Globalisation, Green Crime, Human Rights and State Crime Flashcards
name some causes of globalisation
- the spread of new information + communication technologies (ICT)
- the influence of global mass media
- cheap air travel
- the deregulation of financial + other markets + their opening up to competition
- easier movement of businesses to other countries where profits will be greater
name some forms of the global criminal economy
- arms trafficking: to illegal regimes, terrorists, guerrilla groups
- smuggling of illegal immigrants: e.g. the Chinese Triads make about $2.5 billion annually
- sex tourism: where Westerners travel to poorer countries for sex, sometimes involving minors
- green crimes: that damage the environment, e.g. illegal dumping of toxic waste in poorer countries
- the drug trade: worth an estimated $300-$400 billion annually at street prices
outline global risk consciousness
- globalisation creates new insecurities + the mentality of ‘risk consciousness’ in which risk is seen as global - not tied to particular places
- e.g. the increased movement of people, e.g. as migrants seeking work or asylum seekers fleeing persecution, has contributed to fear among the West about the risks of crime + and the need to protect boarders
- most knowledge about risks comes from the media - can exaggerate the dangers we face + create irrational fears - e.g. moral panics about the ‘flooding in’ of immigrants fueled by politicians can lead to hate crimes against minorities in many Eur countries
outline the global criminal economy
- Held: there has been a globalisation of crime - an increasingly interconnected/ international network of crime - e.g. transnational organised crime
- Castells: there is now a global economy worth over £1 trillion annually
- has both a demand and supply side - e.g. demand from the rich West + supply from LICs who source the drugs + sex workers
outline the link between globalisation and the global criminal economy
- for example, poor + drug-producing countries such as Colombia, Peru, Afghanistan have large populations of impoverished peasants
- for these groups, drug cultivation as an attractive option that requires little investment in tech + derives high prices compared to traditional crops
- in Colombia, about 20% depends on cocaine production for heir livelihood - cocaine outsells all other Colombian exports combined
what is a result of the global risk consciousness
- a result of globalised risk is intensification of social control at the national level
- the UK has toughened its boarder control regulations - e.g. fining airlines if they bring in undocumented passengers
- also, the UK now has no legal limit on how long a person can be held in immigration detention
- other European states have implemented fences, CCTV + thermal imaging devices to prevent illegal crossings
- another result of globalised risk is increasing attempts to control the various ‘wars’ on terror, drugs + crime - esp since 9/11
outline globalisation, capitalism and crime
- Taylor: argues globalisation has led to changes in the extent + pattern of crime
- e.g. by giving free reign to market forces, globalisation has created greater inequality + crime
- G has created crime at both ends of the spectrum - it allows transnational corporations to manufacture in LICs, producing job insecurity + unemployment + poverty
- deregulation: means Gov has little control over their economy - e.g. to create jobs/ raise tax, while state spending on welfare has decreased
- marketisation: encourages people to see themselves as individual consumers, calculating the cost + benefit of every action, undermines social cohesion - materialist culture promoted by the global media portrays success in terms of a lifestyle of consumption
outline the usefulness of Taylors theory for globalisation, capitalism and crime
- Taylor’s theory usefully links global trends in the capitalist economy to changes in the patterns of crime
- however, it doesn’t adequately explain how the changes make people behave in criminal ways
- e.g. not all poor people turn to crime
what is the effect of globalisation, capitalism and crime
- all the factors of globalisation, capitalism and crime create insecurity + widen insecurities that encourage people - esp the poor to turn to crime
- the lack of legitimate job opportunities destroys self-respect + drives the unemployed to seek illegitimate ones - e.g. in the drug trade
- also leads to new opportunities for crime from employers - e.g. the increased use of subcontracting to recruit ‘flexible’ workers - who work illegally for less than minimum wage/ in breach of health + safety laws
- G also creates criminal opportunities on a grand scale for elite groups/ white collar crimes - e.g. the deregulation of financial markets creates opportunities for movement of funds around the globe to avoid taxation
outline crimes of globalisation
- Rothe + Friedrichs: examine the role of international financial organisations such as the World Bank in their ‘crimes of globalisation’
- these organisations are dominated by the major capitalist states - e.g. the World Bank is dominated by 5 of its 188 member countries who hold over a third of the voting rights
- R +F argue these bodies impose pro-capitalist ‘structural adjustment programmes’ on poor countries in return for the loans they provide
- this requires gov to cut spending on health + education + to privatise services
