Criminological and legal sources define a victimless crime as an act involving only the perpetrator or consenting participants, but describe whether it truly has no victim as a matter of ongoing debate rather than a settled fact: definitions vary by legal system, and critics argue diffuse harms to third parties, public health or society at large can still amount to a victim even where no single injured party comes forward.
What would resolve this A working consensus among criminologists and legal philosophers on whether diffuse, non-individual harm (to public health, third parties, or society) counts as making a victim, since current definitions disagree on this point rather than merely lacking data.
OpenCriminology and legal philosophyVictimless crime (Wikipedia)