State Crime

Question 1

How do Green and Ward (2005) define state crime?

Answer 1

‘Illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by, or with the complicity of, state agencies’

Question 2

What is Chambliss’ Domestic Law definition of state crime?

Answer 2

Acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials in pursuit of the jobs as representatives of the state.

Example – MP’s Expenses

Question 3

What is Michalowski’s Zemiology definition of state crime?

Answer 3

State crime includes illegal acts but also legally permissible acts whose consequences are similar to those of illegal acts in the harm that they cause.

Question 4

What is Hillyard (2004) Zemiology approach?

Answer 4

Replace the study of crime with Zemiology regardless of if the act is against the law.

Question 5

How do Rothe and Mullins (2008) define state crime in International Law?

Answer 5

State crime is an action by or on behalf of a state that violates international law and/or a state’s own domestic law.

Question 6

What is Schwendinger’s (1975) Human Rights perspective on state crime?

Answer 6

State crime should be defined as a violation of people’s basic human rights by the state and their agents.

Question 7

What are Political Crimes according to Eugene McLaughlin?

Answer 7

Censorship or Corruption.

According to the Corruption Index put together by Transparency International there seems to be a correlation between corruption, war and conflict and poverty – Somalia, North Korea, Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq come out bottom of the Corruption Index, while the usual suspects – the Scandinavian countries plus Canada come out as the least corrupt.

Question 8

Give examples of crimes by security, military and police.

Answer 8

Genocide, Torture, Imprisonment Without Trial And Disappearance Of Dissidents.

• Genocide – Rwanda 1994 (Hutus against Tutsi), Cambodia 1970’s (Khmer Rouge), Bosnia Herzegovina 1990’s (Bosnian Serbs against Bosnia Muslims) • IWT – Guantanamo Bay • DoD – China, Russia, Saudi Arabia.

Question 9

What did Rummel calculate regarding state killings?

Answer 9

From 1900 – 1987 over 169 million people had been murdered by governments excluding death during war.

Question 10

Give examples of Economic Crimes by states.

Answer 10

Official violations of health and safety laws.

• Chernobyl Disaster. Economic Policies which cause harm to the population • Austerity.

Question 11

Give examples of Social and Cultural Crimes by states.

Answer 11

Institutional Racism, Police force targeting certain groups in society, Ethnocentric Curriculum ignoring certain groups’ history.

Destruction of native cultures and heritage: ISIS destruction of Churches and shrines in Mosul, USA Destruction of Native Indian sites and lands.

Question 12

Why are state crimes serious?

Answer 12

States are large and powerful entities, they can cause large and powerful, often widespread harm.

For instance, in Cambodia between 1975 and 1978 the Khmer Rouge government killed up to 1/5 of the entire population.

Question 13

How can states conceal crimes?

Answer 13

States have the power to conceal their crimes and make them harder to detect, and change the law to benefit their deviance. The concept of National Sovereignty means that it is difficult for international bodies to intervene.

Question 14

What is Cohen’s Culture of Denial?

Answer 14

STAGE 1 – ‘It didn’t happen’.

STAGE 2 – ‘If it did happen, “it” is something else’.

STAGE 3 – ‘Even if it is what you say it is, it’s justified.

Question 15

What is Sykes and Matza’s Neutralisation Theory (1957)?

Answer 15

Justification of the act through: Denial of the victim, Denial of injury, Denial of responsibility, Condemning the condemners, Appeal to higher loyalty.

Question 16

What is Green and Ward’s Integrated Theory of state crime?

Answer 16

State crime arises from similar circumstances to those of other crimes, like street crime. Integrating three factors and how these factors interact generate state crimes: Motivation, Opportunity and lack of controls.

Question 17

What features of modernity make state crime possible according to Bauman (1989)?

Answer 17

1. Division of labour: Each person is responsible for one task so no one is fully responsible.
2. Bureaucratisation: Normalisation of the act by making it repetitive and routine. Dehumanisation of victim.
3. Instrumental rationality: Rational and efficient methods to achieve a goal regardless of the goal itself.
4. Science and technology: Scientific and technological knowledge to justify the means and the motive.

Question 18

How does social condition explain state crime?

Answer 18

Unlike citizen crime, state crimes tend to be crimes of obedience rather than deviance. Kelman and Hamilton identify three features that produce crimes of obedience: 1. Authorisation: Acts are approved of by those in power. Normal moral principles are replaced by duty to obey. 2. Routinisation: Turn the act into a routine behaviour so it can be performed in a detached manner. 3. Dehumanisation: The victims are portrayed as sub human so normal morality doesn’t apply.