What is a Victimless Crime?

Using the term "victimless crimes" to some people is going to sound like a cold or a heartless term to use when you are talking about things like prostitution or the drug war. People look at those topics and they think about the young children who are forced into human trafficking or the many who have lost their lives in the gang violence surrounding the drug war and they think, how is this at all 'victimless'?

But those who refer to these activities as "victimless crimes" are referring to the term in the traditional sense of having personal private property invaded/harmed or stolen.

When a person goes to seek out illicit drugs from another person for ex, and they make a voluntary exchange with one another, there isn't any property there that has been violated, because consent was involved in the exchange between the two people involved.

If however, someone stole from another, ripped someone off, assaulted someone etc, this no longer would qualify as a victimless crime because it then involves the destruction of someone else's property.

But the act of buying/selling/ingesting the "drugs" itself isn't seen to some as a "crime" per se, because there isn't any property that has been violated or harmed if those exchanges were done with consent.

If an individual was forced into human trafficking or prostitution, then they aren't giving the consent to engage in that exchange. Consent is what determines if a crime has been committed. A victimless crime means that there is no victim because all parties involved have given their voluntary consent.

This isn't to say that violence hasn't spilled over because of the drug war for example, where thousands of innocent people have lost their lives because of it. But many would argue that the violence which occurs is greatly inflicted as a result of the illegality surrounding the activities. And when violent crimes do occur they should be dealt with accordingly, with justice and remedy being sought for the victim who had their property violated.