Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen Public Order Crime: Sex and Substance Abuse

Public Order or Victimless Crimes • Acts that are not in conformity with social norms, customs and values. • Laws to ensure public order usually prohibit the manufacture and distribution of morally questionable goods and services, i.e., exotic material, commercial sex and mood-altering drugs.

Law and Morality • Are victimless crimes really victimless? • Some believe that pornography, prostitution and drug use erode the morals of society and should be prohibited and punished. • Others believe that morality cannot be legislated and persons should be free to choose their own moral standards.

Social Harm • Many acts deemed highly immoral and objectionable are not in fact criminal. • Immoral acts are different from crimes on the basis of the social harm they cause.

Moral Crusades/Moral Crusaders • Vigilantes of the old West had strict standards of morality and when they caught the perpetrator, justice was sure and swift; this remains part of popular culture. • Moral Crusaders may engage in immoral and illegal acts in an attempt to protect society.

Moral Crusades/Moral Crusaders • One area of controversy is the gay lifestyle. • In Lawrence v Texas the court held that states could not criminalize oral or anal sex. • All sodomy laws are now unconstitutional and unenforceable; acts that were a crime are now legal.

Sexually Related Offenses • Paraphilias—bizarre or abnormal sexual practices involving recurrent sexual urges focused on: • Nonhuman objects • Humiliation or experience of receiving or giving pain • Children or others who cannot grant consent

Sexually Related Offenses • Outlawed sexual behaviors include: • Asphyxiophila—attempting partial asphyxia and oxygen deprivation to the brain to enhance sexual gratification. • Frotteurism—rubbing against or touching a nonconsenting person in a crowded or public area. • Voyeurism—obtaining sexual pleasure from spying on a stranger while he or she disrobes or engages in sexual behavior with another.

Sexually Related Offenses • Exhibitionism—deriving sexual pleasure from exposing the genitals to surprise or shock a stranger. • Sadomasochism—deriving pleasure from receiving pain or inflicting pain on another. • Pedophilia—attaining sexual pleasure through sexual activity with prepubescent children.

Sexually Related Offenses • Paraphilias involving unwilling or underage victims are illegal. • Most states outlaw indecent exposure and voyeurism.

Prostitution • Defined as granting non-marital sexual access, established by mutual agreement of the prostitutes , their clients and their employers, for remuneration. • Prostitution has been around for thousands of years. • Conditions usually present in a commercial sexual transaction: • Activity that has sexual significance for the customer, economic indifference and emotional indifference.

International Sex Trade/Sex Tourism • The international sex trade: some countries have legalized prostitution; in others, prostitution can carry the penalty of death. • Sex tourism—wealthy men visit semi-regulated sex areas in needy nations in order to procure young girls forced or sold into prostitution.

International Sex Trade/Sex Tourism • There is a huge demand for pornography, strip clubs, lap dancing, escorts and telephone sex in developing countries. • In addition, hundreds of thousands of women and children, most from Southeast Asia and eastern Europe, are lured by the promise of good jobs and then are forced into brothels or as circuit travelers in labor camps.

International Sex Trade/Sex Tourism • Traffickers annually import approximately 50,000 women and children every year into the U.S. despite legal prohibition.

Types of Prostitutes • Streetwalkers—prostitutes who work the streets in plain sight of police, citizens and customers are referred to as hustlers, hookers or streetwalkers. • These women wear bright clothing, makeup and jewelry to attract customers and usually take customers to hotels. • “Working the streets” is extremely dangerous for this woman.

Types of Prostitutes • Brothel prostitutes—flourished in the 19th and early 20th centuries. • Also known as bordellos, cathouses, sporting houses and houses of ill repute. • A madam is usually in charge of the “house”. • This is a woman who employs prostitutes, supervises their behavior and receives a fee for her services; her cut is usually 40 to 60 percent of the prostitute’s earnings.

Types of Prostitutes • Call girls—aristocrats of prostitution, most come from middle-class backgrounds and service upper-class customers. • Call girls either entertain clients in their own apartments or visit clients’ hotels and arguments. • Escort services—usually fronts for prostitution rings.

Types of Prostitutes • Call houses combine elements of the brothel and call girl rings; the madam receives a phone call and sends a prostitute to the caller. • Circuit travelers—prostitutes move around in groups of two or three to lumber, labor and agricultural camps.

International Trafficking in Prostitution • Trafficking for sexual exploitation is a global concern. • This can be through force, coercion, manipulation, deception, abuse of authority, initial consent, family pressure, past and present family and community violence, economic deprivation or other conditions.

International Trafficking in Prostitution • Most traffickers are men and many are involved in organized crime syndicates. • Between an estimated 600,000 to 1.2 million men, women and children are trafficked annually. • Human trafficking depends on social problems and disorder a well as economic crises.

International Trafficking in Prostitution • Skeezers—women who trade sex for drugs. Usually crack users, homeless and unemployed and suffer psychological distress. • Massage parlors/photo studios—some prostitutes are based in these locations.

Becoming a Prostitute • Most come from troubled homes; many experience sexual trauma at a young age. • They have limited education and frequently use drugs. • HIV and STDs are constant worries, as are danger and violence.

Controlling Prostitution • Prostitution is a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or short jail sentence. • Most states punish both people engaging in prostitution. • Most law enforcement aims at confining these activities to particular areas in a jurisdiction.

Legalize Prostitution? • Mixed feelings—sexual equality and free choice. • Advocates both for and against prostitution should be decriminalized, but not legalized.

Pornography/Obscenity • Pornography—this material is to provide sexual titillation and excitement for paying customers. • Obscenity—this material is “deeply offensive to morality or decency…designed to incite lust or depravity”. • While adult materials are widely accepted, the courts have held that the First Amendment was not for protecting indecency.

