wa2 summary

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Chapter 13: Public Order Crimes -Slides and data in this outline are from Adler, Mueller, and Laufer (2007, 2013 &

2018); Siegel (2015); and modified by Manning (2007, 2013, 2015 & 2018).

Drug abuse and crime

Alcohol and crime

Sexual morality offenses

Law and Morality

• Public Order Crimes • Behavior that is outlawed because it threatens the general well-being of

society and challenges its accepted moral principles.

• Sometimes referred to as victimless crimes. • Drug and alcohol use, prostitution, pornography and even gambling.

• Censorship of those freely choosing to engage maybe a violation of free speech. • Which may lead to dissent

• Moral Crusaders say it doesn’t diminish freedom of opinion.

Law and Morality

• Criminal or Immoral? • Social harm

• Immoral acts can be distinguished from crimes on the basis of the injury they cause:

• Acts that cause harm or injury are outlawed and punished as crimes.

• Acts, even those that are vulgar, offensive, and depraved are not outlawed or punished if they harm no one.

• 500,000 US deaths per year due to alcohol and tobacco

• Immoral yet legal and regulated by our government.

• Marijuana is nonfatal and sold for medical purposes

• Should laws be applied to shape social morality?

• What about polygamy, or minors and marriage?

• Why is prostitution illegal?

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Substance Abuse: when did it begin?

• Egypt – use of opium • Religion 3,500 BC; Painkiller 1,600 AD

• USE – Use begins for medical purposes • Opium (Morphine and Codeine) • Used to treat a wide variety of illness • Civil War morphine = Soldiers disease • 1860s cocaine to unblock sinues.

• Alcohol and its prohibition • January 16, 1920, the 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale and

transportation of alcoholic beverages. • Women’s Christian Temperance Union • American Anti-Saloon League (Carrie Nation).

• December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution repealed 18th.

Stats on drug abuse

• Extent of substance abuse • Alcohol abuse in USA national high school studies: approximately 52%

• Binge drinking – 5x once per month 23%

• Heavy drinking – 5 per night 5 x per month 6%

• NHS surveys show: • Drug abuse declined between 1970-1990

• Increased until 1996

• 2007 till now marijuana rose to an all time high

• Major issues: K2 and spice is synthetic marijuana (not plant based)

• Overall drug used peaked in 1970s, decreased till 1990s and now steady. • Exceptions: Marijuana and Heroin (US epidemic) has increased since 2011

Drug abuse linked to crime

• Substance abuse appears to be heavily linked to crime. • Adolescents who use illegal drugs engage in more fights and theft. • 40% incarcerated adults for violence crimes used alcohol before arrest. • Alcohol reduces restraint on aggression • Alcohol reduces awareness of consequences

• Drunk driving

• There are different kinds of drug users but not all commit crimes.

• There are differences in criminality among drug users. • Sometimes drug use leads to crime. • Sometimes crime is needed to finance drug addiction • Sometimes drugs are need to commit crime • Sometimes drug use and crime coincide

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Criminality and global issues of drug addiction

• Money laundering: concealing illegally obtained money

• Catastrophic political impact on drug producing countries. • High incidence of corruption and crime

• Government instability and coups

• Alliance of drug dealers with terrorist groups.

Legislative Acts Regulating Drug Use in the US • Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

• List habit forming drugs on labels. Prohibited opiates.

• Harrison Narcotics Act (1914) • Prohibit import, manufacture, and sale of narcotics.

• Marijuana Tax Act (1937) • Registration and tax of $100 for one once.

• Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act (1970) • Set up unified categories of drugs. • Set specific punishments for sales, manufacture and possession.

• Anti-Drug Abuse Act (1986) - increased penalties • 10 years for trafficking kilo of heroin (one year for simple possession)

• Title 21 of US Code updated Amendments passed since 1970 • Anti-Drug Abuse Act (1988)

• Bush 1st admin added death penalty for drug related killings.

Drug Control Strategies

• Treatment approach through: • Self-help groups and psychotherapy (AA and NA)

• Detoxification

• Community social action efforts

• Residential therapeutic communities • In patient out patient therapy. Cost and requires self motivation.

• Methadone maintenance programs.