- whilst this allows Western corporations to expand globally, it can enable crime - e.g. a program imposed on Rwanda in the 80s caused mass unemployment + created the economic basis for for the 1994 genocide
outline patterns of criminal organisation
- globalisation + de-industrialization have created new criminal opportunities + patterns at a local level
- Hobbs + Dunningham: crime is organised through its link to economic changes brought by G
- it increasingly involves individuals with contacts acting as a ‘hub’ from which networks form, composed of other individuals seeking opportunities
- H + D argues that this contrasts with the large scale, hierarchal ‘mafia’ style criminal organisations of the past - e.g. East London gangs
what is a criticism of the concept of glocal organisations
- its not clear that such glocal patterns are new, nor that the older structures have disappeared - it may be that the 2 have always co-existed
- also, their conclusions may not be generalizable to other criminal activity elsewhere
outline McMafia
- an example of the relationship between criminal organisations + globalisation is Glenny’s example of McMafia
- the organisations that emerged in Russia + East Eur after the fall of Communism (a major factor in globalisation)
- with the fall of Comm, most sectors of the economy became deregulated - apart from oil
- this allowed people to cheaply buy oil + gas to sell them abroad for astronomical profit - creating a new capitalist class (oligarchs)
- the collapse of Comm brought a period of increasing disorder; to protect their wealth, the Russian capitalists turned to the forming mafias + formed alliances
- these mafias were traditional, strictly hierarchal and based on ethnic or familial ties +
were essential to the entry of the new Russian capitalist class in the world economy
outline green crime
- green crime = green/ environmental crime is crime against the environment
- much green crime can be linked to globalisation, with the increasing interconnectedness of societies
- the planet is a single econ-system, so threats to the eco-system are increasingly global rather than merely local in nature
outline the global risk society in relation to the environment
- most of the threats to human well being + the eco-system are now man made rather than natural - e.g. famine, drought of the past
- Beck: in todays late modern society, we can now provide adequate resources for all (at least in developed countries)
- but, the massive increase in productivity + technology creates new ‘manufactured risks’ - of which we have never faced before - e.g. greenhouse gas emissions from industry
- like climate change, many of these risks are global, which can produce crime + disorder
outline the debate of green criminology
- what if the pollution that causes global warming or acid rain is perfectly legal + no crime had been committed? - would it be a matter for criminologists?
- there are 2 opposed answers to this debate: traditional criminology and green criminology
outline the traditional criminology view of the environmental ‘crime’ debate
- traditional criminology hasn’t been concerned with environmental ‘crimes’ since its subject matter is defined by the criminal law, and no laws have been broken
- Situ and Emmons define environmental crime as: ‘an unauthorised act or omission that violates the law’ - trad crim investigates the patterns and causes of law breaking
- this approach clearly defines the subject matter, but is criticised for accepting official definitions of environmental problems + crimes, which are often shaped by powerful groups to serve their own interests
outline the green criminology view of the environmental ‘crime’ debate
- green criminology takes a more radical approach - it starts from the notion of harm rather than criminal law
- White: the proper subject of criminology is any action that harms the physical environment and/ or the human + non-human animals within it (even if no law has been broken)
- most of the worst environmental harms are legal, and so the subject matter of GC is wider than that of TC - which is why GC is a form of transgressive criminology - it oversteps the boundaries of TC to include new issues
- also, diff countries have diff laws to class environmental actions as crimes - and so legal definitions cant provide a consistent standard of harm
- by moving away from a legal definition, GC can develop a global perspective on environmental harm
outline the 2 views of harm
- in general, nation-states and transnational corporations adopt what White calls an anthropocentric/ human-centred view of environmental harm
- this view assumes humans have a right to dominate nature for their own interests + puts economic growth before the environment
- White contrasts this with an ecocentric view that sees humans + their environment as interdependent, so that environmental harm also hurts humans
- this view sees both humans + the environment as liable to exploitation - esp by global capitalism
- Green Criminology adopts the ecocentric view as the basis for judging environmental harm
what 2 types are the green criminology’s classification of green crime
- green criminologists, such as South, classifies green crime in 2 types;
1) primary
2) secondary
outline primary green crimes
- primary green crimes are ‘crimes that directly result from the destruction + degradation of the earth’s resources’
