Victimless Crime Essay

The negative impact the drugs and alcohol abuse and addiction has on the overall health of the user must be considered. Every process and system in the body is adversely affected by the over-indulgence of drugs and alcohol. Some of the health problems regularly noted include organ damage, kidney and liver disease, organ failure, congestive heart failure, respiratory depression, memory lapses, brain damage, infection, stroke, heart attack, and overdose.

S203). In addition to the severe consequences drug abuse has on health, the social consequences are just as severe and includes increased crime and imprisonment, physical and mental disabilities, and loss of productivity.

1) Victimless crime can be defined as those types of actions and behavior that are illegal, although they do not affect the safety and personal rights of others. Individuals or groups of persons can commit victimless crimes. In cases that involve more than one person, only those capable of consenting to the actions are guilty of this type of crime (Liberal Democratic Party, 2009).

It must be noted however, that the physical effects of drug use and the damage that it can cause to the body is occurring with the abuse and misuse of drugs and alcohol regardless of whether or not a person suffers withdrawal symptoms when sober. The health risks related to substance abuse and addiction include memory loss, stress on the organs and systems of the body, organ failure, depressed respiratory function, cancer, stroke, heart attack, cirrhosis of the liver, infection, kidney disease, depression, anxiety, and

Drug abuse does not only impact a person’s well-being, but it also negatively impacts society. The economy is impacted by health costs incurred from prevention, treatment, and hospital visits. Public Safety is impacted by drug-affected driving. Operating a vehicle under the influence is illegal and dangerous for the driver, passenger(s), and other people on the road. There are three classifications for drug abuse related crime: nexus, economic-compulsive, and systemic. Drug abuse also hinders productivity because addiction causes an individual to constantly seek the drug while deeming all other things less important. Companies experience loss of potential income from employees that are under the influence, incarcerated, hospitalized, or seeking treatment. Finally, economic consequences effect specific populations which include children, women, and people with low-income. Drug prevention strategies have been identified as a way to decrease economic consequences on society (“Economic Consequences of Drug Abuse,” 2013).

LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender. Most recently the community added on “QI” to represent those who identify as queer and intersex individuals.

The data used for this study was compiled by two self-reporting agencies, the National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse and the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, who supplied socio-demographic information for the time periods of 1992 to 2002. This information was fundamental in identifying variables in the target groups; specifically, low educated unmarried women without children. Additionally, drug related data collected by government bureaus and emergency providers from 1992 to 2002 was instrumental in facilitating the researchers in gathering, interpreting, and summarizing the number of adult women who were arrested, incarcerated, or treated medically, as a direct result of drug-related incidents. The National Corrections Reporting Programs, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the Drug Abuse Warning Network were all credited with collecting essential data that made this research study feasible.

This assignment will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the positive approach to victimology. It will do this by looking at other victimology approaches such as; Radical, feminist, and critical victimology. Analysing the different theories within each approach, to highlight the negatives and positives within the positivist approach to victimology.

Among highly developed nations, the United States is known for its stringent illegal drug use policy and the high percentages of its population that have consumed illegal substances. The United States has issued a drug war against millions of Americans who use and sell illegal substances. This war has cost taxpayers billions annually and continues to contribute to an incarceration rate that surpasses any other country (Walmsley 2009). Although, stringent policies have lowered the decline in U.S drug consumption since the 1970’s, the war on drugs in the United States has not succeeded in changing America from being the world leaders in use rates for illegal drugs.

In the United States, the rise in both illicit drug and alcohol abuse is continuing at an alarming rate. In 2009 alone, the United States saw 23.5 million people over the age of 12 needing treatment for drug or alcohol abuse (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2011). Per the Drug Enforcement Administration, in the same year (2009), almost 32,000 arrests on drug related charges were carried out (Drug Enforcement Administration, 2015). Even with the threat of prison time, and most federal prisons being filled with inmates on drug and alcohol related charges, 46.4% in 2016 the use and abuse of these substances is still on the rise (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2016). Because of this, and the seemingly ineffective incarceration system, the call for

For the purpose of this essay I will be considering Nils Christie’s (1986) concept of the ‘ideal victim’. In considering this concept, I will discuss what is meant by an ‘ideal victim’ and will also be focusing on the high profile Australian criminal case of Anita Cobby in Blacktown on 2nd of February 1986. Anita Cobby was only 26 years old when she was abducted, brutally raped and murdered by four ‘ideal offenders’. This essay will also consider, the ways in which the media and criminal justice system have constructed Anita Cobby as an ‘ideal victim’.

Drug abuse and crime is not a new concept and the statistics around the problem have continued to rise. According to (Office of Justice Programs, 2011), there were an estimated 1,846,400 state and local arrests for drug abuse in the United States. Additionally, 17 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal inmates said they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs (Office of Justice Programs, 2011). Based on this information, we can conclude that our criminal justice systems are saturated with drug abusers. The United States has the highest imprisonment rate and about 83 percent of arrests are for possession of illegal drugs (Prisons & Drug Offenders, 2011). Based on these figures, I can conclude that we should be more concerned about solving the drug abusers problems and showing them an alternative lifestyle rather than strict penalty of long term incarceration which will inevitably challenge their ability to be fully functioning citizens after release.

Since the early 1960’s there have been an alarming increase in drug use in the United States in 1962, four million Americans had tried an illegal drug. By 1999, that number had risen to a staggering 88.7 million, according to the 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

From the beginning of time there have always been crimes against persons. People went by the saying “An eye for an eye”. You stole from your neighbor, they stole from you. You hurt someone, they hurt you. It wasn’t until the 1940’s people started taking a closer look into these crimes against person, which they later called victimology. This paper will look into victimology and their theories as we go back into the past and how victimology is now.

Since 2000, the drug use rate in America has risen to the highest it’s ever been. In a survey done in 2009, 8.7 percent of people age 12 and up said that they used illegal substances within a month of taking the survey, a 9 percent increase since 2008 (Abuse, National Institute on Drug, 2010). This statistic alone is very concerning due to