Defining state crime

Question 1

Breaches of domestic law

Answer 1

Actions perpetrated by state officials who break their own country’s laws - e.g. politicians breaking covid rules by having parties - give local police services the justification to charge state officials

Evaluation: disregards the fact that its unlikely any state officials will face justice domestically

Question 2

Zemiology

Answer 2

Actions which are committed within the law of a country, but which result in consequences which are harmful to others - any gov action which harms people should be regarded as a state crime, prevents state from being able to change the laws to suit their agenda

Evaluation: what counts as harmful is open to interpretation and therefore quite vage, makes it un clear what type of harm needs to occur

Question 3

Societal reactions

Answer 3

An action should be regarded as a state crime if the generals public’s opinion towards the action is negative overall as what comes as a state crime is socially constructed - definition changes over time

Evaluation: based very much on public opinion rather than objective measurement of right + wrong

Question 4

Breaches of international law

Answer 4

An action can be classed as a state crime if it breaks domestic law or/and if it breaches international treaties

Evaluation: fails to consider that some states globally are more powerful than others + so may still be able to influence international laws

Question 5

Human rights breaches

Answer 5

Any state which engages in actions such as sexism, racism or exploitation should be classified as criminal states because they are denying people the right to live freely + safely

Evaluation: ethnocentric, saying that western values are superior to others