Victimless Crimes - Essay Example

Victimless Crimes In the 1970’s, the United s Presidents’ Commission on Crime has observed the need to modernize the traditional policing strategies in order to effectively improve police practices and tactics through random patrol and investigations. As a result, a new coactive approach called Community Oriented Policing was established to tap the enormous potential of the community in reducing several problems of the police in maintaining peace and order in local areas. Community Oriented Policing is an organizational phenomenon involving a philosophy and a set of tactics that connects the police and the citizenry in working together safely (Mirsky 1). The new skills required for this method includes working with local residents as partners in working out problems, making presentations to community groups, and involving other public and nonprofit organizations in community development efforts. Rohe, Adams and Arcury (1) stated that Community Oriented Policing “promises lower crime rates, reduced fear of crime, better coordination with other city and county agencies, and improved police/community relations.” As such, this method of organizational policing can also be applied for victimless crimes. Hess and Wrobleski, the authors of “Police Operations”, maintained that the role of the law should be limited particularly in dealing with victimless crimes since the category of the said crimes is a misnomer. This paper aims to identify and discuss the notion of victimless crimes and evaluate the behavior in terms of wrongfulness and the proper role for the law related to Community Oriented Policing. The reasons behind the creation of Community Oriented Policing were the rising crime rate and the ineptitude of conservative police methods during the late 1960’s such as concerns about racial conflicts, riots, civil right demonstrations and other crimes. According to Mirsky (1), “The design of community policing is to entail a more open relationship between the police and the public which gives the police a more proactive role in the community.” This new policing approach allows the neighborhoods to strengthen its capacity in helping by sharing the accountability for crime prevention and crime trepidation with the police. Meier and Geis (42) also maintain that building the competence of social institutions is essential in order to empower citizens to engage in and guard their own communities. Hence, community justice deduces that all communities have a liability to exercise social control to its residents. Among the kinds of crimes and social injustices that community policing is expected to resolve are the “victimful” and “victimless crimes”, or the crimes that victimize fellow social group members and the ones that do not. Some examples of victimless crimes are prostitution, abortion, urinating in the public, and drug, alcohol and nicotine addiction. Traditionally, the offenders of such crimes are not penalized or imprisoned because technically, they are not putting any danger to the life or possessions of the citizens. However, one must understand that the concept of harm in victimless crimes may be different but certain behaviors following these acts can be defined as criminal by the law. Hess and Wrobleski (340) believes that the issues for legal protection must be taken in to consideration in dealing with victimless crimes such as the amount of harm that a behavior can affect another person, who suffers from that behavior, and the risks that comes with it. In addition, Hess and Wrobleski (340) argue that the capacity of victimless crimes to put danger in to the community must be reviewed for these behaviors do not necessarily lack any victims. It should be considered that the nature of immorality that comes with these acts are perceived by the majority in a culture as illegal and are bordering the importance of privacy and alternative controls. The resulting behaviors of offenders may pose harm to others and even when there are no complaining witnesses, these acts are also crimes at low levels. The term “victimless”, therefore, is a misnomer since the whole state or community is the victim of such behaviors that causes much problem in the long run. Moreover, victimless crimes that are rooted from personal habits tend to change for the worse over time. For example, illegal drug use may trigger an addiction after a certain period of time and the behavior of the person committing such activity may pose as a bad example to the children living in the area, for they would think that the act is acceptable because the police are not doing anything about it. Usually, city courts are overburdened with a high number of heinous crimes that they often dismiss cases of low-level offenders note it as “time served.” As such, some communities are starting to adopt victimless crimes as a part of their crusade in maintaining order in their locality. Social services are now provided to low-level offenders such as drug rehabilitation programs and job training opportunities (Campbell 2). In New York, a Community Impact Panel was established by the Midtown Community Court in partnership with the local police organization and members of the community to talk about the impact of low-level crimes to the public. Founded in 1993, the Court addresses crimes like prostitution, shoplifting and drug possession, eliminating the principle of victimless crimes. As a reputable local institution, the Midtown Community Court “views the community as the victim of quality-of-life offenses and, where appropriate, it sentences offenders to perform community service to repair the damaged they’ve done.” (Campbell 2). Offenders of such crimes are invited to a panel of a few citizens representing the community where the offenders explain why they committed such acts and the citizens air their concerns for the effect of such acts to the other members of the community. During the discussion, a moderator lets everyone to state their perception about the incident and would make the offender understand the impact of these crimes to others involved. Furthermore, the basic structure of standard victim-offender reconciliation programs which involves the face-to-face interaction between perpetuator and victim as exemplified in the Community Impact Panel in New York proves to be effective in resolving victimless crimes. Campbell (8) noted that a frank yet respectful conversation between offenders and members of the community will make both parties aware of how such certain activities disturb others. This event may even be useful to act as a sanction for lawbreakers and pose as a form of reparative experience for community participants. Nevertheless, Community Oriented Policing is an effective method of preventing crime, reducing the fear of crime and of improving the police and community relations in a particular area. The cooperation between the members of the community and the police organization results to an efficient approach in combating threat from criminals of different misdemeanors so that peace and order is maintained among community members. Consequently, victimless crimes should be added to the scope of Community Oriented Policing as well, given that these crimes indirectly victimize the whole community as an outcome of such behaviors. The concept of threat and the capacity of victimless crimes to affect the morality and perceptions of the members of the community in general must be taken into consideration in order to understand the impact of these behaviors to the rest of the public. Works Cited Campbell, Robin. There are No Victimless Crimes: Community Impact Panels at the Midtown Community Court. 2000. Print. Hess, Karen M. and Wrobleski, Henry M. Police Operations: Theory and Practice. 4th Ed. Cengage Learning. Print. Meier, R.F. and Geis, G. Victimless Crime? Prostitution, Drugs, Homosexuality, Abortion. Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing Co. 1997. Print. Mirsky, Ian. “Community Oriented Policing”. Internet Journal of Criminology. 2009: 1-14. n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. Rohe, William M., Adams, Richard E. & Arcury, Thomas A. Community Oriented Policing: Why it is, Why it Works, How To Get Started. North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. 1997. Print. Read More