victimless crime

victimless crime An activity classified as a crime in the laws of a country, which may therefore be prosecuted by the police or other public authorities, but which appears to have no victim in that there is no individual person who could bring a case for civil damages under civil law. Unlike (say) a case of theft, the damage is to society as a whole, and to notions of morality, proper conduct, and so on. Examples might be drinking alcoholic beverages, reading Marxist literature, homosexuality, gambling, or drug-taking, in societies where such activities are prohibited. Corporate crime is sometimes regarded as a type of victimless crime. Here again, the damage could be seen to be to the business community as a whole, or to notions of trust and probity in financial matters which provides the necessary underpinning to the whole system; or the victims can be seen as the mass of shareholders, customers, and trading partners who have each sustained a tiny fractional share of the damage done. The concept is polemical, arguing in effect that certain crimes should not be prosecuted by the police, or should be decriminalized.