Laws are there for a reason, and it’s likely safe to assume that without them, chaos would ensue. However, while some rules are there to stop crime and wrongdoing against people, others seem to regulate situations where no one’s actually a victim.
The ‘Ask Reddit’ community members recently discussed what is or feels like a victimless crime. They shared their thoughts after the user u/secondfiddle00 started the thread, which covered everything from dumpster diving to collecting rainwater. Scroll down to find more of redditors' answers on the list below.
This post may include affiliate links.
As an ER nurse, I give a lot of s**t away to patients against the rules or advise them where they can get it cheaper. Big hospitals have more money than God, but want me to send you home with 1or2 wound supplies for a wound that will take 4 weeks to heal. F**k that. Here's a box of 50 for your purse. I never gave that to you. Hey, you need crutches, and here they are, but first. Before you sign that you got these. These crutches are $1000. The same or better are on Amazon for $50 or less. I'm not telling you how to live your life, but I can offer you a free wheelchair ride out to your sons car...
You could argue that the hospital is the victim here. I'm telling you that the hospital gets a discount on supplies and marks them up 1000% to sell to those going through an emergency. Who's really the victim?
Edit:
Appreciate all the support! Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope I never have the pleasure of taking care of any of you. Stay healthy people and keep living your life to the best you can.
To those saying I could get fired for this. I appreciate the concern. I can almost guarantee I will one day be fired for this. It's worth it to me. I will get another job in a different ER and continue my work.
Regarding the people saying I'm contributing to the problem. The problem is in the USA Healthcare model. Everything from insurance to CEOs. If my treatment and proper care of the individual is contributing to the problem, frankly, I don't think I care tbh. I will continue.
Lastly. Various arguments have been made to if this is a victimless crime or not. I don't disagree with some, but it's the closest thing I have to answer the question. Apologies if it doesn't 100% fit.
Stay beautiful people
I am starting to get at feeling this list should be marked "illegal in the US".
Assisted s*****e. As long as it’s humane, the person is of right mind and age, and there is sufficient cause for such a procedure. Death with dignity has been withheld for too long as a civil society.
Totally agree it should be legalised (under strict controls, obviously). Refusing a humane end to a suffering animal is rightly considered cruelty, so why do humans not get that same mercy when they need it?
Because they're still paying taxes/bills. This is one of many reasons why failed capatalism needs to end.
Load More Replies...
I disagree that it should only be for the terminally ill. Deep depression that cannot be treated with therapy, drugs, treatment ECT. IS a quality of life problem. I have been there, the only reason I am not there today is psychedelic therapy. So lets imagine for a moment. You wake up everyday, and feel nothing but pain, pain in your body (yes depression that deep HURTS), pain to the very core of your being, and pain in your mind. Then try to imagine you have done everything within your power to make yourself better (you have done years of therapy, you have taken pretty much every antidepressant known to man, you've tried alternate therapy (meditation, Riki, electroshock, vibration therapy.) And yet you STILL wake up feeling in pain, and just SO tired... Just so f**king tired of waking up to that everyday with no hope of it getting any better, because you have exhausted every avenue, THEN tell me it's not a quality of life problem. Yes I do believe there should be required counseling for 6 months- a year (with no improvement) before someone with MH problems is allowed to do it, but I think it is cruel to make people suffer that way as well. Most countries that offer Assisted suicide to people with MH problems do have that policy though, I know because before psychedelic therapy became available that was the next step for me.
Micro-dosing of psychoactive drugs, in the hands of capable medical practitioners, seems to be showing significant promise with people for whom the traditional therapies have failed to yield positive results. I hope this works for you.
Load More Replies...
Why is suicide redacted out?? Is it a curse word or insult in some strange part of the world?
“Because it makes people think of suicide” censoring it does the same thing though
Load More Replies...
If one has ever cared for a dying person, especially one with a terminal disease like cancer, you'd be all for it.
I 100% support suicide. If you don't even have control over your own life you don't have control over anything.
