Meta Crimes are not actually crimes, they are examples of where one group of people seek to impose their values or beliefs on another group of people. Many people do not see these activities as crime and as such do not adhere to the laws concerning these activities. Ultimately, all laws concerning meta crime will be eliminated. However since they exist now the following discussion is on this category of crime.

The success or failure of the crime management system in the United States is not dependant on being soft or tough on crime. The primary issue with the system as it currently stands is that it does not fit the society in which it operates. In order to explain this I am going to coin a term and explain it. The term is “meta-crime”. Meta-crime is a crime that by law is illegal but according to the beliefs of a large portion of the population (25% or more) it should not be illegal. An easy example of this is prostitution. The idea of making prostitution illegal is only slightly different than getting the entire country in shape by making over-eating illegal.

The problem with a crime system that allows meta-crime to exist (and the United States does in a big way) is that a large portion of the population is at odds with itself on whether or not to aide the law enforcement process. Practically all safe havens for criminals are dependant on having meta-crime. In other words without meta-crime you are either law abiding or a criminal, with meta-crime you can fall into either of the aforementioned two categories or you can be one of the many that are somewhere in the middle (abide by some laws and break others).

One of the largest areas of meta-crime in the US legal system is in the area of crime commonly referred to as VICE. The way I propose to address these actions is not to make them illegal, but rather to legalize them, tax them heavily and put processes in place to make them as safe as possible. Lets look at some examples:

There are a number of other examples of meta-crime for example having to do with highway speed limits. All of these need to be eliminated in order for the legal system to work. There would be additional cost savings in not having a number of people in prison as well as not needing VICE law enforcement.

Solution: Legalize, regulate and tax all Vice crimes. Use the sizable tax revenues to promote awareness and rehabilitation programs.

Social structure crimes occur when one group of people find themselves on the low end of an uneven social playing field. When society shirks it’s responsibility to provide equal access to decent housing, education, medical care and other necessities for all of their citizens and allows a class system to form, social structure crimes are inevitable.

It has been shown that if everyone has the same opportunity to advance their social status that they will play by the rules of society (many Norwegian countries already use this concept –see statistics on www.nationmaster.com). Likewise, when people are born into an environment where they are clearly at a disadvantage and it is obvious that there is an upper class with no interest whatsoever in helping them, it becomes easy for them to find justification in leveling the playing field outside the rules of society.

It is the responsibility of a society to insure that all their citizens have equal access to not only the basic necessities of life but to the resources that allow a citizen to improve themselves and become a contributing member of society. When a society fails to do this, the society bears as much fault (if not more) as the perpetrators of the crime by helping to create the environment that allows this type of crime to exist.

Furthermore many efforts to treat the symptoms of this type of crime are counterproductive. Hiring more police by increasing the taxes of lower and middle class citizens only increases the number of citizens on the low end of the playing field, thus creating more Social Structure Crime.

This concept is actually very easy to illustrate, imagine that you have a family, a spouse and a few children. You have lost your job and can not seem to get another job. You have tried for a year and have depleted your savings. Next week you will run out of money. The following week you family will have no food to eat and no place to live. If you are in this situation, will you commit a crime to feed your family?

Social Structure Crime (which represents the majority of all crimes) is entirely preventable. All it takes is to have the community step up to the plate and take responsibility for the welfare of not just themselves but everyone in the community.

Solution: Of all the crime types this one is the most difficult to solve, because the solution requires a fundamental shift in how our society is use to working. The whole “Greed is Good” mentality has to be eliminated from the collective social consciousness. The main tool would be to hold businesses (primarily large businesses) accountable for the welfare of the society they operate in. i.e Profit may only be taken from a community which has met it’s needs to all of it’s citizens.

Mental Instability crimes occur when people who have psychological problems that cause them to exhibit behavior that is detrimental to society are left to fend for themselves. In many cases this type of psychological problem causes the person to not have the skills to manage everyday life and as a result they find themselves on the street.

Once again this is the result of a society that shirks it’s responsibility to insure the less fortunate of it’s members are taken care of. Most if not all of the people who fall into this category can be given fulfilling roles where they can contribute to society.

Solution: Universal Medical Care to all citizens regardless of their income or what they do. Implement a program where the society cares for those who cannot care for themselves.

This category includes most of the white collar crimes. On a day to day basis successful Capitalist earn profits at the expense of society. Wal-Mart, Microsoft (*1) and Exxon are just a few good examples of big corporations raking in millions at the expense of the societies they operate in.

Like the other 3 categories this type of crime is almost completely solvable. If a society wants to eliminate the positive enforcement of people emulating the less than ethical practices of big businesses, all the society has to do is properly penalize the big businesses for their anti-social behavior. Make an example of a large business by finding them guilty of let’s say anti-trust laws and take the punitive damages which should be equal to their profits and sink the money into social programs.

(*1) While I recognize Microsoft has given a significant amount of charitable contributions, I do not think this offsets the number of small businesses and hence jobs they have eliminated due to their monopolistic business practices. Furthermore, it does not take much research to find out that Microsoft has to maintain a perpetual legal organization to protect them from the variety of ethically questionable business practices.

Solution: Change the perception that it is ok for a business to exist for the sole purpose of earning profit. Force businesses to change their primary goal to “Improve the community in which we operate and to only take profits after the communities needs are met”.

Crimes of passion is a social manifestation that dates back to the concept that people are owned. The key to this type of crime is to address the perception that marriage is a transfer of ownership of a person.

Solution: Eliminate the concept of marriage and replace it with a social union. The mostly religious concept of marriage is no longer appropriate for contemporary society and is the basis for discrimination. The “Until death do you part” wording in the ceremony is indicative of the “Transfer of ownership” problem.