Lesser Crimes & Offenses - Lesser Offenses In Perspective, Lesser Offenses: The Big Five, Lesser Offenses: Abuse Is Up

Roughly 80% of crime never makes it into the crime rate. Such offenses include fraud, prostitution, sex offenses, weapons, drugs, gambling, drunk driving, and vagrancy. Many of these offenses have been addressed in other chapters. Gun possession is covered in Chapter 2 with violent crime. Fraud has been included with property crime in Chapter 3. Juvenile crimes — truancy and runaways, for example — are included in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 deals with drugs. The reader may also wish to study Chapter 8: it describes the demands that these crimes have made on law enforcement.

This chapter will focus on crimes of public order. These crimes are not about profit or revenge, which characterize many property or violent offenses. These crimes are largely about behavior that is destructive to — as the term public order suggests — a civil, smoothly flowing society. Indeed, many of these offenses, particularly prostitution, are referred to as victimless crimes.

The first panels in this chapter will provide an overview of arrests and trends in sentencing. Before examining particular offenses, the chapter will briefly examine the role alcohol plays in crime. Over 2 million alcohol-related crimes — such as drunk driving, liquor law violations, and disorderly conduct — are committed each year. This figure does not even include the violent and property crimes influenced by alcohol. Two panels follow on drinking and driving. Arrests for drunk driving have fallen since the 1980s, as have the number of fatalities in alcohol-related crashes. But there are those who still get behind the wheel when they have had too much to drink. There are still those who pay the price for this recklessness. Nearly 16,000 people die annually in alcohol-related crashes.

After a brief look at Internet gambling, the chapter will focus on sex-related crimes. Over the last decade, increased attention has been paid to stalking. What happens when an ex-spouse or boyfriend, or, indeed, a virtual stranger, starts showing up at your work or home? Is he or she a danger, even if no threats have been made? The next panel deals with sex offender registries. Current legislation demands that the public be notified when a sexual predator moves into their neighborhood.

The last panel will look at prostitution. Some communities have been overwhelmed by prostitutes and the men who go in search of them. How are local law enforcement and communities handling this issue? As the world's oldest profession, can we expect ever to rid ourselves of prostitution? What about this perennial question: Should prostitution be legalized?