It's allowed in Australia (except ACT), Austria, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.
we have been pushing for legalisation in south africa as well but quite a religious country.
Load More Replies...
This is the results of religion guiding our laws. We can't let animal suffer but there's some "sin" in terminating an imaginary soul. That only humans are imagined to have.
It is legal in 10 states currently: Maine, New Jersey, Vermont, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, California, and Hawai'i
Load More Replies... 
I remember when one of my favourite authors, Terry Pratchett, spoke openly about it as he didn't want to have his family and loved ones see his rapid and very painful decline due to complications from Alzheimer's Disease.
Problems with assisted suicide are around (a) persuading religious people to not lobby against it and (b) family using it to get rid of a sickly parent etc., to get the will and/or insurance. That being said I'd legalise it.
Countries that have assisted suicide show that people are NOT being forced into it - family cannot get 'rid' of anyone - I suspect overdosing morphine in palliative care is more common than family trying to force someone to use doc assisted.
Load More Replies...
We have it legal in Colorado. Want it legal in your state/country start organizing and make it so.
In the Netherlands (I know) and Switzerland (if I am not mistaken) people can apply for this. It is a tightly controlled procedure and not everybody is accepted. But it is possible.
My cousin applied for it and was approved, but then got a mild flu which apparently makes you unfit to die so it had to be rescheduled. Stupidest thing I've ever heard.
Load More Replies...
As someone who watched their grandma wither away due to ALS and their stepdad die from stage 4 metastatic cancer, I am 100% in favor of PAS (physician assisted suicide). BUT only when it comes to terminal illnesses, but that is just my opinion. That being said, I wouldn't try and force that belief on anyone else who believes it should be used for other reasons.
A good thing i didn't see the word for self-assassination there, or i don't know what might have happened!
This is actually legalized in several countries in Europe, we learned about it in middle school it's called euthanasia. The rules are basically it has to be humane, the patient has to be of sound mind, have a legitimate reason and have approved people there to sign off on everything and sort out the body afterwards.
Especially when combined with the above post. Honestly, if I get cancer, I'll probably let it take me. It's that or face bankruptcy from medical costs
In the Netherlands we have a controlled euthanasia program. However, whenever someone is terminally ill, or over 60, that person is often left to die. Nobody talks about it, but it happens all the time. And when you are over 80, you are denied essential care, for instance, when you break your elbow, or have breast cancer? You won't be entitled to surgery because you are too old. The funny thing is that the retiring age is getting up all the time because people live longer, but it doesn't mean that you get the care that goes with it. So, assisted suicide is humane, but the other side of the coin is when people are left to die when they were not ready yet.
We do it for our pets ffs. Why won’t we at least consider it for our relatives?
In Canada we have MAID, Medically Assisted Intentional Death. It can either be done by IV injection. There is nothing traumatic about it. The person does just “go to sleep”. Some people choose to drink a mixture that will eventually do the same thing. It has strict steps to go through, and as a former nurse, the horrible deaths I have been present at, I’m all for it. They should have had the right to leave the pain and suffering. We had nothing back then.
One of my concerns is that we don't put Do No Resuscitate orders in place for those who have poor quality of life for whatever reason, be it old age or severe untreatable illness. A Do Not Resuscitate order can be obtained from the patients primary physician. If this order is not in place at time of cardiopulmonary arrest, medical personnel who are on scene are required to perform CPR which can be very traumatic.
They aren't required if they have a form on them stating DNR. For depression and a bad involuntary detainment, I now have one so no one can choose for me ever. No one cares about what's right for me, so it's really a systematic issue that is causing medical personnel the unnecessary trauma.
Load More Replies...
True. You go do that and then spend your life in prison
Load More Replies... LEGALIZE EFFECTIVE PAIN MEDICATION, not people killing themselves because they can't bear the pain the zealots in Washington decide they should be able to deal with. Assisted suicide way too often amounts to someone being driven to suicide. The far bigger problem was about 15 years ago, when the U.S. government decided too many people were dying form their pain medication and just unilaterally cut everyone off, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people dying from buying fentanyl off the streets, or living in unbearable pain medication.