Pornography/Obscenity • Child pornography—sexual exploitation can devastate victims, causing physical and psychological problems. • Some studies have found a link between pornography and violence. • Nonaggressive men do not become sexual predators if exposed to pornography; those with a predisposition to violence may.

Pornography/Obscenity • While not impossible, it is difficult to prosecute due to the First Amendment protection of free speech/free expression. • Control of pornography is also difficult; one approach has been to restrict the sale to certain boundaries.

Substance Abuse • Urban areas are full of drug dealing gangs, drug users who commit crime to support their habits and alcohol-related violence. • Rural areas are staging centers for both manufacture and shipment of drugs. • Great debate over legalization of drugs and control of alcohol.

Substance Abuse • Drug use has gone on for years; opium-related drugs were easily obtained. • Alcohol was prohibited in the U.S. by the Volstead Act (1919) as a result of the temperance movement. • Prohibition was a failure—organized crime supplied illegal liquor; bootleggers corrupted law enforcement. • The 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933.

Extent of Drug Abuse • The U.N. monitors drug cultivation and use globally in an annual survey. • Monitoring the Future (MTF) surveys of U.S. adolescents who use illegal drugs or drink alcohol has declined in the past decade. • MDMA (ecstasy) is the only drug with increased use.

Extent of Drug Abuse • National Survey on Drug Use and Health, while indicating a slight decline in use of illegal substances, 20 million Americans aged 12 or older had used an illegal drug in the past year.

Extent of Drug Abuse • Alcohol abuse is a pattern of drinking, in 12 months time that results in one or more of the following: • Failing to fulfill major work, school or home responsibilities; • Drinking in situations physically dangerous; • Having recurring alcohol-related legal problems; • Continuing drinking while having ongoing relationship problems caused by drinking.

Extent of Drug Abuse • Alcohol dependence (alcoholism) includes: • Craving • Loss of control • Physical dependence • Tolerance

Extent of Drug Abuse • Intravenous (IV) drug use is tied to the threat of AIDS, largely due to the habit of needle sharing among IV users.

Causes of Substance Abuse • Subcultural view—large number of drug abusers are poor with low self-esteem, often subjected to racial prejudice. • Psychological view—drug use linked to psychological deficits such as personality disturbance and emotional problems, regardless of economic class.

Causes of Substance Abuse • Genetic factors—substance abuse may have genetic basis in parents behavior • Social learning—drug abuse results from observing parental (or other) drug use. • Problem Behavior Syndrome (PBS)—drug abusers are maladjusted, alienated and emotionally distressed and drug use is only one of many social problems.

Causes of Substance Abuse • Rational choice—choose to use due to enjoying drug’s effects, both physical and emotional. • Mixed opinions on whether a drug gateway (from alcohol to marijuana to more serious drugs) is real.

Types of Drug Users • Adolescents who distribute small amounts of drugs. • Adolescents who frequently sell drugs. • Teenage drug dealers who commit other delinquent acts. • Adolescents who cycle in and out of the justice system. • Drug-involved youth who continue to commit crimes as adults.

Types of Drug Users • Outwardly respectable adults who are top-level dealers. • Smugglers • Adult predatory drug users who are frequently arrested. • Adult predatory drug users who are rarely arrested. • Less predatory drug-involved adult offenders.

Types of Drug Users • Outwardly respectable adults who are frequent users. • Women who are drug-involved offenders.

Drugs and Crime • Many substances are criminalized due to the association between drug abuse and crime • In self-report user survey reports, people who take drugs have extensive involvement in crime. • Arrestee data estimates that 1.2 million adults aged 18 and older were arrested for a serious violent or property offense in the past year.

Drugs and Crime • Prison inmate surveys indicate that many prison inmates are lifelong substance abusers. • Many criminals are substance abusers.

Drugs and the Law • Various federal laws have attempted to increase penalties imposed on drug smugglers and limit the manufacture and sale of newly developed substances. • Drug control strategies include stopping the flow of drugs into the country, apprehending and punishing dealers and cracking down on street-level drug deals.

Drugs and the Law • War and terrorism has made control of drug sources difficult. • Interdiction strategies have not been as successful as hoped due to the vast unprotected U.S. borders. • Law enforcement strategies are usually directed at drug rings or the intimidation of street drug dealers.

Drugs and the Law • Punishment strategies—prosecution and punishment of drug offenders is a top priority, but this has not been very successful. • Many people believe that drug offender punishment is too severe.

Community Strategies/Citizen-sponsored Programs • Categories of programs to combat drugs: • Law enforcement-type efforts. • Use the civil justice system to harass offenders. • Community-based treatment efforts • Enhance the quality of life, improve interpersonal relationships and upgrade the neighborhood’s physical environment. • However, little evidence that these are effective on drug control.

Community Strategies/Citizen-sponsored Programs • Education strategies—DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is designed for elementary school students. • Drug testing in schools and the workplace is often suggested to deter substance abuse.

Drug Courts • These courts handle cases involving drug-addicted offenders through extensive supervision and treatment programs. • The courts also address the overlap between the public health threats of drug abuse and crime. • National evaluations suggest that some drug courts are more effective than others.

Drug Courts • Employment programs, involving skills training, aid in reducing the incidence of substance abuse. • Legalization of drugs might aid as the price and distribution of drugs could be controlled by the government. • Some claim that legalization might reduce the association between drug use and crime in the short-term but might result in grave social consequences.

Drug Courts • The problems of alcoholism may be a warning of what can happen when controlled substances are made readily available.

Chapter Fourteen