Economic Impacts Of Uninsured Motorists

Officers should be trained to handle typical stops, special conditions, confrontational drivers, and suspicious and felonious stops. Law enforcement officers can improve typical traffic stop experiences by using a few techniques. Law enforcement officers are encouraged to invoke the Golden Rule and treat motorists the way they or their family members would like to be treated in a similar situation. Law enforcement officers should always state their name and law enforcement agency at the commencement of the stop, immediately explain the reason for the traffic stop, and state the action that will be taken. Officers should always be prepared to answer motorists' questions about the stop. If an officer is not in uniform, or is traveling in an unmarked vehicle, it is imperative to present identification to the stopped motorist. Officers should always consider the traffic stop environment. Many motorists can be uncomfortable stopping in a deserted or poorly lit area. These motorists may be put at ease by allowing them to proceed to a more populated or better illuminated location.

Officers' interaction with drivers during the stop will be a major determining factor in their attitude toward law enforcement in the future. The goal is to achieve voluntary compliance with traffic regulations, but also acceptance of the laws and enforcement. Professionalism is essential at the traffic stop. Because most citizens come into contact with law enforcement officers at traffic stops, this becomes a critical moment for law enforcement agencies in a public relations effort. Traffic stops can be a frightening experience for a motorist, and fear can bring out a person's worst side. It is imperative for law enforcement officers to always consider officer and motorist safety. Traffic stops have many positives; they are an opportunity to inform and educate the public.

The term victimless crimes and its alternative phrasing crimes without victims refer to illegal acts that involve behavior that the participants engage in voluntarily. For example, the prostitute and the prostitute's customer both view their interaction as a business transaction in which, as in other commercial arrangements, both parties achieve what they desire. The prostitute obtains money and the customer has the desired sexual experience. Though the behavior is criminal, neither party will file a police report, unless, perhaps, the transaction involves theft or physical violence.

Similarly, narcotic dealers and their patrons voluntarily agree to a transaction much the same as that involving the purchase of alcohol or shopping for groceries. Abortion, which was illegal in the United States until 1973, poses a more complicated situation. Both the person performing the abortion and the woman undergoing it do so voluntarily. But the burning issue is whether the aborted fetus is a person, a victim deserving legal protection. No scientific evidence can adequately support whatever position is taken on this question; thus pro-life and pro-choice campaigns become, as does so much in the realm of victimless crimes, a matter of ideology, theology, and the exercise of political power.

The term crimes without victims entered the realm of social science ...