Crisis of Overcriminalization, Essay Example

The issue of over-criminalization implies that laws put in place to regulate public morality actually serves to destruct officials of law enforcement who waste time dealing with personal fixations instead of attending to crime related offenses. The crimes discussed in this chapter include prostitution, pornography and obscenity, lewdness, gaming and gambling. I believe that the crisis of over-criminalization exists because numerous moral offenses are being treated as criminal offenses and this wastes resources that could be directed towards more serious violent offense that pose great risks to the community.

Taking the attention of law enforcement officers to the immoral behavior and conduct of other people in the community gives a great loophole for other serious criminal offenders to slip off. Although some legislative laws of morality are tagged to specific crimes like rape and murder, this should not be a strategy used to broaden the outreach to other petty aspects of people’s personal lives. For instance, in the US, there are very many people who engage in immoral behaviors where they spend most of their time in parties drinking and later having sex with partners of their choice. In fact, homosexuality behavior that used to be criminalized on the grounds that it was immoral has now been made legal.

Therefore, whether the idea of converting moral offenses to criminal offenses is good or bad, the essence in the whole scenario is that the ability to balance between the need for the laws and their cost of enforcement has been lost completely. My view is that the cost incurred by our justice system to enforce law on morality issue like prostitution, pornography, gaming and others as discussed in the chapter, outweighs their benefits to the society by far. I think that moral offenses such as prostitution, gaming and gambling should be allowed because the authorities will be able to save on costs used to follow up such activities. Another reason is that such behaviors are personal and people should be allowed to exercise their freedom rights.