Category Archives: Victimless Crimes

Tiffin, Ohio Tiffin Parks and Recreation has been experiencing a substantial amount of vandalism in recent months. With the recent snowfalls, staff have noticed damage to the volleyball courts, basketball courts, parking lots and grass areas at Hedges-Boyer Park and other parks throughout the city.

The mission of Tiffin Parks and Recreation is to provide the people of Tiffin with full and equitable access to local parks, recreational programs, and leisure opportunities that enhance the quality of life in our community.

With the vandalism that has occurred, the Parks Department and Tiffin Police Department have had to divert time and resources in an attempt to bring this to an end. Additionally, expenses may be incurred to repair damage to the basketball courts, which were surfaced in 2017 for $25,000.

Mason Correll, Recreation Operations Manager for the City of Tiffin said, We ask you, as citizens of Tiffin and the surrounding areas and patrons of our local parks, to be vigilant while enjoying all that the parks have to offer. If you see something, please, say something. Together, as a community, we can make our parks even better.

In 2021, the Parks and Recreation Department invested in a high-quality surveillance system with the hopes of preventing further vandalism to the parks. Additionally, due to a large amount of vandalism, specifically car donuts, to the parking lot of the former Vic Wurm baseball field at Hedges-Boyer Park, the department will be installing concrete barriers at the top of the hill in order to restrict vehicle traffic to the parking lot.

Tiffin Mayor Aaron Montz said, These are not victimless crimes, and unfortunately result in a cost to taxpayers both through employees time and resources to address damage. City staff work hard to maintain our beautiful parks system, and it is heartbreaking to see this kind of unnecessary destruction.

To report information about recent vandalism, call Tiffin Police Department at (419) 447-2323 or Tiffin Parks and Recreation at (419) 448-5408.

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Vandalism reported at Tiffin city parks - TiffinOhio.net

The woman confessed to having extramarital sex, while the man had a reduced sentence because he denied the accusations and appealed to the Sharia Supreme Court.Mimi Saputra/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

An Indonesian woman was whipped 100 times over an affair for which the man got 15 lashes, AFP reported.

Public flogging is a common punishment for certain victimless crimes in the Aceh province.

Human Rights Watch has condemned the practice as "barbaric" and called for it to end.

On Thursday, an Indonesian woman who confessed to engaging in extramarital sex was publicly flogged 100 times in the Aceh province. AFP reported that her male partner, who denied the adultery allegations, was whipped only 15 times.

The couple were caught in 2018 at a palm-oil plantation and brought before Aceh's Islamic court, per the outlet.

The man is married and heads the East Aceh fishing agency, AFP reported, citing the head of the general investigation division at the East Aceh prosecutors' office.

The judges couldn't find the accused man guilty of adultery because he denied the charges, the prosecutor said, so he was instead accused of "showing affection to a female partner who is not his wife." They sentenced him to be flogged 30 times, and the Sharia Supreme Court reduced his punishment to 15 lashes in an appeal.

An AFP reporter at the scene Thursday said the woman's flogging was paused because she couldn't bear the pain.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that enforces Islamic law as part of an agreement that gives the region special autonomy from the rest of the nation. It permits flogging as a punishment for offenses of drinking alcohol, gambling, same-sex sexual relations, and adultery.

Human Rights Watch has condemned the practice as "barbaric punishments" for victimless crimes. And since 2017, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has called for the Aceh government to cease using the punishment.

The punishment of 100 lashes is common in Aceh for women found guilty of adultery. In October, a 19-year-old teen was flogged 100 times for having sex with an 18-year-old who wasn't her husband. She fainted after the whipping and had to receive immediate treatment from officers, according to the local outlet iNews.id.

In November, a female civil servant and the married man she was found guilty of having an affair with were given 100 lashes each. Her whipping also had to be temporarily stopped because she could not withstand the pain, iNews.id reported.

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An Indonesian woman was flogged 100 times for adultery, while the man she had the affair with received 15 lashes after denying the accusations - Yahoo...

