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State Crimes
The state is responsible for making and enforcing the law, however they also break the law.
These crimes carried out by the agents of the state are known as state crimes.
Green and Ward describe state crimes as illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by, or with
the complicity of, state agencies to further state policies. Examples of state crimes are: torture,
illegal treatment, imprisonment or punishment of citizens, corruption, war crimes and other
violations of human rights.
Problems with Defining State Crimes
Considerable controversy in defining state crimes as the state is the source of law within
nations, and it defines what a crime is. Therefore has the power to avoid defining its own acts
as criminal, for example, the persecution of Jews in 1930-40’s in Germany was permitted under
German law at the time. Even when states commit acts that are clearly illegal under
international law such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the state have the power to
disguise the crime.
A Transgressive Approach
Green and Ward suggest that state crimes should be considered as violations of human rights.
Therefore their definition of state crime is state organizational deviance involving the violation
of human rights.
This involves two aspects:
1) State organizational deviance distinguishes state crimes from criminal acts by individuals
abusing their power which may have been given to them by the state, e.g. a police
officer.
2) Violation of human rights.
What are human rights?
Everyone, because of their common humanity, is entitled to the same fair and just treatment
wherever they might be in the world. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
Rights of 1948 has established a legal framework for defining and enforcing universal human
rights, which Green and Ward suggest have now become global, social norms. Nearly all
countries now have to pay at least lip-service to human rights.
Green and Ward see human rights as involving a wider package of basic social and economic
rights such as security, subsistence and well-being, as well as civil and political rights, like
rights to life, liberty, free speech and voting. Therefore the study of state crime is a wider social
context rather than simply law-breaking. Thus state induced famine and denial of basic welfare
due to state corruption are state crimes.
Examples of State Crimes
States have the power and resources to commit crimes on such a vast scale that it dwarfs the
scale of conventional crime:
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The torture and illegal treatment or punishment of citizens
Corruption
Assassination or ‘targeted killing’
War crimes
Genocide
State-sponsored terrorism
Explaining State Crimes
The Authoritarian Personality
Adorno et al identify an authoritarian personality that includes a willingness to obey the orders
of superiors without questions. They argue that at the time of the Second World War, many
Germans had this personality type due to socialisation patterns that were common at the time,
e.g. education and the family reinforced ideas of obedience.
The Crimes of Obedience Model
Kelman and Hamilton emphasise not rule breaking, but conformity to rules. Suggesting violent
states encourage obedience by those who actually carry out state backed systematic human
rights abuses such as torture, murder and genocide even when they may personally regard the
acts as deviant themselves.
1. Authorisation – making it clear to individuals they are acting in accordance with state
policy and with explicit state authority and support.
2. Dehumanisation – involves the state’s promotion of a monolithic (single and inflexible)
cultural identity, which is based on the marginalisation of minorities, who are portrayed
as sub-human species to whom normal rules do not apply. This makes state
discrimination etc more acceptable to ordinary people.
3. Routinization – organising the actions in such a way that they become part of a regular
routine and can be performed in a detached way that denies perpetrators the need or
opportunity to raise moral questions. Violent states reinforce and manage this by
creating enclaves of barbarism. These are places where state violence is encouraged
and rewarded and where the perpetrators of violence can leave to return to an everyday
life.
Bauman states the Holocaust was made possible by these three processes.
Techniques of Neutralisation
Cohen applies Matza’s techniques of neutralisation to explain how states can deny they have
committed serious breaches of human rights. They do this by trying to neutralise their crimes
by re-labelling them as something else, or excusing them as regrettable but justifiable.
Problems of Researching State Crimes
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Cohen shows it is difficult to find the true extent as governments adopt strategies of
denial or justification of their actions.
State crimes are carried out by powerful people with large amounts of resources at their
disposal to cover them up.
Researchers are often reliant on secondary data, often from the media, which tend to
focus on state crimes in developing countries not Western democracies.
States can use their power to prevent or hinder sociologists, e.g. by not providing
funding, or criminal proceedings.