I'm old enough to have been involved in this the first time and have watched the wheel spin around from access being too limited to too loose to too limited again. It sucks.
Load More Replies... Largely against it just because as we have seen in Canada, people have been ‘offered’ help to die for reasons such as being homeless or as an alternative to counselling for the depressed. For me it should be legalised only for the terminally physically ill and those with degenerative conditions never for mental health conditions
Having seen a family friend suffer through worsening ALS, I am absolutely in favour of it, but I agree there are so many issues with how it’s implemented in Canada right now. So many other measures need to be in place for it to not be abused.
Load More Replies... Canada's MAID takes it a little too far. If youre having trouble getting stuff or there are too many people in line ahead of you, the Canadian Gov't will recommend assisted dying
Anything related to food stamps. I’m sorry but food insecurity is not ok for anyone to go through. I don’t care about fudging the numbers to get food assistance. I don’t care about people who sell their food stamps (I know, it’s cards now, but you know what I mean). If you’re desperate enough to use fraud to get food or you’re selling your free food access to someone else who needs it because you need the money for bills, I’m ok with it.
My food stamps were cut in half in March. Now I get $126 for the entire month. My SSI is $1200. Like many other people in this country, I can only afford one meal a day. Rather ironic, as I'm morbidly obese.
Feeding the homeless in Texas. No victims but it is a crime.
Sleeping in your car when you are too drunk and can't drive.
I see Jaywalking on this quite a but but I will say when I lived overseas, jaywalking even at 2 am on an empty street just didn't happen. When I asked a local (German) why he wouldn't cross against a no walking sign he said "what if a kid looked out the window and saw me, i don't want to set a bad example"
Clicking "I am 18 years old" on an adult website when you're 17
Downloading very old games that are no longer available for sale.
Picking up a bird feather found on the ground and keeping it. It's technically against the migratory bird laws.
Entire species were hunted to extinction (Arabian Ostrich) or near extinction (bald eagle) for their feathers. They had to make possession illegal because its way too easy to shoot a bird 1/2 mile from the nearest road and then claim you found the feathers on the ground.
Setting up a lemonade stand without a vendor license
"Is your lemonade made out of actual lemonade?" - "Are your scout cookies made out of actual scouts?"
Prostitution. Ain't nobody's business if two more more consenting adults conduct a financial deal that involves bodily fluids.
That's not to say that cheating, withholding health problems, and sex trafficking aren't victimless, but those aren't just merely prostitution.
Hanging a clothesline, collecting rainwater, or planting a garden in your yard. Some places ban you from doing these things
Eating food out of someones garbage.
The crime here is that there was food thrown out that could have been passed on to someone who needs it.
Being gay in a homophobic country
Worth noting that being gay in ‘most’ countries was still illegal well into the 1900’s, from memory I think it was decriminalised as late as 1996 in Germany. So to my mind we shouldn’t be pointing fingers at developing countries for their ideas, religions and beliefs because we are only talking between what 25-75 years ago when ‘we’ held similar ideas.
Wearing a dress as a man in Tennessee.
It's clothing. It's there to keep you covered and protect you from the elements. What shape it comes in should be completely up to the wearer.
I can take a seed at home, put rain water on it and expose it to sunlight, dry the flowers, bake them into a cake and make some THC edibles, and it doesn't even harm the air quality due to smoking. That's a crime. No money goes to criminal gangs, and I would risk losing my job and going to prison.
Or I can manufacture alcohol and sell it legally, knowing that it causes people health issues, and that others cause crimes when drunk and disorderly, and that's absolutely fine and not a crime.
Weird.
Selling alcohol on Sunday. It's still illegal in some States.