Abstract

Two of the articles report on empirical analyses of victimless crime issues. One study examined college and high school students' perspectives regarding the extent of harm caused by victimless crimes (drug usage, gambling, pornography, and prostitution). The majority of the subjects viewed these activities as being sufficiently harmful to warrant their continued criminalization. Another study analyzed the opinions of a sample of sheriffs throughout the country regarding the enforcement of victimless-crime laws and the impact of this enforcement on the criminal justice system. Although the sheriffs recognized that the enforcement of victimless-crime laws, particularly drug laws, has contributed to an overburdened criminal justice system, they do not favor decriminalization. Another article analyzes victimless crimes (abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, gambling, and drug abuse) as social issues that impact the religious, political, and economic forces at work in the United States in the 1990's. Two articles analyze the legal, programmatic, and ethical issues associated with the use of drug courier profiles to establish the "reasonable suspicion" required for an investigative stop and search. The two authors disagree about the U.S. Supreme Court's acceptance of this practice as a constitutional investigative technique. For individual articles, see NCJ 143897-143901. Article references and data

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VICTIMLESS CRIMES | Office of Justice Programs

Around one in 13 Brits have admitted engaging in fraudulent conduct in the past year, with many people believing that common rusessuch as claiming an online order has not been delivered to get a refund and falsifying an insurance claimare acceptable.

The shock figures come from a recent survey commissioned by fraud prevention body Cifas, which also found that many cheats believe fraud is a victimless crime.

The survey presented 2,000 Brits aged 16 and up with ten scenarios of typical first-party fraud, asking them to anonymously state how reasonable they thought the cheat was, whether the fraudster was acting illegally and whether they themselves or someone they know has committed the same actions in the last 12 months.

The types of first-party fraud that were judged the most reasonable include selling a vehicle thats subject to a finance agreement (seen by 22.9% of respondents as reasonable), money muling (16.6%), and submitting a false insurance claim (10.3%). These scenarios were also the least likely to be described as illegal, although they are.

This cavalier attitude toward scams is one of the reasons fraud is on the rise. Data from the National Fraud Database revealed an 18% increase in first-party fraud in the first nine months of 2021, compared to the same period in 2020. The most common form was the misuse of bank accounts, with 56,000 cases, accounting for more than seven in 10 instances of first-party fraudulent conduct.

Young people are more likely to be involved in scams: more than one in seven Brits aged 16-34 admit to being involved in at least one form of first-party fraud.

But while this everyday fraud is seen as victimless, it impacts all of us, Cifas Head of Fraud Intelligence, Amber Burridge, said. "The findings reveal a continued attitude of fraud being a victimless crime. Committing what may be seen to be everyday fraud impacts all our daily finances, such as through higher insurance premiums, increased delivery fees and bigger council tax bills. Its vital we all recognise the consequences of committing fraud and arent tempted into doing it, she explained.

She also warned that criminals exploit this sense that everyday fraud is harmless and recruit people to unwittingly assist in schemes that fund organised crime and terrorism.

We know criminals will often attempt to convince those they recruit that what theyre doing is harmless. A common example of this is money muling, whereby individuals are asked to receive money into their bank account and forward the funds on to another account, keeping a proportion for themself. In fact, this money has likely come from someone who has been scammed and criminals are trying to mask the money in order to fund high harm crimes such as drug trafficking, people trafficking and terrorist financing, she said.

If an opportunity to make money feels too good to be true, then it probably is. Always take time to do your research and consider the impacts of getting involved before doing so, she added.

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8% of Brits Admit Engaging in 'Everyday' Fraud Last Year - Money Expert

Victimless Crime Examples

Remember, victimless crimes in the United States are classified as such if they do not harm other individuals or property and involve only consenting adults. Regardless, these acts are still considered to be crimes because they involve acts that many consider unethical or immoral, such as drug use, illegal gambling, and prostitution.

