Crime Typologies – Preventive Policing

Crime is something that cannot be disallowed purely by law enforcement or the criminal justice system. Ideally, the scenario should be such that, crime is prevented prior to the same reaching the notice of law enforcement or before the intervention of the criminal justice system. Use of various types of environmental approaches which comprises of both situational crime prevention as well as urban planning initiatives, besides by addressing the socio-economic challenges that are being face by communities with the help of social approaches to crime prevention. Having said that, when any of the aforesaid approaches is chosen, there is a need for high levels of commitment as well as a thorough understanding of the complex dynamics operating the communities. In addition to this, there is also a need for acknowledging the various types of crime and violence including their multi-dimensional motives.  Therefore, it is vital to have a thorough understanding of the nature of specific problems associated with crime and violence, and their incidence in society, including the appropriate context so as to tackle these challenges in an effective way.  The current report aims to present a detailed discussion on how law enforcement can “clean-up” the city streets, by identifying the various role players in drug use for effectively addressing the problem of victimless crime. 

Defining Victimless Crime

“Victimless crime” is a term that does not have a suitable definition in the field of crime.  This is predominantly because crimes like these do not exist in reality.  However, there are a wide range of statutory offenses, and if an individual is engaged in any such offences, there is no scope for the presence of an evidenttarget. The irreconcilable differenceamong these statements essentially points to the fact that the word “victimless”is multi-dimensional in nature, and thus, there exists a strong possibility of being interpreted in both a comprehensive manner, and narrowly, the choice of which is dependent on the person interpreting it.

The conventional notion that is widely held by people in a society is that laws are put in place for upholding the social standards and are essentially drawn from the moral as well as ethical values. Quite a few such offenses are in fact very inconsequential in nature andis known to have on impact on individuals rather than the society at large.  Such inconsequential offenses include “illegal drug taking; prostitution; drunkenness; pornography; gambling; and various sexual acts(Fletcher, 2019).” There is a debate contending that offenses like these are regularly committed by permitting actors, and there is no incidence of any kind of injuries to the non-participants.  Moreover, the offense is committed against the state instead of society; and it is the police officers who complain about them. Although the offence in itself is regarded as an illegal act, there is however no presence an evidence victim in such cases, and therefore, it becomes easy to perceive such crimes as “victimless.”

On the other hand, there are several other situations where victims of a crime are unaware of their victimhood, and in such situations, their ignorance in itself is regarded as an acceptance of the same. The notion of not being an obvious victim in these kinds of situations, thus lies on the individual opinion of the offenderignoring the culpability.  This is predominantly either because of the absence of a formal complaint or a complaint being made, and yet the facts are being denied (Koff, 2015). It is primarily due to the fact that the offender is ignorant of these situations, it becomes easy to consider such deviant practices as being victimless. In order to counter this notion, there is a presumption that organizations act with integrity and ensure no flawed goods or services is deliberately circulated in the market, or in the incidence of any such thing, the organizations would rectify the situation without making a big fuss.

Having said that, in the contemporary world of business that is filled with intense competition, organizations are persistently seeking innovative ways for profit maximization, which at times happens at the expense of the unmindful or ignorant customer. Entrepreneurs of the contemporary era seek innovative ways for improving their business operations, and eventually maximize profit at all costs even if it means they have to be non-compliant with the existing rules, which is a clear indication of such acts bordering on the illegal extreme(Lee, 2017). There is yet another form of “victimlessness,” which involves failure to pay taxes as mandated by the government for supporting the necessary infrastructures needs aimed at social wellbeing, and such intentional acts are known to have an adverse impact on several sections of the society (Geldenhuys, 2020).

Conceptualising environmental victimisation – The Case of South African sewage irrelevance and effluence

It has been indisputably recognized that wastewater mismanagement by various municipalities in South Africa has become ubiquitous and tedious to the practical point of acceptance. Since such derision is socially destructive in nature, ending up victimising the natural ecosystem and human beings.The dwindling state of municipal wastewater including the management of sewage treatment in South Africa has been a topic of intense debate as this issue has been identified as being the largest contributing factors for the countless number of pollution issues being faced by the people living across South Africa, besides also being a key contributor for the health of not only people, but also the environment. The inability of the South African government in fulfilling its basic mandate on all of the three spheres of governance namely, national, regional, as well as local, of being efficient in safeguarding the rights and property of all people – both natural and juridical, is hindering economic growth.  As such, this issue is twinnedpurely by its continued neglect of the inadequate natural resources(Mabasa, Olutola and Mofokeng, 2022).

Crimes of this kind that are related to environmental pollution are generally categorized as “victimless” because they do not always result in an immediate consequence, contrary to the traditional crimes, and as such, the harm caused by such crimes might get diffused or go unnoticed for a long time period. It is essentially because of this, victims of environmental harm are not generally considered as offenders and are usually excluded from the conventional view of victimology, and the same is largely based on conventional constructions of crime(Imiera, 2018). Having said that, the victims of conservative crimesare known to challenge the conventional victimology approach.  This is predominantly because, most often than not, are generally prone to collective victimization, and could possibly even comprise of non-conventional victims like the current example of the natural environment in South Africa which is being harmed by the sewage issues (Agoro et al., 2020).

Conclusion

Conservation crimes as well as environmental indiscretions like the issue of wastewater mismanagement and pollution in South Africa that is being currently discussed, should also be considered in the same way as other crimes, because all of them are social constructions predominantly influenced by the power relations of the society.  As such, they reflect the social perceptions of ethicallyunacceptable conduct. As a result, monetary interests of the people in power are the key motivating factor and one that plays a pivotal role in ascertaining if these kinds of environmental harms can be treated as crimes or violations or be considered and validated as “normal.”As in the current case of South Africa that has been discussed, it is an unfortunate truthwherein wastewater mismanagement and all other relevant municipal improprieties are considered as normal and that the regulatory establishments and also the common citizens should expect them along with their manifestation typically being passed indifferently.  As such, this acts like a “concurrence” of society like for instance, victims being mostly unaware about the fact that the natural environment or the society in which they live are being victimised.

From the above discussion, it is evident that the environment as well as the communities that are affected, mostly the rural communities or the numerous informal settlements that are common in South Africa, are the victims who are being used as preys by the autocratic complacency, while at the same time, not being considered as victims in the true and actual sense of that term. As long as there is no parity, issues like the wastewater mismanagement and the continued impudencewill continued to be considered with the same ethical abhorrence as crimes committed against individuals or property, and the environmental and human victimisation would also continue relentlessly in all probabilities.