Being an atheist in many many countries
If being in a religion is okay, then not being in one should be too. Forcing people into a religion tends to have the opposite effect…
TONS of blue laws.
basically antiquated laws on the books that have to do with religion (mostly on sundays). In my state you can't buy alcohol on sunday before noon. And car dealers are not allowed to be open on sunday. Basically they are designed to not compete with church attending times like early morning.
We have a certain religion here where I live that don't work on Sunday's. But of course they will go to church then go out for brunch afterward and make other people work even though they HIGHLY judge people who work on Sunday. I work in Healthcare there are no days off. My friends say "I better not treat them if they come in on Sunday lest I will be judged." Of course she was being sarcastic.
When cops pretend to be kids and get people for solicitation to a minor. When I worked at the district attorneys office we LOVED these. The shock on these men’s face when the “14 year old girl” they spoke to was our 6’5”, 300 pound 50 year old detective was just….amazing.
Speeding If traffic is all going above the speed limit. the safest speed is not the speed limit. The safest speed is the speed at which traffic is moving. speeding doesn't inherently cause accidents. differential in speed causes accidents.
Loitering. It's basically just existing somewhere.
Businesses are harmed if your "existing" as you call it makes their location less desirable to shop or do business in. A lot of these "victimless" crimes sound like they were written by people who never considered the other person's point of view.
Collecting rain water (a crime in a lot of cities here in the US).
this makes absolutely no sense do the US goverment think they own the weather or something
Downloading games for obsolete consoles from companies which are now non-existent.
Pirating cute cat videos off the internet
Note: this post originally had 59 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
I don't think anyone has mentioned eating the wrong food. Non-halal food, non-kosher food in some countries. In aboriginal law in Australia, victimless crimes like eating food for the wrong totem, having sex with your betrothed before marriage, and looking at your mother-in-law, are punishable by death or exile, ditto giving birth to a deformed child.
Giving birth to a deformed child? Wtf? That's entirely out of the parents' control :0
Load More Replies...
If you are homeless and live in your car, DON'T PARK AT TARGET! The cops will be surrounding you within the hour. The security scours the parking lot. Doesn't Matter if you are in the far corner away from everyone, just don't sit there.
in my country it is a crime to lose your identification papers. you get a fine. it's also illegal to not have identification on person in public, but it's rarely enforced.
So sad that these were ever put on the books somewhere; worse because they are STILL there. Repeal, change!
It used to be illegal to record music from one audio source to another or copy sheet music without paying loyalties. I don't remember anyone being arrested for it and I assume it is still in force.
some of these are completely horrible, some obvious, and im pretty sure some have some stories added to it. You're not allowed to jaywalk, cars present or not.
As usual the writer of this post forgot to add “in USA” as usual they think they are the world. Yeah downvote and cry i dont give a damn🥲
Reminds me again why I should be grateful to not live in that country.
I don't think anyone has mentioned eating the wrong food. Non-halal food, non-kosher food in some countries. In aboriginal law in Australia, victimless crimes like eating food for the wrong totem, having sex with your betrothed before marriage, and looking at your mother-in-law, are punishable by death or exile, ditto giving birth to a deformed child.
Giving birth to a deformed child? Wtf? That's entirely out of the parents' control :0
Load More Replies... If you are homeless and live in your car, DON'T PARK AT TARGET! The cops will be surrounding you within the hour. The security scours the parking lot. Doesn't Matter if you are in the far corner away from everyone, just don't sit there.
in my country it is a crime to lose your identification papers. you get a fine. it's also illegal to not have identification on person in public, but it's rarely enforced.
So sad that these were ever put on the books somewhere; worse because they are STILL there. Repeal, change!
It used to be illegal to record music from one audio source to another or copy sheet music without paying loyalties. I don't remember anyone being arrested for it and I assume it is still in force.
some of these are completely horrible, some obvious, and im pretty sure some have some stories added to it. You're not allowed to jaywalk, cars present or not.
As usual the writer of this post forgot to add “in USA” as usual they think they are the world. Yeah downvote and cry i dont give a damn🥲
Reminds me again why I should be grateful to not live in that country.