Trespassing that does not harm the property or other individuals is considered a victimless crime.

A more complete list of crimes that are perceived as victimless include:

Because prostitution typically occurs between two consenting adults, many say that it is a victimless crime. However, others argue that prostitution exploits sex workers, who are often forced to engage in sex work against their will. They also argue that because it often involves sex acts which are considered by many to be degrading, it is harmful to all women because it perpetuates their continued objectification. Sex worker advocates say because they often lack resources, those who are employed in prostitution are also victimized by the criminal justice system.

When most people think of victimless crimes, drug use is usually among the first to come to mind. Drug use is often done in private and involves only consenting individuals (spiking someone's drink or somehow drugging them without their consent is not a victimless crime). However, drug use and drug trafficking, in particular, often have indirect victims. As mentioned above, children of drug users are often considered victims, as are other family members. Some say the entire community is harmed because those who abuse drugs are often unable to be productive members of society. Public drug users can leave behind needles which can harm others.

Drug trafficking can be a highly lucrative activity. Sometimes competition and a desire to evade law enforcement leads those involved to commit additional crimes which do have victims. Additionally, drug users themselves, particularly when under the influence, often become victims of other crimes, including robbery or sexual assault.

Some have also argued that the "War on Drugs" and other efforts to stop drug use have been used to justify racist policing policies that have victimized communities of color. Studies have shown that when compared to white men, black men have been disproportionately arrested, convicted, and incarcerated for drug-related offenses. The "broken windows" theory of policing asserts that relatively minor crimes, including many victimless crimes, lead to more serious crimes. That theory led the New York City Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to take a "stop and frisk" approach, allowing officers to stop individuals in hopes of finding drugs or other evidence of illegal activity. Because Black and brown males have been stopped at much higher rates, stop and frisk policies have been ruled unconstitutional because they violate the rights of brown and black residents, who were unfairly victimized.

Possession and use of marijuana, once considered a crime, has been legalized in several states.

When a large percentage of a jurisdiction's citizens no longer opposes victimless crimes, the crimes often become legal or decriminalized. In the U.S., the possession and use of marijuana has been decriminalized in several states, including Massachusetts, Colorado, California, and others. Assisted suicide is now legal in several states. Prostitution has been legal for decades in some parts of Nevada. Outside the United States, other countries view victimless crime from vastly different perspectives, with some handing down harsh punishment for the actions, while other countries deem the same action to be legal.

Victimless crimes are illegal acts that occur between one or more consenting adults and do not harm property or other people. In the United States, some examples of victimless crimes include:

Some experts say that all crimes harm society and there is no such thing as a victimless crime. Drug use and prostitution both happen between consenting adults, however, it can be argued that they harm others and, therefore, are not victimless crimes. When a society's view of victimless crimes changes, those acts are often legalized. Assisted suicide and marijuana use are two examples of acts that were once criminalized that are now legal in many parts of the United States.

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Victimless Crimes Examples, List & Explanation | What is a ...

Around one in 13 (8%) people admit they have been involved in fraudulent conduct in the past year including around one in seven (15%) 16 to 34-year-olds.

The most common everyday frauds included falsely claiming an online delivery had not been received in order to get a refund, receiving a single person discount on a council tax bill, and falsifying an insurance claim.

The survey of 2,000 people across the UK was commissioned by fraud prevention body Cifas.

The types of direct fraud seen as the most reasonable by those surveyed included selling a vehicle that was subject to a finance agreement, money muling and submitting a false insurance claim.

Cifas said figures from the National Fraud Database during the first nine months of 2021 reveal an 18% increase in first-party fraud cases, compared with the same period in 2020.

The most common forms of first-party fraud recorded to the database during this period involved the misuse of bank accounts.

Cifas head of fraud intelligence, Amber Burridge, said: The findings reveal a continued attitude of fraud being a victimless crime.