- South identifies 4 main types of primary crime: air pollution, deforestation, species decline + animal abuse, and water pollution
(types of primary green crime) outline crimes of air pollution
air pollution:
- burning fossil fuels from industry + transport adds 6 billion tons of Carbon to the atmosphere every year
- carbon emissions are growing at about 2% every year - contributing to global warming
- the potential criminals are: governments, businesses, consumers
- Walters: 2x as many people now die from air pollution-induced breathing problems than 20 years ago
(types of primary green crime) outline crimes of deforestation
deforestation:
- between 1960-90, 1/5 of the worlds tropical rainforest was destroyed - e.g. through illegal logging
- in the Amazon, forest has been cleared to rear beef cattle for exports
- in the Andes, the ‘war on drugs’ has led to pesticide spraying to kill coca + marijuana plants - btu this has resulted in new green crime - e.g. destroying food crops, contaminating drinking water + causing illness
- the criminals include: the state and those who profit from forest destruction, such as logging companies + cattle ranchers
(types of primary green crime) outline crimes of species decline and animal abuse
species decline + animal abuse:
- 50 species a day are becoming extinct, and 46% of mammal are at risk
- 70-95% of earths species live in the rainforests, which are under severe threat
- there is increased trafficking in animals + animal parts
- in addition, old crimes such as dog-fights + badger-baiting are on the increase
(types of primary green crime) outline crimes of water pollution
water pollution:
- half a billion people currently lack access to clean drinking water + 25 million die annually from drinking contaminated water
- marine pollution threatens 58% of the world’s ocean reefs + 34% of fish
- the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: caused massive harm to marine life + coasts
- criminals include: businesses that dump toxic waste + governments that discharge untreated sewage into rivers and seas
_ species a day are becoming extinct, and _% of mammal are at risk
- 50 species a day are becoming extinct, and 46% of mammal are at risk
outline secondary green crimes
- secondary green crime is crime that grows out of the flouting (disregarding) of rules aimed at preventing or regulating environmental disasters
- e.g. govts often break their own regulations + cause environmental harm
- South suggests 2 types of secondary crimes: state violence against oppositional groups, hazardous waste and organised crime
(types of secondary green crime) outline state violence against oppositional groups
- states condemn terrorism, but they have been prepared to resort to similar illegal methods themselves
- e.g. in 1985, the French secret service blew up a Greenpeace ship in Auckland harbour, New Zealand, killing one crew member
- the vessel was there in an attempt to prevent a green crime, French nuclear weapon testing
- Day: when a government has committed itself to nuclear weapons/ nuclear power, all those who oppose this policy are treated in some degree as enemies of the state
(types of secondary green crime) outline hazardous waste and organised crime
- due to the high costs of safe + legal disposal, businesses may seek to dispose of such waste illegally
- Walters: the ocean floor has been a radioactive rubbish dump for decades
- e.g. 28,500 barrels of radioactive waste lie on the seabed off the Channel Islands, reportedly dumped by the UK authorities in the 1950s
- some Western businesses ship their waste to be processed in poorer countries where costs are lower + safety standards are often non-existent
- illegal waste disposal represents the problems of law enforcement in a globalised world
outline environmental discrimination
- environmental discrimination is a term used by South to describe the fact that poorer groups are worse affected by pollution
- e.g. Black communities in the USA find their housing is situated next to garbage dumps or polluting industries
outline AO3 evaluations of green criminology
- by focusing on the wider concept of harm rather than simply on the legally defined crimes, its hard to define the boundaries of its field of study clearly
- defining these boundaries involves making moral + political statements about which actions are ‘wrong’ - critics argue this value based + cant be established objectively
outline 2 examples of green crime
- e.g. atmospheric pollution from industry in 1 country can turn into acid rain that falls in another
- an accident in the nuclear industry - e.g. in Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986 can spread radioactive material over thousands of miles - having global effects
outline an example of a global risk society in relation to the environment
- e.g. Russia in 2010: global warming triggered the hottest heatwave in a century - causing wildfires that destroyed grain belts, resulting in Russia banning grain exports + inc world price of grain
- this had a knock on effect in Mozambique, which is heavily dependent on food imports - was a 30% price rise of bread - sparked riots + looting of food stores leaving more than 12 dead
outline ‘glocal’ organisations
- glocal organisations refer to new forms of organisation that have international links - esp within the drug trade, but crime is still rooted in its local context
