norml21 - Page 47
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IVo THE STAND_D TO BE APPLIED IN DETERMINING WHETHER THE
ACTIVITY OR BEHAVIOR CONSTITUTING VICTIMLESS CRIMES IS
PROTECTED BY THE NINTH AND TENTH AMENDMENTS SHOULD BE
WHETHER THE ACT OR BEHAVIOR TO BE REGULATED CAUSES HARM TO
PERSONS OTHER THAN THE ACTOR°
Victimless crimes have been defined as:
Those nonforceful offenses where the conduct
subjected to control is committed by adult
participants who are not willing to complain
about their participation in the conduct, and
where no direct injury is inflicted upon
other persons not participating in the
proscribed conduct°
Decker, The Case_fQr Recognition of an_Absolute Defense or
Mitigation in Crimes Without Victims, 5 S:o Mary's L.J. 40, 41
(1973) .
The major political theorist of the American colonial
periods James Otis_ in his pamphlet, The l_qhts__Q___the Briti_!
Colonies Asserted and Proved, enunciated the natural rights of
man concept, and in doing so, formulated a standard with the
following guidelines:
The natural liberty of man is to be free from
any superior power on earthe and not to be
under the will or legislative authority of
man, but only to have the law of nature for
his rule. The colonists being men, have a
right to be considered as equally entitled to
all the rights of nature with the Europeans,
and they are not to be restrainejx in the
exercise of n_ of these ri_gh_ts__but for the
evident qood of the communit_o By being or
becoming members of society, they have not
renounced their natural liberty in any
greater degree than other good citizens, and
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