Committing what may be seen to be everyday fraud impacts all our daily finances, such as through higher insurance premiums, increased delivery fees and bigger council tax bills. Its vital we all recognise the consequences of committing fraud and arent tempted into doing it.

She said criminals will often attempt to convince those they recruit that what they are doing is harmless with a common example being money muling, when people agree to receive the proceeds of crimes into their bank account.

Ms Burridge continued: In fact, this money has likely come from someone who has been scammed and criminals are trying to mask the money in order to fund high-harm crimes such as drug trafficking, people trafficking and terrorist financing.

If an opportunity to make money feels too good to be true, then it probably is. Always take time to do your research and consider the impacts of getting involved before doing so.

For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.

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'Everyday' frauds that some people believe are reasonable to commit revealed - Leicestershire Live - Leicestershire Live

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday in no uncertain terms that he thinks shoplifters should be prosecuted under existing California laws, as he called out local officials whom he said have been reluctant to do so.

He was responding to a recent run of large-scale thefts in California and across the nation in which groups of individuals shoplift en masse from stores or smash and grab from display cases. Single operators have also been a growing problem for retailers who say the thieves face little consequence.

Newsom, a Democrat who has boasted of his criminal justice reform efforts, promised that the proposed budget he sends to state lawmakers next month will "significantly increase our efforts to go after these retail rings."

CALIFORNIA HIGH-CAPACITY GUN MAGAZINE BAN UPHELD BY FEDERAL APPEALS COURT

Gov. Gavin Newsom pauses while speaking to the press during a visit to Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland, California, on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The governor recently gave his thoughts on prosecuting shoplifting crimes. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)

Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Newsom appointee who has touted his own progressive reforms, separately made similar get-tough comments Wednesday.

Both defended Proposition 47, a ballot measure approved by California voters in 2014 that reduced certain theft and drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors.

Property crime dropped significantly since then despite the recent high-profile cases, Newsom said. State crime statistics show property crimes dipped 7.7% last year, led by a nearly 15% drop in larceny thefts and 4% drop in burglaries.

But Newsom said both the recent spate of mass thefts and lack of prosecutions are "unacceptable."

"If people are breaking in, people stealing your property, they need to be arrested. Police need to arrest them. Prosecutors need to prosecute them. Judges need to hold people accountable for breaking the law," Newsom said. "These are not victimless crimes, and I have no empathy for these criminal elements."

Even thefts under $950 should be prosecuted as misdemeanors or "stacked" into felony complaints if there are repeat offenses, he said, contending some officials "choose" not to do so.

"I want to see local efforts. I want to see them stepped up," said Newsom, formerly San Francisco's mayor. "Look at the laws. You have the ability. Stack repeat offenders and move to prosecute."

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin last week announced felony charges against nine people for a series of thefts, and Bay Area prosecutors announced a joint effort to combat organized retail theft.

Boudin's spokeswoman, Rachel Marshall, agreed with Newsom's comments on Proposition 47 and the need for "every player in the legal system and every city agency" to step up.

"Our office prosecutes cases in which police make arrests; this year, we have filed charges in 80% of burglaries referred to us," she said. She said the office "has been a leader through the retail theft taskforce, funded by Governor Newsom, in dismantling the networks behind organized retail theft."

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascn, who also ran on a reform platform, did not respond to comment requests.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascn and Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore along with community leaders discuss community violence reduction efforts in Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 in Los Angeles. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Bonta, the state's top law enforcement officer, also called for cracking down on organized retail thefts like those before the Thanksgiving holiday.

"Those are felonies. There are more than enough tools in the California criminal justice toolbox to charge them as such and hold the folks accountable," Bonta said during a Sacramento Press Club forum.

"These fit squarely within the organized retail crime statutes in the state of California where people are acting in concert with one or more people to exchange or return or sell what they steal."

Newsom also repeated his criticism of San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez a day after an 11-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Benitez and upheld Californias ban on ammunition magazines holding more than 10 bullets.