• Education problems – DARE

• Drug Testing – at work and possible welfare qualifications

• Drug court.

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Legalization of Alcohol • Ratification in 1971 of the twenty-sixth Amendment of the US Constitution

lowered the minimum drinking age. • Later raised it back to 21 state by state.

• Legalization of all drugs • Some say it should create an epidemic of drug dependents. • War on drugs cost more than $500 billion in past 20 years. • More people die each year from legal drugs than illegal. • No commodity sales are more lucrative than drugs. • Historically people have always used drugs. - adult choice. • Prohibition of alcohol increased crime. • legalized government control and regulation.

• Cheaper = less crime to pay for habit • No need for drug cartels decreasing violence. • Gov. would rap large tax profits. • Netherland did it and still relatively crime free.

Deviant sexual Intercourse/paraphilias

• Outlaws paraphilias or deviant sex acts. • Frotteurism – rubbing or touching non consenter

• Voyeurism

• Exhibitionism

• Sodomy (past) • 2003 Lawrence v Texas made sodomy legal

• Pedophilia • Form of deviant sex acts that most concern the general public

• Statutory Rape –Debra Lafave

Prostitution Hierarchy

• Types of Prostitutes • Streetwalkers – lowest paid in plain sight

• Bar girls –B girls % of drinks waiting for pickup

• Circuit travelers – few girls service labor camp

• Cyber prostitutes – meet online “adult friend finder”

• Brothel prostitutes – cathouse. Bunny ranch • Madam vs pimp.

• Pos: safety, no minors, adult choice $300-1,500 per night

• Call girls – highest paid Aristocrats of prostitution

• Escort services/call houses • Client calls madam (123 listing in NY city yellow pages)

Gov. Eliot Spitzer

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Prostitution

• Becoming a Prostitute • Dangers of sex work

• Beaten, robbed and rapped by pimp or client • Abused youth maybe lured into trade, lack father figure • Older women – need money for survival or drugs.

• Controlling Prostitution • Brothels were regulated before WWI in US • Moral crusaders painted pimps as immigrants luring American girls into trade. • Mann Act (1925) - $5,000 fine up to five years prison

• Prohibit transport of women into country and across state lines.

• Today prostitution is a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine or short jail sentence.

Prostitution

• Legalize Prostitution? • Free choice – legal makes safer environment

• $300-1,500 per night

• Sexual equality – seen as gender exploitation • Abuse –brothels worker may still be abused

• Harassed, exploited and raped by security and madam • 40% of earnings.

• Long-lasting victimization • May have life of social stigma leading to drug abuse

• If you really want to stop prostitution • Focus on criminalizing the johns. • Prostitutes should be seen as victims not jailed & fined

Pornography

• Pornography - legal • Sexually explicit books, magazines, films, and DVDs intended to provide sexual

titillation and excitement for paying customers.

• Obscenity – illegal • Material that violates community standards of morality or decency and has

no redeeming social value. • If it is deemed harmful to people or society its illegal

• Who decides what is obscene?

• What is obscene shifts across time between states

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Pornography

• Is pornography harmful?

• Does pornography cause violence? • Some studies say it reduces violence by satisfying impulses

• 1984 study show increased exposure leads to decreased arousal and aggression.

• Some argue porn leads to sexist unhealthy ideas. • Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography (1986)

• Leads to acceptance of rape myths and violence against women.

• Diana Russell argues hatred of women is common theme in porn (violence, rape, aggression) (Siegal, 2015).

Pornography and the law

• Miller v. California (1973) its obscene when: • The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find

that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient (lewd) interests.

• The work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law.

• The work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

• Pope V. Illinois - later supreme court ruling • Obscene if a reasonable person applying objective (national) standards would find the

material to lack any social value.

Internet, Technology and Pornography

• Communications Decency Act (1996) • Felony to:

• Knowingly use telecommunications devices to send and indecent communication to a child.

• Use a computer to display indecent material in a manner accessible to a child.

• Violations punishable by up to two years imprisonment and fine of $250,000

• Legislation on pornography varies around the world making it easier to be sent across borders.

• Distinction between eroticism and child pornography. • Child Pornography - issues with tech. and kids sexting

• Illegal to possess and or distribute even virtual images of children