¶ … Police Studies) Community-Oriented Policing and Victimless Crime:

Street-Level Drug Trafficking

The high rates of individuals who are arrested, on probation, incarcerated, or on parole throughout our nation have led some critical criminologists to advocate for the decriminalization of so-called victimless crimes. Victimless crimes include nonviolent crime such as gambling, prostitution, and illegal drug possession and drug sales. Although these activities may appear consensual or self-inflicted at first glance, this conduct creates victims indirectly because it presents larger threats to overall community security. The most pressing threats arise from drug use and trafficking, as these behaviors are a catalyst to gang activity, intimidation of law-abiding citizens, robberies, assaults, murders, and other forms of violence and community degredation. Indeed, drug users are disproportionately represented among the most active and dangerous offenders, and violence associated with the trade easily spreads to the general population (Moore & Kleiman). The question for law enforcement then is, what is the most effective strategy for dealing with the widespread social problem of street-level drug trafficking?

In general, law enforcement interventions may involve proactive...

Every police department utilizes both types of enforcement to a degree. Community-oriented policing may utilize a blend of both approaches, but tends to focus less on arrest and incarceration, and more on preventative measures, as a way to control crime. The bulk of evidence on policing has shown that the community-oriented approach can lead to dramatic reductions in violent crime, as it involves coordinated efforts among police departments, community organizations, and local government and social service agencies. Effective community policing consists of aggressive, proactive strategies with both crime-fighting and order-maintenance goals, where police are deployed on an ongoing basis, engage in daily contact with neighborhood residents, and maintain direct connections within communities in order to prevent crime from occurring in the first place (Zimmer).
Although community-oriented policing is effective in dealing with traditional criminality such as violence, "victimless" crime such as drug possession and sales pose tougher challenges for law enforcement. Nonetheless, some studies on community-oriented policing programs have shown highly successful, resulting in lower drug trafficking rates, better rapport between…