He called Benitez a "radical judge ... who seemingly thinks weapons of war are appropriate" criticism he first leveled in June when the judge overturned the state's assault weapon ban.

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Newsom noted a 15-year-old Michigan youth is alleged to have used a handgun with three magazines holding 15 bullets each to kill four of his school classmates and wound seven others Friday.

"Theres no country on Planet Earth that experiences what we experience," Newsom said. "How about the freedom from ... the fear and anxiety of being able to send your kid to a school like this without worrying about weapons of war being promoted by judges and being promoted by politicians?"

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California Gov. Newsom blames local officials for not ...

Wirral Council has turned to a high-tech solution to help with investigations into incidents such as fly-tipping.

A new partnership with technology firm, iDefigo, means that the council now has access to cutting-edge, wireless camera equipment that can be deployed in minutes to potential hotspots to gather quality evidence of criminality.

The local authority has previously deployed CCTV surveillance equipment before in its efforts to build cases against suspected fly-tippers, but success has been limited, primarily due to the nature of the equipment being used.

Cllr Liz Grey, Chair of the Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee, said: Fly-tipping is not a victimless crime, it is one we take very seriously due to the impact it has on peoples quality of life and the cost in environmental as well as financial terms.

"The council spends approximately 3.6m a year on street cleansing and the cost of clearing fly-tipping alone on council land can range from around 200 to 500 per incident.

We always say enforcement officers will use every power at their disposal to prosecute those responsible for environmental crimes and that is true. This is why we are investing in this high-tech evidence-gathering tool it will increase our chances of achieving successful prosecutions, which in turn will mean we are able to recover the costs associated with clearing up and investigating fly-tipping incidents.

The old CCTV units that used to be used, were outdated and required a wired infrastructure, a large heavy battery and encrypted hard local drives. The equipment was often unreliable and difficult to deploy, hide, and maintain on-site.

Reviewing incidents on these systems also required a significant amount of officer time to manually scroll through footage.

But the new system - the Vodafone Smart Wireless Camera, provided by iDefigo addresses a number of those weaknesses and also brings other functionality which will help in the evidence-gathering process.

There is no need for daily inspections to download footage as it is instead uploaded and stored on a cloud-based platform and can be easily reviewed from anywhere online or using phone-based apps.

The smart cameras can be left on-site for weeks without having a battery recharge, subject to volume of activity or traffic at the site, and they are fully GDPR compliant.

The new equipment can be installed on-site in around half an hour, though all covert operations are subject to obtaining authorisation via the magistrates court, which can take time.

Councils will only be authorised to use covert surveillance for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime and where doing so is in the public interest.

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Wirral Council invests in technology to catch fly-tippers - Wirral Globe

(The Center Square) Tennessee ranked fourth in the country in the CATO Institutes recent 2021 Freedom in the Statesrankings.

The rankings use 230 policy variables to rank states on how their policies promote freedom in fiscal, regulatory and personal realms. The CATO Institute is a public policy think tank based on libertarian ideals to promote limited government, free markets and peace.

Tennessee ranked second in the nation in fiscal policy freedom and also was second in economic freedom. Florida was No. 1 in fiscal policy freedom, while Nevada was first in economic freedom.

Tennessee has long been one of the economically freest states, largely because of its outstanding fiscal policies, but it also used to be one of the personally freest states in the South, the report said. That edge disappeared as it became a more stereotypical red state. As a result, Tennessee fell from third in overall freedom in 2001 to seventh in 2012.

Tennessee does not have a state income tax. Both its state and local taxes are below the national average. Overall state-level taxes fell from 5.1% of adjusted personal income in Financial Year 2007 to 4.1% in FY 2020. The national average is 5.7%.

Local taxes average 2.5% in Tennessee, below the national average.

CATO suggests that states separate spending and tax committees in the legislature, a reform shown to correspond to lower spending over time. Sales taxes are high and could be cut.

Tennessee ranked much lower, 39th, in personal freedoms that include victimless crimes, guns, tobacco, and education.

