1 J
'I
v'j
7 I
-J
.
1
Victimless crimes:
By Elizabeth Coleman
and Philip S. Cook
Newsweek Feature Service
Eddie is a chronic drunk. In
the last 28 of his 50 years, he
has been arrested for public
drunkenness more than 100
times and he has spent a total
of almost eight years in jail. At
the end of each sentence, he
arrives back on the streets
penniless and unemployable.
His first priority is to cadge
enough money to get drunk
again.
The bill for Eddie's binges,
which have harmed no one but
himself, has mounted to more
than $100,000 in terms of
police man-hours, court costs
and jail time-and it has been
paid by the taxpayers of
Chicago where Eddie lives.
CECILLE IS A
prostitute. She doesn't
remember how many times she
has been arrested but she
knows she has only been
convicted three times, and her
jail sentences were merely brief
interludes in her workaday
routine. Every time she is
hauled into court in her
hometown of San Francisco,
the city taxpayers ante up an
estimated $175 to pay for all
the paper work and red tape
involved in a prostitution
arrest.
Douglas urges rehabilitation
for criminals without victims
Lancaster County Attorney
Paul Douglas said the problem
with "victimless" criminals is
"what to do with them."
"The alcoholic who does
not want to be helped can't be
helped," he said. "I'd like to
see a follow-up report to see
how many have reformed and
not gone back to drinking."
Douglas said he would like
to see victimless crimes
removed from law enforcement
agency responsibility. The
problem, he said, is that no
social or medical agency is
established to handle
rehabilitatory duties.
In addition, crimes
associated with the so-called
victimless crimes must come
under police jurisdiction.
"The hue and cry is 'if the
drunk is walking the street we
help him. If he gets behind the
wheel we castrate him,"'
Douglas said.
The attorney said alcoholics
are told "better things are
ahead for you" but no
motivation is provided.
He said Municipal Court
Stuff
''. " A stuff
J Post,
5
-j"
mm jure wr
I C?a"JlllilUlS3 3
iOfCfGEflS
Ludlow is a gambler, one of
10,000 arrested on a felony
charge for gambling in New
York City during a recent
two-year period. Like 9,998 of
his fellows, he escaped a felony
conviction and a prison
sentence.
But while Ludlow's case was
being processed, tying up
dozens of hours of police time,
the numbers of murders and
assaults in New York were
soaring.
Eddie, Cecille and Ludlow
do not exist as actual
characters. But in the context
of one of the most serious
problems confronting
law-enforcement officials
today, the unsavory trio is very
real, indeed. They are among
the countless thousands of
individuals arrested each year
for committing what are
known as victimless crimes.
ACCORDING TO THE
National Council on Crime and
Delinquency (NCCD),
victimless crime is "crime
based on moral codes in which
there is no victim apart from
the person who committed it."
In addition to drunkenness,
prostitution and gambling,
other victimless crimes inlcude
vagrancy, liquor-law violations
and consensual sexual acts
committed between people
capable of consenting.
And because of society's
processes an average of about
six drunks and 2 drunken
drivers per day. On Monday
the figure jumps to 20-25
cases.
He also said studies have
shown alcohol has been the
catalyst for many other crimes.
He noted that studies of
penitentiary inmates and bogus
check writers show that "a
large percentage" had
consumed or were under the
influence of alcohol at the time
they committed their crime.
Douglas also contended the
term "victimless crimes" is a
misnomer.
"The individual is not the
only victim," he said. "For
example, a gambling husband's
wife and kids suffer because of
his gambling."
He also said legislation
legalizing some crimes,
gambling, for instance, has no
effect on associated crimes.
"Look at Las Vegas," he
said. "They have legalized
gambling but they have the
highest crime rate in the
country."
Ms stocking with
from the Hltchln'
144 North 14th.
wss
ci eztfn nisi
Bargain
should
insistence on prosecuting
victimless crimes and jailing the
"criminals", the NCCD says
victimless crime may account
for most of what's wrong with
the nation's system of justice.
"It misuses our policeman
power, congests and makes a
travesty of our courts, and
jams the jails," the NCCD
argues. "It so preoccupies the
criminal justice system that it
prevents it from dealing
effectively with real crime.
Accordingly, prison
reformers around the country
are asking whether the time has
come to stop regulating public
morality, to remove, victimless
crimes from the criminal code
and to shift them over to social
and medical agencies, thus
giving police additional time
and energy to combat the
crimes that directly threaten
public safety.
CLEARLY, THE VERY
thought of effectively
legalizing public
drunkennesslet alone
prostitution, gambling and
other age-old moral
taboos-would ignite a fierce
public controversy and it
already has upset several
community leaders and police
chiefs.
