NCJ Number
75092
Date Published
1978
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper deals with the cultural problem of victimless crimes, i.e., the relationship between American cultural values and deviant behavior in victimless crimes within the conceptual framework of the American social creed.
Abstract
This article examines the conventional arguments for and against criminalizing and punishing victimless crimes in a pleasure-oriented and freedom-worshipping society. A critical examination of the arguments in favor of and against criminalizing allegedly harmless deviant behavior results in the conclusion that both sides advance arguments lacking in logic and evidence. The problem of cultural emphases in American society is then discussed, involving a fundamental examination of the pursuit of happiness in American tradition. Such emphases include the emphasis on freedom; the pursuit of physical comfort and pleasure, and the importance of legal constraints in the absence of inhibiting mores and folkways. This paper concludes that the problem of victimless crimes cannot be resolved unless the ambivalence in American values is resolved first. According to the papers, such a fundamental reexamination is within the scope of contemporary sociology. Ten footnotes containing bibliographic references are appended. (Author abstract modified)