You can read Tennessees specific rankingshere.

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CATO: Tennessee 4th freest state in the U.S. - The Center Square

If you want to know what the United States would look like if progressives were in charge, just take a look at what San Francisco has become.

San Francisco, of course, isnt the only city in America with homeless people living, urinating and defecating on the streets. But in San Francisco homelessness is endemic; its all over the place, as Michael Gibson has chronicled with depressing detail in National Review.

Up and down the citys disorienting hills, you notice homeless men and women junkies, winos, the dispossessed passed out in the vestibules of empty storefronts on otherwise busy streets. Encampments of tents sprout in every shadowy corner: under highway overpasses, down alleys. Streets are peppered with used syringes. Strolling the sidewalks, you smell the faint malodorous traces of human excrement and soiled clothing. Crowded thoroughfares such as Market Street, even in the light of midday, stage a carnival of indecipherable outbursts and drug-induced thrashings about which the police seem to do nothing.

Wait, it gets worse. San Francisco, arguably, now may lay claim to the title, Looting capital of America. And looters who usually hit easy targets such as neighborhood drug stores and get away with stealing whatever they want recently figured, Why not try something more glamorous and more profitable? So they broke into glitzy stores in San Franciscos swanky shopping district, including a Louis Vuitton establishment, and ransacked the place. According to the Los Angeles Times, The shoplifting caravan cut a swath through San Franciscos high-end boutiques, creating a scene of chaos while stealing more than $1 million in merchandise.

Criminals are immoral but not stupid. They know that San Franciscos progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin, like progressive Democratic DAs across America, doesnt especially like prosecuting crime, which he has blamed on poverty, wealth inequality and inadequate government spending on social programs everything but criminals themselves.

Boudin has said that prostitution and open drug use are victimless crimes. He said he wouldnt prosecute so-called quality of life crimes. The result: Even many of San Franciscos supposedly open-minded progressive residents have taken matters into their own hands by hiring private security guards.

But now, in the wake of well-publicized looting videos, Boudin suddenly started sounding like a prosecutor and not a left-wing social worker, telling a local TV reporter that the recent wave of lootings is absolutely unacceptable and that he is preparing tough charges against those arrested.

Forgive me if Im not buying his conversion. Everyone looks out for No. 1 to some extent, but politicians are in a class by themselves. And guess what: Voters have grown so sick and tired of his soft-on-crime policies that Boudin now faces a recall election set for next June. You think that might have something to do with his newfound desire to prosecute looters? I do.

Once you could walk all over the city, enjoy the sites and its bohemian spirit, and not fear for your safety. But according to midyear statistics, gun violence is up in San Francisco the number of shootings, fatal and non-fatal, is more than double the number in 2019 and 2020.

In 2014, voters in California passed a proposition that classified possession of hard drugs for personal use and theft of up to $950 as misdemeanor offenses. Progressives pushed the proposition, and when it passed criminals took notice.

Progressives like to think theyre enlightened and that their woke ideas are making life better for the people they were elected to serve. But their supposed enlightenment has only encouraged dysfunction. Its true not only in San Francisco but in almost every major American city that is run by progressive Democrats. Bret Stephens, in his New York Times column, asks a good question: Can anyone seriously say that Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Philadelphia or New York has been improved in recent years under progressive leadership?

You can reasonably ask the same question about San Francisco, which is the subject of a new book with a catchy title by Michael Shellenberger San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities.

San Francisco is a city that has survived earthquakes and fires but the jury is out on whether it can survive progressive politics. Its a city that looks magnificent from a distance, as a local venture capitalist put it, but now shockingly ugly up close.

Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He was a correspondent with HBOs Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel for 22 years and previously worked as a reporter for CBS News and as an analyst for Fox News. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Patreon page. Follow him on Twitter @BernardGoldberg.

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High on a hill, San Francisco calls to progressives and criminals | TheHill - The Hill