Globalisation, Green Crime, Human Rights And State Crime

Question 1

What kind of global crime is there?

Answer 1

Arms trafficking 
Trafficking women and children 
Green crimes
Money laundering 
Sex tourism 
Etc

Question 2

What is a global risk society?

Answer 2

Globalisation creates new insecurities and produces a new mentality of ‘risk consciousness’ in which risk is seen as global rather than tied to a particular place. Eg refugee crisis gives rise to anxieties among populations in Western countries about the risks of crime and disorder and the need to protect their borders. Much of our knowledge about risks comes from the exaggerated media. This increases intensification of social control eg fining airlines if they bring undocumented people into the country

Question 3

What does Taylor argue?

Answer 3

By giving free rein to market forces, globalisation has created greater inequality and rising crime. It has allowed transnational corporations to switch manufacturing to low wage countries, producing unemployment and poverty. The lack of illegitimate job opportunities drives the unemployed to look for illegitimate ones.
Globalisation has also given elite groups the opportunities for insider trading and offshore accounts
Increases zero hours contracts and breach of health and safety laws

Question 4

What are ‘glocal’ organisations?

Answer 4

Sometimes have international links, eg with drugs trade buy crime is still rooted in its local context. Eg individuals still need local contacts and networks to find opportunities to sell their drugs. This has led to a shift from the old rigidly hierarchal gang structures to loose networks

Question 5

What is McMafia according to Glenny?

Answer 5

Organisations that emerged in Russia following th fall of communism. The government deregulated most sectors of the economy except natural resources such as oil. These remained at only a fortieth of the world market price. Anyone with access to funds could buy up resources for next to nothing and sell them abroad at a massive profit
With the assistance of the mafia, billionaires were able to find protection for their wealth and means of moving it out of the country.

Question 6

How are green crimes global?

Answer 6

A problem caused in one locality can have worldwide effects. Eg Chernobyl spread radioactive material over thousands of miles

Question 7

What does Beck argue?

Answer 7

The major risk we face today is of our own making. In today’s late modern society we can now provide adequate resources for all. However, the massive increase in productivity and the technology that sustains it have created new ‘manufactured risks’. Eg greenhouse gas emissions. ‘Global risk society’

Question 8

What does traditional criminology argue about global warming?

Answer 8

Has not been concerned with such behaviour because no law has been broken. It is criticised for accepting official definitions which sew often shaped by powerful groups to serve their own interests

Question 9

What does green criminology argue about global warming?

Answer 9

Starts from the notion of harm rather than law. Green crime is a form of transgressive criminology, zemiology.
Different countries have different laws so legal definitions cannot provide a consistent definition of harm

Question 10

What are primary green crimes?

Answer 10

Crimes that result directly from the destruction and degradation of the earths resources-
Crimes of air pollution- burning fossil fuels adds 6 billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere each year
Crimes of deforestation- between 1960 and 1990, one fifth of the world’s tropical rainforest was destroyed
Crimes of species decline and animal abuse- 50 species a day become extinct
Crimes of water pollution

Question 11

What are secondary green crimes?

Answer 11

Crime that grows out of the flouting of rules aimed at preventing environmental disasters
State violence against oppositional groups- eg French secret service blew up a Greenpeace ship attempting to prevent a green crime, killing one person
Hazardous waste and organised crime- because of the high cost of safe and legal disposal, businesses may dispose of it illegally. Eg hundreds of illegally disposed waste was dumped on the channel island sea beds. This illustrates the problem of law enforcement. The very existence of laws to regulate rubbish in developed countries pushes up costs and gives and incentive to dispose in third world. It may not even be illegal because they may lack the necessary legalisation to outlaw it
Environmental discrimination- poorer groups are worse affected by pollution

Question 12

How is green criminology evaluated?

Answer 12

It is hard to define boundaries

Question 13

What are state crimes?

Answer 13

Crimes of the powerful. All forms of crime committed by states and governments in order to further their policies

Question 14

What are the two reasons state crimes are the most serious?

Answer 14

The scale of state crime- the potential to inflict harm on a huge scale
The state is the source of law- its the state’s role to define what criminal is, uphold the law and prosecute offenders. It’s power also means it can conceal crimes, evade punishment for them, and even avoid defining its own actions as criminal in the first place

Question 15

What 4 categories of state crimes are there?

Answer 15

Political crimes- corruption and censorship
Crimes by security and police forces- genocide, torture and disappearance of dissents
Economic crimes- official violations of health and safety laws
Social and cultural crimes- institutional racism

Question 16

What was the genocide in Rwanda?

Answer 16

1994, scene of the 20th century’s fastest genocide. The Belgians used the Tutsis to to mediate rule over the Hutu majority. The Belgians ‘ethnicised’ the two groups. Independence gave Hutus power. Civil war began and to keep their power Hutus published racist propaganda about Tutsis. In 100 days, 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered. Hutu civilians were forced to either join in the killing or die themselves

Question 17

Give an example of a state corporate crime

Answer 17

The challenger space shuttle disaster. Risky, negligent and cost cutting decisions were made by NASA and it exploded after take off killing 7 astronauts

Question 18

Give an example of an illegal war

Answer 18

To justify their invasion of Iraq in 2003 as self defence, the USA UK made a false claim that the Iraqis possessed weapons of mass destruction

Question 19

What ways can we define a state crime?

Answer 19

Domestic law. Criticised because the state uses its own laws and can avoid criminalising their actions 
Zemiology. Criticised because it questions what level of harm must be done for it to be a crime and who decides it is a crime 
Labelling and societal reaction, a state crime is a social construct. Criticised for being vague, not defining who the audience is and ignores the fact that it can be manipulated by the ruling class 
International law eg Geneva. Criticised because it is a social construct involving the use of power 
Human rights

Question 20

How can state crimes be explained?

Answer 20

The authoritarian personality- willingness to obey orders from superiors without question eg WW2
Crimes of obedience- state crimes are crimes of conformity. People are willing to obey orders even when it means harming others
Modernity- holocaust was possible because of division of labour meaning no one felt fully responsible, normalised killing, rational methods, science and technology

Question 21

What does Cohen argue?

Answer 21

The culture of denial. Make an effort to justify and conceal their crimes. Democratic states follow a spiral of state denial-
Stage 1- ‘didn’t happen’, eventually the truths come out though
Stage 2- self defence not murder
Stage 3- justified eg to fight war on terror
Techniques of neutralisation -
Denial of victim eg they are terrorists
Denial of injury
Denial of responsibility eg just obeying orders
Condemning the condemners
Appeal to a higher loyalty, serving a higher cause eg defence of free world