase the police will have to spend their time trying to contorl the drug problems then they have less time to help other people that need help.
Victimless crimes are not only hurting the person committing the crime, but also everyone that is around them. For example, prostitution could harm others because the person that is with the prostitute may contract an STD which could not only effect the person's life but also their family's lives too. Another example is that if a person is participating in illegal drug use by smoking marijuana or taking more perscription drugs than required, they could influence their friends or other individuals around them to do the same because they may think it would allow them to be cooler. The marijuana smoking could also hurt people's lungs that are around the smoker. This could lead to an increase in the number of people that do drugs and/or contracting cancers because of illegal drug use. This shows that not only do these crimes effect the people doing them but they also effect the people that are around them. I also believe that vagrancy should be decriminalized because a homeless person doesn't have a negative effect on society. I believe this because the person is only wandering around from place to place because they don't have a home and just wants some money to purchase something to drink or something to eat so that they could survive. In conclusion, victimless crimes are not only hurting the people committing them but also the people around them and vagrancy should be decriminalized because it doesn't have a negative effect on society.
I agree with everyone else that victimless crimes aren't victimless. For example, someone who is addicted to drugs is obviously hurting themselves but they could be hurting the people who care about them too. It would be difficult for a family member to watch someone they care about basically kill themselves in a slow way. Also something such as prostitution is considered a victimless crime but it hurts everyone who takes part in it if diseases are passed around. I also agree with other people that vagrancy could be decriminalized because people who are homeless really have no other choice other than to just wander around.
Victimless crimes are not victimless, not only do these individuals harm themselves, but they harm society and the people around them as well. Their participation in these crimes will either affect them personally or affect others in a negative way. For example if you are using drugs, not only are there negative effect on you, this addiction will feed the urge for more drug dealers to do business in the neighborhood. So while harming yourself, you are harming society in the process. The escalation of victimless crimes may also lead to more serious crimes in order for the individual to achieve their "goals." On the other hand, there are crimes such as vagrancy, which is having no permanent home or means of livelihood. This crime can be seen as a disgrace to society. But, overall I do not believe that this crime individually has enough controversial aspects to be considered illegal. If someone is homeless, it is not their fault. Their means to survive are by doing whatever they can to get off the streets and into a home. Society does not entirely suffer from just their actions. In all, a majority of the victimless crimes are not by any means, only harming the person committing the crime; it takes a toll on society as well.
I believe that this is a hard question to answer because it is different in every situation. However, I don't entirely believe that society as a whole suffers. I believe that definitely the people who commit these crimes are the ones who suffer without a doubt. Some of these people though wouldn't agree with the word suffer. Some might be doing drugs or prostituting themselves and be completely okay with it and think that their lives are fine, but it might be seen differently in someone else's eyes. I don't believe that because many people might not agree with it, that makes the whole society suffer. I believe that people just look down on it and those who are close to the person committing a victimless crime might suffer; guaranteed that many people might be suffering due to so many people committing these crimes, especially drugs.
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