Self-Harming Crimes

The MHS political forum had an interesting discussion about rights and how the government should deal with various "victimless" crimes. Technical difficulties prevented the entire discussion from being filmed (my phones low memory), but this is proof it happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XfoNtywkXM&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJVYciMRS7g&feature=youtu.be

What political ideology/party do you identify with?

Republican - 17.7%

Democrat - 42.2%

Libertarian - 9.2%

Socialist - 5.3%

None - 25.5%

Do you believe that the government currently is too involved, or not involved enough in the lives of private individuals?

Too much - 52.6%

Not enough - 15.4%

Just enough - 32.1%

Do you think that victimless crimes in general should be legalized?...

Most legal and ethical traditions establish individual freedoms. Violations of freedom hurt happiness and utility, which utilitarians would dislike. Violating freedom is a non-universalizable moral maxim, which Kantians would dislike. Legal scholars can point to nearly any constitution as guaranteeing certain freedoms and rights. And, it's simply intuitive to think there exists some sort of freedom, the right to make ones own choices. It seems we should be able to decide what we wish to do, t...

Without even delving into dense ethical issues about individual freedom and the governments role, I think it's very defensible that status quo crimes like drug usage or prostitution should be legalized. This is due to a multitide of factors, including the ineffectiveness of prohibition and the inability to regulate criminal behavior.

For the sake of this discussion, I'll focus more on drugs because 1) they're probably the most controversial/commonly discussed "victimless cri...

This is my action research project website and will be focused on "victimless' crimes like drug use, prostitution, etc. and whether or not they should be legal. Please contribute in the comments and try to be civil.