Download State crime - Manor Sociology

STATE CRIMES
Learning Objectives:
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To understand what is meant by state crimes
To be aware of examples of state crimes
To appreciate why state crimes are so serious
To investigate human rights as an illustration
of state crime
What are state crimes?
state organised
crime
Chambliss
State crime is ….
‘illegal or deviant activities
perpetrated by, or with the
complicity of, state agencies’
(Green & Ward, 2005)
State crimes are committed by, or on
behalf of states and governments in
order to further their policies
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Genocide
War crimes
Torture
Imprisonment without
trial
• Assassination
Research
McLaughlin – 4 categories of state crime
1. Political crimes – corruption/censorship
2. Crimes by security/police forces – genocide,
torture, disappearance of dissidents
3. Economic crimes – official violations of health &
safety laws
4. Social & Cultural crimes – institutional racism
State crime is so serious because…
1. The Scale of State crime
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Power of the state makes large-scale crime possible.
“Great power and great crimes are inseparable.”
(Michalowski & Kramer, 2006)
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State monopoly on violence = potential to cause major harm.
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Able to hide crimes and escape punishment.
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Media focuses on state crimes in 3rd world countries – but avoids reporting on such
crimes in UK and USA.
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It is hard for foreign countries to intervene, ie) UN, because of state sovereignty
and national boundaries.
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Many countries ignore international conventions. Racial discrimination, genocide
and war crimes are all common place.
Cambodia 1975-1978
• Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge killed up to 2 million
people.
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/pol
-pot.htm
http://www.derechos.org/humanrights/seasia/doc/camintro.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/78988.stm
2. The state is the source of law
State’s role is to define what is criminal. They manage the criminal justice
process and prosecute offenders.
State crime can undermine the system of justice…’above the law’.
It’s power to make the law means that it can avoid its own harmful actions
being defined as criminal.
It can also use the criminal justice system to control and persecute it’s
enemies.
Nazi Germany
Human Rights & State Crime
One way of exploring state crime is through looking
at human rights.
Human rights are:
• Natural rights – these are what people are
regarded as having simply by virtue of existing, ie)
rights to life, liberty and free speech
• Civil rights – these are rights, like the right to
vote, privacy, liberty and education
The violation of basic human rights
summarise how states can violate human rights.
(include arguments from Schwendlingers and
Cohen)
The Culture of denial
Using the internet/books– summarise what
Cohen argues about the spiral of denial and
‘neutralisation theory’.
The social conditions of state crime
Some sociologists argue that torture etc are part of a role
that people are socialised into. They look at the
conditions that make such behaviour acceptable.
Some, like Kelman & Hamilton have focused on ‘crimes
of obedience’.
Some see this in relation to Nazis following orders during
the Final Solution, or in cases like the My Lai massacre
during the Vietnam war where 400 civilians were killed by
US soldiers.
Kelman & Hamilton (1989) – features
that produce crimes of obedience
• Authorisation – this is when acts are ordered or
approved of by those in higher authority. This is where
moral principals are replaced by a duty to obey.
• Routinisation – the crime becomes routine – a common
practice that can be done in a clinical, detatched manner.
• Dehumanisation – this is where the ‘enemy of the state’
is portrayed as sub-human. Not to be treated as normal!
Here the usual principles of morality do not apply.
Bauman (1989) – Modernity and the
Holocaust
• Modern society creates a situation where these crimes
can occur on a massive scale
• Bauman explores the holocaust – sees this as a result
of modernity..and not barbaric
• Science and technology made the holocaust happen as
it enabled people to act in a bureacratic/systematic
way.
• They dehumanised their victims and routinised their
murder as an administrative activity (akin to Weber on
the rationalisation process)
Israel – Gaza Strip
US forces in
Iraq
Globalisation & Crime task
Using your notes…summarise what we have
explored.
Focus on:
• What is globalisation?
• Global crimes
• State Crime
• Human rights violations
Where possible,
note:
- Examples
- Studies/viewpoints