- e.g. inds still need local contacts + networks to find opportunities + to sell drugs
- Hobbs + Dunningham: concludes crime works as a ‘glocal’ system - crime will vary according to its local conditions, even if it is influenced by global factors, e.g. availability of drugs abroad
- H + D argue changes associated with G have led to changes in the pattern of crime - e.g. the shift from the old hierarchal gang structure to loose networks of flexible, opportunistic, entrepreneurial criminals
what are the 2 reasons for why state crime is the most serious form of crime
1) the scale of state crime
2) the state is the source of law
outline the scale of state crime as a reason for its seriousness
- the state’s enormous power gives it the potential to inflict harm on a huge scale
- Green + Ward found that 262 million people have been murdered by the gov during the 20th century
outline the state as the source of law as a reason for state crimes seriousness
- it is the states role to define what is criminal, uphold the law and prosecute offenders
- this power means it can conceal its crimes, evade punishment + avoid defining its actions as criminal in the first place
- state crimes undermine the justice system + public faith in it
- this makes prosecution from external bodies very difficult - e.g. from the United Nations
what are McLaughlin’s 4 categories of state crime
1) political crimes - e.g. corruption, censorship
2) crimes by security + police forces - e.g. genocide, torture
3) economic crimes - e.g. official violations of health and safety laws
4) social and cultural crimes - e.g. institutional racism
outline the case study of Rwanda
WRITE FROM CLASS BOOKLET
outline state-corporate crimes + Kramer and Michalowski’s view
- state crimes are often committed in conjunction to corporate crimes
- Kramer + Michalowski: distinguish between state initiated and state facilitated crimes
(Kramer and Michalowski) define + outline an example of a state initiated crime
- state initiated crime = when states initiate, direct or approve corporate crimes
the Challenger space shuttle disaster: - in 1986, the US state agency NASA took risky, cost cutting and negligent decisions about their space shuttle, Challenger, which resulted in an explosion that killed 7 astronauts 73 seconds after the blast off
(Kramer and Michalowski) define + outline an example of a state facilitated crime
- state facilitated crime = when states fail to control + regulate corporate behaviour - making crime easier
Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster: - in 2013 on the Gulf of Mexico, the rig exploded + sank, killing 11 workers and causing the largest accidental oil spill in history, with major health + environmental + economici impacts
- the official enquiry found that while the disaster resulted from decisions made by companies - e.g. BP, govt regulators had failed to oversee the industry adequately
what are the 2 kinds of war-related crimes
1) illegal wars
2) crimes committed during war or its aftermath
outline illegal wars as a type of war related crime
illegal wars:
- under international law, war can only be declared by the UN Security Council - or as self-defence
- from this basis, many see the US-led wars in Afghanistan + Iraq as illegal
- Kramer + Michalowski: to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq as self defence, the USA and UK made the false claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction
outline crimes committed during war/ its aftermath as a type of war related crime
- Kramer + Michalowski identify other crimes committed during the Iraq War - e.g. torture of prisoners
- a US military inquiry into the Abu Ghraib prison found several cases of ‘sadistic, blatant criminal abuses’ of prisoners
- 9 soldiers were convicted - the highest ranking being a staff sergeant, commanding officers were prosecuted, or personnel from private companies
outline defining state crime + name the 5 types
- defining crime of any kind isn’t straight forward - esp state crime
5 types:
1) domestic law
2) social harm + zemiology
3) labelling + societal reaction
4) international law
5) human rights
outline domestic law as a definition of state crime
domestic law:
- Chambliss: defines state crime as ‘acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials in pursuit of their jobs as representatives of the state’
- but; using a states own domestic law to define state crime ignores how states can change the law to avoid criminalising their actions or allowing them to carry out harmful actions
- e.g. the German Nazis passed a law legalising compulsory sterilisation of the disabled
outline social harms and zemiology as a definition of state crime
- this recognises that much of the harm done by states isn’t against the law
- Michalowski: defines state crime as including not just illegal acts, but also legally permissible acts whose consequences as similar to those of illegal acts’ in the harm caused
- Hillyard: we should take a wider view of state wrongdoing through zemiology (the study of harms - illegal or legal)
- this definition prevents states ruling themselves ‘out of court’ by making laws allowing their misbehaviour + creates a single standard that is applicable to different states
outline labelling and societal reaction as a definition of state crime
