Prohibitionism is alegal philosophy andpolitical theory often used inlobbying which holds that citizens will abstain from actions if the actions are typed as unlawful (i.e. prohibited) and the prohibitions are enforced by law enforcement.[1] This philosophy has been the basis for many acts ofstatutory law throughout history, most notably when a large group of a given population disapproves of and/or feels threatened by an activity in which a smaller group of that population engages, and seeks to render that activity legally prohibited.[1]
Acts of prohibition have includedprohibitions on types of clothing (andprohibitions on lack of clothing), prohibitions ongambling andexotic dancing, theprohibition of drugs (for example,alcohol prohibition andcannabis prohibition),prohibitions on tobacco smoking, andgun prohibition. Indeed, the period ofProhibition in the United States between 1920 and 1933 due to theEighteenth Amendment and theVolstead Act often is referred to simply as "Prohibition", as is the "War on Drugs" that succeeded it.
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The success of a measure of prohibitionism has been criticized as often depending too much upon effective enforcement of the relevant legislation. Some people[who?] have argued this is because the majority of the targets of prohibitionism are in the category ofvictimless crime, where they claim the harm that comes from the crime is non-existent, questionable, or only to the person who performs the act and even then the magnitude of the harm being relatively small.[citation needed] Under this interpretation enforcement becomes a conflict between violation of statue and violation of free will.[why?] Since the acts prohibited often are enjoyable, enforcement is often the most harmful choice to the individual. This sometimes results in laws which rarely are enforced by anybody who does not have a financial or personal motivation to do so.[citation needed]
The difficulty of enforcing prohibitionist laws also criticized as resulting in selective enforcement, wherein the enforcers select the people they wish to prosecute based on other criteria, resulting indiscrimination based on races, culture, nationality, or financial status. For example,American philosopherNoam Chomsky has criticized drug prohibition as being a technique ofsocial control of the "so-called dangerous classes".[2]
Prohibitionism based laws have the added problem of calling attention to the behavior that they are attempting to prohibit. This can make the behavior interesting and exciting, and cause its popularity to increase. This is essentially in relation with theStreisand effect.
