On Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:31:19 +0000, John Williamson
wrote:

And what would you do about the crimes that *have* no victims?

Name one crime *which would result in a prison term* which does not have
any victims.

Buying some drugs for you and your mates (possession with intent to
supply).

Support may well be needed for the users, in which case support staff
and those who pay for them (All taxpayers) may be considered victims.
Crimes may well have been committed in order to get the money. Also,
which drugs? The users may be considered victims in some cases.

Come off it! If such indirect costs of the unintended consequences of
the "victim's" consensual act had to be paid for by the actor, we
would have to charge sportsmen, DIYers, mountaineers etc. All run a
higher-than-average risk of requiring expensive assistance from other
people.

Looking at an indecent cartoon image of a child.

Possible. Although the idea for the cartoon must have come from somewhere.

And? Who is the victim of a person's idea?

Having
completely consensual sex with an emotionally mature 15 year old.

Some believe that the current age of consent is too low. Although the
boundary between being 15 years 364 days and 16 years of age is
arbitrary, and differs between cultures and over time.

Quite - so it doesn't really make sense that a 15 year old in the UK
should be considered to be a victim if s/he had consensual sex, whilst
the *same person* would not be a victim if it happened in Spain. Or a
17 year old is a victim if having sex in one US state, but not
another. The point I'm making is that not all convictions for
underage sexual activity actually have a "victim" in the true sense.

Downloading a copy of "The anachist's cookbook".

Possible, but not necessarily incurring a prison sentence if you take no
action based on its content.

It not only could, but IIUC actually *has* incurred a prison sentence.

From Wikipedia:-
"In 2007, a seventeen year old British youth was arrested in Britain and
faced charges under Terrorism Law in the UK for possession of this book,
*among other things*. He was cleared of all charges in October 2008,
after alleging that he was a prankster that just wanted to research
fireworks and smoke bombs."

Yes, he was lucky to be found NG, other people have not been so lucky.

I added the emphasis for clarity.

I strongly suspect that the "other things" were of a similar level of
activity - i.e. looking up "iffy" things on the Internet.

Anyway, I think you have conceded that it is indeed possible to be
imprisoned for a crime that has no victims.

In many cases no victim exists for the actual crime committed, because
the crime is of the type where harm is statistically more likely, not
a certainty. Drink-driving for example. If the drunk driver did not
have an accident, there is no victim of *that particular* crime.

--
Cynic