CRIME & CRIME

WITHOUT VICTIM.
Roushan kumar
Sec A
CUSB1813125083
7TH SEMESTER
 INTRODUCTION
 The general term ―crimes covers a wide variety of types of crimes, with their
own distinct features. Murder and arson, for example, both are crimes. They
have the same essential elements, including a criminal intent (mens rea) and a
harm element.
 But these elements take different forms in different crimes. In murder the
criminal intent takes the form of intending to kill another human being
wrongfully, while in arson the intent is that of wrongfully burning the property
of another. Lawyers and criminologist have searched for a system of grouping
the many types of crimes into coherent, rational categories, for ease of
understanding, of learning, and of finding them in the law books, and for
purposes of studying them from both a legal and a criminological perspective.
 There are also crimes that stem from the drug business (for example, money
laundering) and crimes that arise from economic necessity, because users need
money to buy more drugs. Then, too, there is the organized-crime problem,
which is intertwined with the drug-crime problem insofar as drug trafficking is
the major source of income for organized-crime groups. In addition, there is a
white-collarcrime problem
 CRIME WITHOUT VICTIM
 . Victimless crime criminalized for the quality of life and
causing no real harm to the society. Victimless crime is a
crime without victim in it no third party is injured.
 This type of crime is private in nature and there is consent
that is doing the victimless crime. Thus there is problem
of complaining and evidence during prosecution.
 Victimless crime though don’t harm third party but for
social interest it was penalized. Victimless crime to
decriminalized is against the moral values and will
diminish the Quality of life and cause real harm to the
society.
 NATURE OF CRIME WITHOUT
VICTIM
 crime which involves acts that interfere with the operations of society and the
ability of people to function efficiently", i.e. it is behavior that has been labeled
criminal because it is contrary to shared norms, social values, and customs.
Robertson (1989:123) maintains that a crime is nothing more than "...an act that
contravenes a law." Generally speaking, deviancy is criminalized when it is too
disruptive and has proved uncontrollable through informal sanctions.
 Public order crime should be distinguished from political crime. In the former,
although the identity of the "victim" may be indirect and sometimes diffuse, it
is cumulatively the community that suffers, whereas in a political crime, the
state perceives itself to be the victim and criminalizes the behaviour it
considers threatening. Thus, public order crime includes consensual crime,
victimless vice, and victimless crime. It asserts the need to use the law to
maintain order both in the legal and moral sense.
 Public order crime is now the preferred term as against the use of the word
"victimless" based on the idea that there are secondary victims (family, friends,
acquaintances, and society at large) that can be identified.
 CONCEPT OF CRIME WITHOUT
VICTIM
 “Crime without victim” or “Victimless crime” is a term used for certain actions that
are illegal, but which do not directly violate or threaten the right of any other
individual.When the first serious efforts were mounted to urge repeal of the archaic
laws against homosexual acts, it was especially promoted by the work of the
American sociologist Edwin M. Schur,Crimes Without Victims: Deviant Behavior and
Public Policy(1965), which addressed the issues of abortion, homosexuality, and drug
addiction.
 A characteristic feature of such laws is that since no third party is harmed, there is no
one who has an immediate interest in complaining to the police and presenting
evidence against the culprits. Victimless crime is mainly related to awareness and
unawareness of victim for crime. When victim aware about crime and he or she
knows he or she is a harmed and in this case he or she is a victim of crime but when
the victim is unaware of crime and harm caused to him it is a case of victimless crime.
 Consent leads awareness and if the subject of the crime is not harmed unless he
becomes aware of the crime, then such crime is victimless, i.e. the victim doesn’t know
about crime until he becomes aware of the crime.
 For e.g. a person trespassing through a neighbor’s yard, without being observed or
causing damage is committing the victimless crime.
SOME CRIMES WITHOUT VICTIM
 1.Health ‘protection’ crimes:the government can get away with lot of
restrictions ‘for the good of the people’. This can be used to justify
almost any law.
 drug prohibition.
 seat belt laws.
 motorcycle helmet laws etc.
 Youth ‘protection’ laws:these laws exist with the pretense of
protecting children, but their effect is to make young citizens
property of their guardians. Some are also based on the idea that
ignorance will protect youth from harm (when it usually has the
opposite effect).
 clothing restrictions
 Ban on factual sex education.
 parental notification etc.
 JUSTIFICATION
 Victims or witnesses of crimes might be deterred from taking
any action if they fear retaliation. Even in policed societies, fear
may inhibit reporting or co-operation in a trial.
 The victims may only want compensation for the injuries
suffered, while being indifferent to the more general need for
deterrence: see Polinsky & Shavell (1997) on the fundamental
divergence between the private and the social motivation for
using the legal system.
Even if the victims recognize that they are victims, they may not
have the resources to investigate and seek legal redress for the
injuries suffered: the enforcers formally appointed by the state
have the expertise and the resources. Victims do not have
economies of scale to administer a penal system, let alone collect
THE HIDDEN CRIME FACTORS

 Because most of these crimes take place in private or with some

degree of secrecy, it is difficult to establish the true extent of the crime.
The "victims" are not going to report it and arrest statistics are
unreliable indicators of prevalence, often varying in line with local
political pressure to "do something" about a local problem rather than
reflecting the true incidence of criminal activity.
 In addition to the issue of police resources and commitment, many
aspects of these activities are controlled by organized crime and are
therefore more likely to remain hidden.
 These factors are used to argue for decriminalization. Low or falling
arrest statistics are used to assert that the incidence of the relevant
crimes is low or now under control. Alternatively, keeping some of
these "vices" as crimes simply keeps organized crime in business.
  
 CONCLUSION
 Victimless crime doesn’t harm third party person thus there is problem
of complaining of it and evidence while prosecuting. When the victim is
unaware of crime and harm caused to him it is a case of victimless crime.
 There are kind of victimless crimes as suicide, truancy or drug use,
Traffic citations, prostitution, pornography and gambling etc.
 Victimless crimes normally don’t harm the individual but harms society
at large.
 Victimless crimes can capable of creating gang subculture because of
involvement of demand and money. In criminalizing victimless crime
acts, society makes a judgment that there can be no privacy interest in
those acts.
 Victimless crime have importance of consent and because of it is an
offence of private nature not involving society at large like prostitution
but it is against the social norms thus though it is private and with
consent society interferes with it with instrument of law.