globalisation, green crime and state crime

Question 1

What is the definition of globalisation?

Answer 1

• the process in which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected as a result of dramatically increased trade and cultural exchange

Question 2

What crimes have been affected by globalisation?

Answer 2

• arms trafficking
• trafficking nuclear materials
• sex tourism
• smuggling illegal migrants
• trafficking women and children
• green crimes

Question 3

How has globalisation impacted arms trafficking?

Answer 3

• increasing volume of movement of goods allows more opportunities to ‘hide’ arms

Question 4

How has globalisation impacted the trafficking of nuclear materials?

Answer 4

• increasing volume and increasing ease of movement of goods, especially from former communist countries

Question 5

How has globalisation affected the smuggling of illegal immigrants?

Answer 5

• organisational and global affairs

Question 6

How has globalisation impacted the trafficking of women and children?

Answer 6

• increased ease of travel, and increasing numbers of migration making them easier to ‘be missed’

Question 7

How has globalisation impacted sex tourism?

Answer 7

• technology and cheaper travel lead people going to different countries for sex

Question 8

What does Taylor believe about globalisation?

Answer 8

• led to inequality
• therefore leading to higher crime rates

Question 9

What does Winlow believe about globalisation?

Answer 9

• deindustrialisation led to more crime
• masculinity has to be found in other ways e.g fighting

Question 10

What did the IMF and World bank allegedly do?

Answer 10

• allegedly caused the Rwandan genocide
• also led to conditions which started the Congo war

Question 11

What’s the problem with using the term ‘green crime’?

Answer 11

• crimes are acts/behaviours which break written rules.
• some green crimes don’t break written rules so it’s debateable whether or not they count as crimes
• laws are often decided by individual countries and green crimes often impact multiple

Question 12

What do green criminologists think?

Answer 12

• they are more environmentally concerned
• if something harms the environment, criminologists should be interested in it as crime

Question 13

What do traditional criminologists think?

Answer 13

• criminologists should only be interested in environmental issues if they break written laws

Question 14

What does green criminologist White believe?

Answer 14

• anthropocentric
• ecocentric

Question 15

What does an anthropocentric approach mean?

Answer 15

• human centered approach.
• humans have the right to use the world’s resorurces and dominate nature

Question 16

What does an ecocentric approach mean?

Answer 16

• the view that humans and nature are interdependent
• humans and nature are liable to exploitation

Question 17

What are South’s two types of green crime?

Answer 17

• primary green crime
• secondary green crime

Question 18

What is primary green crime?

Answer 18

• crime that results directly from the destruction and degradation of the Earth’s resources

Question 19

What is secondary green crime?

Answer 19

• crime that results directly from flouting rules aimed at preventing or regulating environmental disasters

Question 20

What are some examples of primary green crime?

Answer 20

• crimes of air pollution
• crimes of deforestation
• crimes of species decline and animal abuse
• crimes of water pollution

Question 21

What are some examples of secondary green crime?

Answer 21

• state violence against oppositional groups
• hazardous waste and organised crime

Question 22

What is environmental discrimination?

Answer 22

• South’s argument that the poorest people are worst affected by green crime

Question 23

What A03s are there for green crime?

Answer 23

• the focus on harm, rather than on breaking written law, makes it a difficult area to research

Question 24

What are some problems with defining state crimes?

Answer 24

• labelling theorists believe the term ‘state crime’ is a social construct
• what counts as a state crime is different depending on who/when/where you ask the question

Question 25

What are four explanations for state crime?

Answer 25

• the authoritarian personality
• crimes of obedience
• modernity
• culture of denial

Question 26

What is the authoritarian personality?

Answer 26

• most people find it incredibly easy to obey orders from authority
• people don’t have to be psychopaths to carry out torture

Question 27

What are crimes of obedience?

Answer 27

• if an order comes from authority, people obey it regardless of whether it breaks a norm (authorisation)
• once it’s been committed, there’s pressure for it to become routine and detached (routinisation)
• the enemy may be portrayed as sub-human, so normal morality does not apply (dehumanisation)

Question 28

How does modernity explain state crime?

Answer 28

• division of labour (people only do one job)
• bureaucratisation (turning killing into a job)
• instrumental rationality (obsession with reaching goals)
• science and technology (railways and gas chambers)

Question 29

What is the culture of denial?

Answer 29

• stage one – state says it didn’t happen
• stage two – if it did happen it was something else
• stage three – even if it did happen it was justified

Question 30

What is an evaluation to the argument that modernity causes state crimes?

Answer 30

• war crimes are not a modern concept