- labelling theory: an act only constitutes as a crime based on whether the social audience (witnessing directly or indirectly - e.g. through media) for that act defines it as a crime
- this definition recognizes that state crime is socially constructed - what people consider state crime varies culturally
- this prevents the sociologist imposing their own definition of state crime when this may not be how the participants (victims, perpetrators, audiences) define the situation
outline human rights as a definition of state crime
- human rights can be used to define state crime
- human rights includes: natural rights (that people have - e.g. free speech, right to life) and civil rights (e.g. right to vote, to privacy)
- Schwendingers: state crime should be defined as the violation of people’s basic human rights by the state/ its agents - e.g. states that are imperialist, racist, exist etc are committing crimes as they are denying people their basic rights
- this is a strong definition as virtually all states care about their human rights image, as they are global social norms - makes them susceptible to ‘shaming’
- Schwendingers: this definition of crime is inevitably political - if we just accept the states laws then we become subservient to the states interests
outline international law as a definition of state crime
- some sociologists base their definition of state crime in international law (law created through treaties + agreements between states)
- e.g. Rothe + Mullins define SC as any action by/ on the behalf of a state that violates international law/ a states domestic law
- this doesn’t depend on the sociologists own personal definitions of harm/ who the relevant social audience is - it uses globally agreed definitions
- the international law definition intentionally is designed to deal with state crime, unlike most domestic law
what is an AO3 evaluation of social harms and zemiology as a definition of state crime
- a definition of ‘harm’ is very vague - what level of harm must occur before an act is defined as a crime
- who decides what counts as crime? what may seriously emotionally harm one person may not to another
outline AO3 evaluations of labelling and societal reaction as a definition of state crime
- this definition is even vaguer than social harms definition - e.g. Kauzlarichs study of anti-Iraq war protesters found that while they saw the war as harmful, they were unwilling to label it as criminal
- its also unclear about who is supposed to be the relevant audience that decides whether a state crime has been committed / or what to do if audiences reach different verdicts
- it also ignores how the audiences’ definitions may be manipulated by ruling class ideology - e.g. through the media
outline AO3 evaluations of human rights as a definition of state crime
- Cohen: criticizes the Schwendingers’ view - while gross violations of human rights - such as torture - are clearly crimes, other acts, such as economic exploitations, aren’t self-evidently criminal - even if morally unacceptable
- there are also disagreements about what counts as a human right - while most include life + liberty, some wouldn’t include freedom from hunger
- if the state knowingly permits the export of food from a famine area - e.g. like the British gov in the Irish Famine of the 1840s. then this is a denial of human rights + a state crime
outline AO3 evaluations of international law as a definition of state crime
- like the laws made by individual states, international law is a social construction involving the use of power
- Strand + Tuman: found that Japan has sought to overturn the international ban on whaling by concentrating its foreign aid on impoverished areas - to bribe them to vote against the ban
- also, international law focuses largely on war crimes + crimes against humanity, rather than other state crimes such as corruption
outline the authoritarian personality as an explanation of state crime
- Adorno: identifies an ‘authoritarian personality’ that includes a willingness to obey orders of superiors W/O question
- at the time of WW2, many Germans had authoritarian personalities due to the disciplinarian socialization patterns that were common of this time
- its often thought that people who carry out torture + genocides must be psychopaths - but research shows how there is little difference between them and ‘normal’ people
- Arendt’s study of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann showed him to be relatively normal + not particularly anti-Semitic
outline crimes of obedience as an explanation of state crime
- crime is usually defined as deviance from social norms, however state crimes are crimes of conformity, as they require obedience to higher authority (the state/ its representatives)
- research shows how many people are willing to obey authority even if it means harming others - this is due to socialization + acceptance of hierarchy
- Green + Ward: the only solution to this obedience is re-socialisation
outline explaining state crime + name the 3 explanations
- while genocides may be ordered + organized by leaders of states, this cant happen without the cooperation of ordinary soldiers, police + civilians
- e.g. Nazi Germany - genocide needed the involvement of a large proportion of the population
- why + how do large numbers of normally law-abiding citizens become involved in atrocities?
