Victimless Crime

• The enforcement of these laws can be discriminatory as it is based purely on the moralistic behaviour of the enforcing authorities. These laws are strongly enforced against the weak and middle class people rather than uniform application that will include the upper class people. It is the people who have been arrested once for a crime who can be rearrested again for the same crime instead of any other person.
Hence, the enforcement of a criminal law on victimless crimes is proportional to the social standard of the person committing the act.
• Criminalising these acts does not deter the people from committing it as the arrests made are arbitrary or capricious in nature. A law that does not create deterrence in the minds of people is not effective in nature. Another reason for ineffective deterrence is that these acts are usually consensual or have not been condemned by the society as a wrong.
• Victims of a particular criminal act put pressure on the police authorities which force them to act in accordance to law. But in case of victimless crimes there is no person to monitor the police performance. These offences create an extra ordinary opportunity for police corruption. In a crime like gambling or prostitution there is no victim and hence the police authorities will accept the bribe pad to them to release them off the crime as …show more content…
A victimless crime like smoking marijuana can be criminalised based on this principle as if people start to benefit from the sacrifice of others it will impose a huge social cost and harm the society. Whenever there is a free riding problem where the sacrifice is important to avoid social harm it becomes a moral issue and can be criminalised although there are some alternatives available to this