Victimless or consensual crimes have unique characteristics that make
them an indirect threat to the privacy of innocent people.
The laws against victimless crimes are not direct threats to privacy themselves.
In criminalizing certain acts, society makes a judgment that there can be no privacy
interest in those acts.
But victimless crime laws do threaten the privacy of innocents because of
the monitoring and investigation they require for enforcement. None of the
participants in a victimless crime will report it to authorities. To enforce
this kind of crime law, officials must engage in extensive monitoring, wiretapping,
and surveillance of suspects and the public.
The existence of victimless crimes tends to erode Fourth
Amendment protections that are there to protect the privacy of innocents. The
cost to privacy of victimless crime laws had not been well-considered in the past.
Links:
Comments? comments@privacilla.org
(Subject: VictimlessCrimes)
[updated 02/19/01]