But equally clearly, as many
authorities see it, something
must be done. For as things are
now, says Justuf Freimund,
exectuive director of the
Washington office of the
NCCD, "no one benefits, not
the individual and not the
society." NCCD figures show,
for instance, that:
One-half of all those
arrested by the nation's police
forces are victimless crime
offenders, and half of all the
people in jail in the U.S. are
there for committing one or
another victimless crime.
One out of every three
arrests in the country is for
drunkenness.
OVERALL, victimless crime
as now dealt with by society
costs the American taxpayer
more than $1 billion every
year.
Several years ago, a prison
committee in Washington,
D.C., singled out six
victimless-crime offenders.
They were all drunks and
together they had been
arrested 1,409 times and had
served a collective total of 125
years in jail at an estimated
$600,000 to the taxpayers.
Not one of them was cured of
alcoholism.
And while the Washington
police were handling the
alcoholic (and the 40,000
Ira cra
OPEN Thursday & Friday nights until 9pm
they be legalized?
other drunks arrested ever)
year in the capital), the general
crime rate in the area climbed
240 per cent, with murders up
130 per cent and rapes up 220
per cent. jt
IN SAN FRANCISCO, the
arrest and prosecution of
drunks consumes $3 million a
year, or 7 per cent of he
police department's entire
annual budget. In 1969, San
Francisco police made 59,100
arrests, of which 16,500 were
for drunkenness and 3,200 for
prostitution. The relatively few
number of prostitution arrests
set the city back almost
$600,000.
That was the same year that
the city reported 83,481
killings, rapes, robberies,
burglaries, assaults and auto
thefts, of which 13 per cent
went completely unsolved.
THE MOVEMENT to at
least partially decriminalize
some victimless crimes has
gathered some impressive
political support, including
that, of President Nixon.
Several state legislatures are
considering bills that would
remove some victimless crimes
from the books.
And a few weeks ago,
Massachusetts Gov. Francis
Sargent signed a new law
making public drunkenness
Budget Committee
trims NU budqet
The final figures weren't in
yet, but it appeared Monday
afternoon that the University's
budget request would be
trimmed by the Legislature's
Appropriations Committee to
the tune of up to $5 million.
The apparent budget cuts
were revealed at the end of a
day which also saw; the
committee change its salary
policy from an average of $300
per state employe to a
minimum of $300 and a
maximum of $600.
The budget cuts would be in
the University's $50 million
general fund request. The
committee's recommendations
appeared to be in the $45-$50
million bracket.
The committee's all-funds
recommendations - may be
around $84 million, compared
with NU's present $78 million
budget.
Exon recommended a
general fund appropriation of
$47.1 million and an all-funds
total of $84.7 million.
$ Si
'""''''"i ii
officially a medical rather than
legal concern.
Other states have tried free
detoxification programs for
drunks and, while no one
makes any claim of great
success in rehabilitaticr ''ere
has been progress in re aving
the police of the problem. In
New York, for instance, the
Vera Institute has been sending
drunk-rescue patrols around
the Bowery, and arrests for
drunkenness in the area have
dropped by 97 per cent.
THE ARGUMENTS against
decriminalizing victimless
crimes are varied. Former San
Francisco police chief Alfred
Nelder has said he is
"flabbergasted by these
proposals," contending that to
loosen legal control of
prostitution and gambling
would lead to an increase in
serious crime.
California State Sen. Donald
Grunsky argues that laws
against victimless crime are
humane.
"It's the same thing as why
we should have laws against
suicide to try to prevent
suicide," he says. "I think we
should try to prevent people
from destroying themselves
with drugs, or killing
themselves with automobiles or
anything else."
Legislative fiscal staff
recommendations were in the
range of $44.6 million on
general funds and $83.6
million in all-funds. These
figures, however, were based
on the old salary policy.
University faculty members
should be the chief benefactors
of the committee's new salary
policy.
The new policy provides an
average wage increast of $200
plus 21 per cent of the wage
earner's present salary. The
maximum increase is set at
$300.
The decision allows larger
pay hikes for higher salaried
state employes than the
previous salary policy, which
was sharply criticized by
University administrators and
faculty groups.
The new salary policy also
makes void the committee's
earlier decision to purchase a
$5,000 life insurance policy for
all state employees not currently
insured by their state agency
employer.
ENDS THURSDAY!
DAILY12:16, 2:05, 3:55,
5:45, 7:35, 9:25
NO ONE UNDER 18
ill im i iiiiiiiiiimiwiii I, ibi wiiiMiiMi nil n nnnwn Minn' n
PAGE 2
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1971
