Chapter Fourteen:

1. Chapter Fourteen: Public Order Crimes

2. Objectives • Be familiar with the association between law and morality • Be able to discuss moral crusades and crusaders • Know what is meant by paraphilias • Be able to discuss the various types of prostitution • Describe the relationship between obscenity and pornography • Know the various techniques being use to control pornography • Discuss the history and extent of drug abuse • Be able to discuss the cause of substance abuse • Describe the different types of drug users • Identify the various drug control strategies

3. Public Order Crimes Also know as victimless crimes: behaviors that are outlawed because they threaten the general well-being of society and challenge accepted moral principles • Public order crimes involve acts that interfere with the operations of society and the ability of people to function effectively • These behaviors are in conflict with social policy, prevailing moral rules, and current public opinion

4. Law and Morality • Legislation of moral issues has continually frustrated lawmakers • There is little debate that the purpose of criminal law is to protect society and reduce harm • If there is no victim, can there be a crime? • Even if public order crimes do not actually harm their participants, perhaps society as a whole should be considered the victims of these crimes?

5. Social Harm • Most societies have long banned or limited behaviors that are believed to run contrary to social norms, customs, and values • However, many acts that most of us deem highly immoral and objectionable are not in fact criminal • Immoral acts can be distinguished from crimes on the basis of social harm they cause • Some acts that cause enormous amounts of social harm are legal

6. Moral Crusades and Crusaders • Popular targets of moral crusaders are abortion clinics, pornographers, gun dealers, and logging companies. • A person who creates moral rules, which thus reflect the values of those in power rather than any objective universal standards of right and wrong • Crusaders who seek to shape the law toward their own way of thinking operate with an absolute certainty that their way is right and that any means are justified to attain this perspective

7. Two Broad Areas of Public Order Crimes (1) Acts that conventional society considers deviant, sexual practices such as paraphilias, prostitution, and pornography (2) Use of substances that have been outlawed or controlled due to the alleged harm they cause

8. Paraphilia • Are bizarre or abnormal sexual practices involving recurrent sexual urges focused on: • nonhuman objects, • humiliation or the experience of receiving or giving pain, • children or others who cannot grant consent • Outlawed examples: Asphyxiophilia Frotteurism Exhibitionism Sadomasochism Pedophilia Voyeurism

9. Prostitution • Granting nonmarital sexual access, established by mutual agreement of the prostitutes, their clients, and their employers, for remuneration • Conditions usually present in a commercial sexual transaction: • Activity that has sexual significance for the customer • Economic transaction • Emotional indifference

10. International Sex Trade • Overseas trade in prostitution in which men from wealthy countries frequent semi-regulated sex areas in order to procure young girls who are then forced or sold into prostitution • This phenomenon is known as sex tourism

11. Types of Prostitution • Street walkers • Bar girls • Brothel prostitutes • Call girls • Escort services/Call houses • Circuit travelers • Skeezers • Massage Parlors/Photo Studios

12. Pornography • Sexually explicit books, magazines, films, or tapes intended to provide sexual titillation and excitement for paying customers • Obscenity: deeply offensive to morality or decency … designed to incite to lust or depravity • A billion-dollar industry that is growing through technological advancement • While it has gone mainstream, it has long been held that the 1st Amendment was not intended to protect indecency or material considered offensive and obscene

13. Controlling Pornography • Little evidence that it can be controlled or eliminated by legal means alone • Attorney General’s Commission, on Pornography in 1986 advocated a strict law enforcement approach to control obscenity • Controlling sex for profit is difficult because of the public’s desire to purchase • Alternative approach to restrict the sale of pornography within acceptable boundaries

14. Substance Abuse • The use of chemical substances to escape reality and provide stimulation, relief, or relaxation; has gone on for thousands of years • The problem of substance abuse stretches across the United States and other countries around the world • Concerns about drug use is related to the increasing number of drug-related arrests, more than 1.8 million today • Despite the scope of the problem, there is great debate over the legalization of drugs and the control of alcohol

15. Anesthetics Volatile liquids Barbiturates Tranquilizers Amphetamines Cannabis (marijuana) Hallucinogens cocaine Freebase Crack Narcotics/heroin Steroids Alcohol Club Drugs Commonly Used Drugs

16. Alcohol and Its Prohibition • Temperance movement : the drive to prohibit the sale of alcohol in the U.S., culminating in ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 • Prohibition failed: in 1933 the Twenty-First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution repealed Prohibition

17. Causes of Substance Abuse • Subcultural view • Psychological view • Genetic factors • Social learning • Problem Behavior Syndrome (PBS) • Rational choice

18. Drugs and Crime • Research consistently indicates a significant association between drug abuse and criminality • The true relationship is uncertain because many users have had a history of criminal activity prior to the onset of substance abuse

19. Drug Control Strategies • Source Control • Interdiction Strategies • Law Enforcement Strategies • Punishment Strategies • Community Strategies • Drug Testing Programs • Treatment Strategies • Drug Education – D.A.R.E • Employment programs

20. Drug Legalization • Despite the massive efforts to control drugs, the fight against substance abuse has not proved successful • Difficult to get people out of the drug culture • Drug Policy Alliance, dedicated to end the “war against drugs”, which they believe has become overzealous in its effort to punish • If drugs were legal, the argument goes, price and distribution could be controlled by the government, so crime rates would drop, taxes could be collected and it would be regulated.

21. The Consequences of Legalization • Critics claim the legalization approach might have short-term effect of reducing the association between drug and crime, but it might have grave social consequences. • Might increase the rate of drug usage, more drug users might increase their daily intake • Might cause a drug use epidemic • Might encourage drug smuggling to avoid taxes