Most people believe that criminal justice is a proper function of government. Many libertarians believe that it could be done better privately, but that's another issue. That aside, criminal justice is a function we have assigned to government.

It's important that we all understand that government is the servant of the people. We are not serfs or slaves to be dictated to by our own government. Our society existed before government, and all government functions were to have been "at our request". Our government, at all levels, exists because we want it to... allow it to... and we foot the bill for it. 

I emphasize these points because our ever-expanding criminal justice system of laws, enforcement, prosecution, and punishment has caused most Americans to feel as if we are servants of government... as if government is the master and we are the subjects. Government exists only because the people choose to have some functions done centrally. If that government becomes oppressive, we, the people, have a Constitutional right, and an obligation, to "alter or abolish" it.

Let's consider "crime". Certainly causing physical harm to another person or their property should be considered criminal, and deserves action. Should any other actions be criminal?

If two adults consent to an activity between them, that harms nobody else, how can that be considered a crime?
Who is the victim?

If an adult voluntarily does something that harms nobody but themselves, how can that be considered a crime?
Who is the victim?

Libertarians believe that an action without a victim cannot be considered criminal. Such an action may be stupid or self-destructive, but not criminal.

Most consensual or victimless crimes are moral, usually religious, views made criminal... meaning that the morality views of some people have been forced on all people. If a majority of citizens believe that an action is immoral, does that give them the right to force that view on those who disagree? Do they have the right to criminalize that action and punish those who disagree? One of the principles on which this nation was founded was protecting minorities from majority oppression. Majority rule is mob rule, and that has NO place in a free society.

Look at some of the "activities without victims" that we've made criminal:

Gambling
Recreational drug use
Religious drug use
Medicinal drug use
Prostitution
Pornography
Obscenity
Violations of marriage (adultry, fornication, oral sex, anal sex, bigamy, polygamy, cohabitation)
Homosexuality
Unorthodox medical practices
Unconventional religions
Unpopular political views
Suicide and assisted suicide
Transvestism
Not using safety devices (seat belts, helmets),
Public drunkeness
Jaywalking
Loitering & Vagrancy
Operating almost anything without a license
and thousands of "blue laws" and local laws you won't know about until you're arrested.

You may well view a number of those activities as immoral, but I'd be very surprised if any reader of this has not violated more than one of those laws, which is why we've been described as "A Nation of Criminals". None of these activities harms anyone, unless it's the participant. If injury to another occurs during any of these activities, the injury may be a crime, but the activity itself must not be.

Put another way... if, by arresting a perpetrator, you've
also arrested the victim, it shouldn't be a crime.

The moralists sometimes argue that many of these activities cause emotional harm to others, such as family members. That argument holds no water at all. We all do things that cause others emotional harm. Perhaps the largest example is divorce, which has caused emotional harm to a large majority of the population. Should divorce therefore be criminalized?

Of all these consensual crimes, drug laws are the major ones.
More than a third of all prosecutions are for drug offenses.

In U.S. District courts, over the past 20 years:

• violent crimes cases are up 3%
• property crimes cases rose by 23%
• public order (weapons) cases up by 84%
• and drug cases up by an astounding 298%

89% of drug defendants are convicted.
Drug case sentences average 73.9 months
Weapons case sentences average 87.3 months

Remember... More than 80% of drug law violation arrests are for mere possession, and have been since at least 1982.

In what way does possession, or manufacture,
or transport, of a substance cause harm?

Does the SALE of a substance cause harm to someone? If it does, it would be the buyer, wouldn't it, and the buyer is asking to purchase the substance. There is no victim, and no crime involved... which is why our laws have been designed to punish everyone involved. It wouldn't be fair to pick on just one innocent party, would it?

Polls show that 80% of Americans now support legalization of medical marijuana, and an ever-growing number of states are passing such legislation in spite of federal laws to the contrary. That shows that the American people are wiser than their federal representatives, and that the War on Drugs is fading, but it's still destroying people every day that we put up with it.

We're spending at least $50 billion each year on consensual crime. We're losing an estimated $150 billion in lost taxes. $200 billion would cut the income tax load by one-third... just by decriminalizing consensual crimes.

Even aside from the wrongheadedness of criminalizing consensual behavior, and the economic disaster, there are many other negatives:

• Lives are simply destroyed, including family members of prisoners.
• Criminalizing consensual activities drives up the cost, which causes real crimes.
• When so many activities that don't seem wrong are criminal, we all lose respect for the law.
• Consensual crime loads are diverting police, courts, and prisons away from real crimes.
• When consensual crime is criminal, it invites organized crime activities.
• When the law tries to protect us from ourselves, it falsely implies that legal activities are safe.
• Complete enforcement is impossible, so it's arbitrary and unfair.
• Morality laws are majoritarian, so they discriminate against minorities and the poor.
• Criminalization prevents people from seeking help for addictions.

And, as the late Peter McWilliams, who suffered and died as a direct result of the drug laws, stated in "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do"...

"Laws against consensual activities create a society
of fear, hatred, bigotry, oppression, and conformity;
a culture opposed to personal expression, diversity, freedom, choice, and growth."

Making consensual activities illegal accomplishes nothing positive. It doesn't stop the activity, but drives it underground where it becomes associated with real criminal activity and with real criminals. It's a disgraceful distortion of our criminal justice system.

Another cornerstone of the libertarian ideology is that you can't FORCE people to be moral, and you can't FORCE them to abide by laws that make no sense. Free people must be free to do what they like, as long as they harm nobody else. That is the essence of personal liberty.

In the next segment of this series, I'll introduce the subject of restitution, an idea that is seldom used, but that has the power to reduce crime without all the downside we've seen from current methods.