- the 3 explanations: the authoritarian personality, crimes of obedience, modernity
outline modernity as an explanation of state crime
- Bauman argues that key features of modern society made the Holocaust possible:
- division of labour: each person was responsible for a step - no one felt personally responsible for the atrocity
- bureaucratisation: this normalised the killings by making it a repetitive, rule-governed and routine ‘job’ + further dehumanised victims by viewing them as ‘units’
- instrumental rationality: where rational + efficient methods are used to achieve a goal, regardless of what the goal is (mass extinction of a race)
- science + technology: e.g. railways transporting victims to death camps + industrially produced gas used to kill them
- the Holocaust was a modern, industrialised mass production ‘factory’ system, where the product was mass murder
- Bauman argues the H was the result of a breakdown of modern, rational-bureaucratic civilisation
what are Hamilton’s 3 features that produce crimes of obedience (explaining state crime)
- Hamilton: there are 3 features that produce crimes of obedience
1) authorization: acts being ordered/ approved by authorities - moral principles are replaced by duty to obey
2) routinization: once crime has been committed, there’s a strong pressure to turn the act into a routine that individuals can perform in a detached manner
3) dehumanization: when the enemy is portrayed as sub-human, normal principles of morality don’t apply
outline AO3 evaluations of modernity as an explanation of state crime
- not all genocides occur through a highly organised division of labour that allows participants to distance themselves from the killing
- ideological factors are also important - Nazi ideology + propaganda stressed a single Aryan German racial identity that excluded minorities like Jews who were viewed as sub-human - excused peoples moral objection to the genocide
(culture of denial) outline Cohen’s application of Sykes and Matza’s 5 neutralisation techniques
- Sykes + Matza’s 5 neutralisation techniques are used to justify delinquency - but Cohen applies them to state’s justification of human rights violations;
1) denial of victim: ‘they exaggerate, they are terrorists’
2) denial of injury: ‘we are the real victims, not them’
3) denial of responsibility: ‘i was only obeying orders, doing my duty’ - often used by policemen, death camp guards etc
4) condemning the condemners: ‘they are condemning us only because of their antisemitism (from Israelis), their hostility to Islam (from Arabs), their racism’
5) appeal of a higher loyalty: justifications that claim to serve a higher cause, whether the nation - e.g. Zionism, Islam - these techniques don’t deny that the event has occurred, but impose a different construction of the event
outline Cohen’s view on the culture of denial
- Cohen: states now have to make a greater effort to conceal/ justify their human rights crimes, or to re-label them as not crimes
- while dictators deny any human rights abuses, democratic states try to legitimate their actions in a complex way - their justifications follow a 3 step stage ‘spiral of state denial’;
- stage 1: ‘it didn’t happen’; e.g. the state claims there was no massacre - but then human rights organisations, victims + media shows proof - e.g. photos of mass graves
- stage 2: ‘if it did happen, ‘it’ was something else’; e.g. the state claims self-defence - not murder
- stage 3: ‘even if it is what you say it is, its justified’; e.g. to fight the ‘war on terror’
