Is everything described as a "crime" really a crime?
Some actions are just more... wrong, or naughty.
Must we elevate so many things to the level of criminality?
Too many people are sitting in jail cells for "crimes" that are just ridiculous.
And don't get me started on the fines we pay.
Some of this crime business can often sound like a Ponzee scheme.
Redditor way2ooskeptic wanted to discuss the ways people have broken the law, and nobody was affected, but somebody still had to be punished, so they asked:
"What is truly a victimless crime?"
Home Free
"Sleeping off your drunken hangover in your car with the engine turned off in a parking lot."
- mvop413
Sleepy The Tourist GIF by HBO Max Giphy
Walk the Plank
"Pirating media that is no longer in circulation/production."
- detainthisDI
"Also, pirating after you've paid for the media in good faith, but got screwed by region locks."
"In the DVD era, it wasn't uncommon to hear of immigrants and tourists spending their hard-earned money on legit DVDs only to get a rude surprise after they moved or returned home. Region-free DVD players weren't particularly common, and even laptops often had region locks in their DVD drives that needed some technical know-how to bypass (until VLC, thank God)."
"When companies disrespect paying customers like that, pirating isn't just not-stealing - it's taking back your own property."
- tm3_to_ev6
Impaired
"If you recognize you're probably too impaired to drive (alcohol or sleep or whatever), you should not be a criminal for resting in your vehicle. That should be encouraged, even: Find a safe place to pull over without blocking anything, get in the passenger seat, and get the rest you need."
- Mackheath1
Get to the Other Side
"Jaywalking where there's no traffic."
- EtherealSerena
"I'd argue that, in aggregate, people who cross streets in inappropriate ways or at inappropriate times are doing harm not just to drivers but to other pedestrians, cyclists, etc."
"It makes people have to brake hard, which risks accidents and injury. It reduces confidence in pedestrians making sane choices, which slows down traffic."
"Jaywalking isn't a crime, but that's because negligently walking in front of a vehicle is generally a crime. It's not a crime unless somebody gets hurt."
"The US is unique in that way because we say the act of going outside of the traffic pattern is itself a crime."
- Sawses
"Technically, jaywalking isn't a crime unless a state has an additional law making it a crime. It's a civil infraction."
- the_scar_when_you_go
No Protection
"There have been many times where a whistle-blower was successfully legally punished, without functional whistle-blower protections, for pointing out a company or corporation endangering huge numbers of people."
- frobischer
"You just don't get work in your field again. I was basically fined 500k in lost wages for refusing to sign off on faulty work. (Welds on the pressure hull of submarines, no big deal, right?)"
"When my contract ended, I was not renewed. That's legal. When I applied for jobs, I was the second-best candidate and was welcomed to apply for a job in the future! Or no interview. I worked in a warehouse for a while. Definitely not my senior engineering pay. Took me three years to get an engineering job again, and ten years to get back to that pay level."
"Sometimes I'll be working away, doing well, and then for some reason, almost like my manager got a call from nowhere, I get laid off again. Maybe it's the economy again. Maybe it's my personality. Weird how you can make a company 3M one week and get a pip the next week."
- NSA_Chatbot
Whistle Whistling GIF Giphy
Consent
"Taping a football game without the written consent of the NFL... lol."
- resurrection_punch
"I almost get excited when an NHL hockey game isn't on my streaming services or my cable package. The league has gotten so f**king ridiculous with blackouts. Now, when it happens, I open up my illegal stream, feeling like godd**n robin hood. I sent the link to everyone I know. F**k em. Come at me, FBI (but don't actually because Kash's FBI seems f**ked)."
- whaletacochamp
In the Pocket
"Getting a DUI for having your keys in your pocket."
- a-broken-mind
"I knew a lady who had gotten in a drunken argument with her husband. She went to her car to get away from him, and she took her purse with her. She got in, threw her purse on the passenger seat, and reclined the seat all the way to lie down. What she didn't know was that a cop across the street had watched her stumble to her car with a beer in her hand. She got a DUI."
- BrokenPickle7
Annoying
"Dumpster Diving."
- SadlyNotDannyDeVito
"I agree and disagree on this one. I’m the GC of a construction site, and I have people dumpster diving all the time. To be honest, I don’t care because everything they take out is something I don’t have to pay for getting hauled off. So the actual act of dumpster diving is just fine."
"The problem is it opens me up to a world of liability as the GC, where one sliced leg could cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. So in a perfect world where everyone agrees that you are responsible for your actions, then hell yeah, go through my dumpster for the $2.50 of copper you’ll find."
"Also, side note. A lot of the guys who do it throw stuff out of the dumpster and cause a mess, which I have to clean up. So that’s annoying, but again, not necessarily a side effect of dumpster diving itself, just of stupid people."
- DirtyDan24137
SMOKED
"Growing and smoking your own weed."
- Imaginary-Cut-7779
"If you live by yourself and away from others. I find that people who smoke anything can be rather selfish and never take into account that most others don’t want to smell or inhale whatever it is that you’re smoking. I dont care if you’re an adult and choose to smoke, but quit doing it around other people."
- kakapoopoopeepeeshir
"(Medical) stoner here. Completely agree on the severe lack of weed etiquette. Feels like it got worse as cannabis became more common...less of a "culture" with rules being passed down. People don't seem to understand that if you wouldn't smoke a cigarette somewhere, you shouldn't be smoking your weed there, either... and that there are absolutely ways to mitigate smell. People just don't wanna spend like $30 on Smokeblaster and a smokebuddy, and it's ridiculous. Even a old sploof is better than nothing. Sorry, you've gotta deal with fools."
- noveltytie
Bins
"In the UK, recently someone got charged for littering for putting the packaging for an Amazon parcel in the public bin."
"They had picked it up from a collection point, but the council deemed it domestic waste and therefore should have been taken home and disposed of in their personal bin."
"I also saw a post on here a few days ago that someone's toddler dropped a strawberry they were eating, and the parent didn't spot it. The parent faces a fine for littering."
- Karloss_93
Friends
"Loaning your car to a friend without knowing it was going to be used to commit a crime. It's happened in the US."
- Pukitaki
"This is happening to someone I know, the police have impounded their car for the last ~6 months, and guess who has to pay for the storage and towing fees once they decide to give it back?"
- Infinity0044
friends GIF Giphy
Tops Off
"Going topless if you’re a woman. Men do it all the time. Chonky men with bigger boobs than a lot of women do it all the time. It’s weird that it’s illegal for women in a lot of places, but totally cool for dudes in nearly all places."
- Strange_Airships
"I found the Miley Cyrus bit about it funny."
"She came out on a talk show in a dress that basically had her breasts out, but she covered the nipples with pasties."
"Telling the host something like 'Oh, so you see the boob part isn't the problem, just the nipple part. I can have my whole boob out as long as I cover up my nipples.'"
"Just pointing out how stupid the rules are."
- Wessssss21
This is MY Land
"Smoking weed on my own property in a non-legal state. And driving the 5 miles from my home in Idaho to Washington to buy said weed and drive it across the border. It doesn't hurt anybody. Well, except the smoke I'm inhaling could hurt me. If you believe doctors. Luckily, I live in Idaho, so I know everything doctors say is false."
- wifespissed
So apparently, we can go to jail for anything.
@JamesTate121/X
