Green Crime & State Crime

Question 1

How does White define green crime?

AO1

Answer 1

“Any action that harms the environment and/or the (non) human animals within it regardless of whether a law has been broken or not.”

Question 2

What are the 2 views of harm according to White?

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Answer 2

1. The anthropocentric view: human centred, assumes humans have the right to dominate the world around them. Puts economic growth before the environment
2. The ecocentric view: sees humans and the environment as codependent as environmental harm also harms humans - global capitalism puts both at equal risk of harm

e.g. BP oil spill shows anthropocentric view - risks weren’t assessed and corners were cut to save money - led to the biggest oil spill in America

Question 3

What types of green crime does South et al identify?

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Answer 3

1. Primary green crime: any action that results in direct harm to the environment e.g. pollution. deforestation, littering
2. Secondary green crime: any action that breaks laws specifically designed to protect the environment e.g. breaking health and safety laws

Question 4

How dos Beck’s view relate to green crime?

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Answer 4

• Green crime has created more risks that affect EVERYONE e.g. climate change, global warming, acid rain e.g Chernobyl, Bhopal Disaster
• We are now becoming more risk conscious - becoming more environmentally conscious and take action to manage risk e.g. recycling

Question 5

What groups commit green crime according to Wolf?

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Answer 5

1. Individuals e.g. pollution, littering, fly-tipping
2. Private business organisations in pursuit of profit harm environment through corporate crime e.g. Thames Water 2021-2023 illegally dumped 72 billion litres of sewage into the Thames
3. States and governments: largest institutional pollutors - warfare is the largest pollutor e.g. bombs, nuclear weapons, machinery. Santana: nuclear arms race has created millions of tons of nuclear waste and radioactive material
4. Organised crime: states use crime groups to illegally dispose waste. Massari and Monzini: Italian Mafia was employed by government to dispose of government’s nuclear waste in Naples Bay

Question 6

What scholars identify the victims of green crime?

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Answer 6

• Potter: environmental racism - BAME are most likely to be victims of green crime. E.g. ethnic minorities experience 19-29% more pollution than white people with black people experiencing the most
• White: green crime victims are often from LEDCs as capitalists in MEDCs can take advantage of laws around the world to commit green crime e.g. Bhopal Disaster

Question 7

How can we analyse green crime?

AO3

Answer 7

• 2022 The Telegraph found that Oxfam clothes were ending up in landfills in Ghana despite their pledge that 0% of donations would end up this way - unwanted UK clothes are being disposed of abroad
• Relevant today - National Black Environmental Justice Network has been set up in the US in 1999 and identifies how “enviromental racism kills” as lack of proper regulation literally makes it “hard for black people to breathe” - rise of BLM and talks of social justice during the COVID 19 pandemic made this more of a talking point

Question 8

How does marxism reinforce green crime?

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Answer 8

• Snider: states are reluctant to pass laws that threaten the pursuit of profit e.g. pollution, net-zero targets. When they are implemented they are rarely enforced. ANALYSIS: 2024 UK gov pushed back the net-zero target from 2030 to 2050
• Box: crime is ideologically constructed - blue collar crime is seen as a more serious issue than green crime even if they both can have devestating impacts
• Sutherland: green crimes carry less stigma as they are often the result of white collar crimes - bourgeoisie can pay the best lawyers to reduce repercussions

Question 9

How can we analyse marxism?

AO3

Answer 9

2015 Volkswagen emission scandal: Volkswagen had been cheating emission tests and breaching environmental regulations which meant they were responsible for nearly 11 million extra tonnes of air pollution each year - roughly the combined amount of the UK’s emissions from power plants, vehicles, industrial, and agricultural pollution

Question 10

How can we evaluate green crime?

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Answer 10

• Problems measuring green crime: different countries have different laws making it hard to compare globally. The transgressive approach isn’t always helpful as harm is relative and so can’t be properly measured. Someone driving contributes to pollution - should this be considered a green crime the same way illegal waste disposal is?
• There is a raising consciousness surrounding green crime: individuals like Greta Thunberg advocate to be more climate conscious, states come together in annual COP meetings to discuss climate change, national governments implementing policies like ULEZ charges, growth of green party popularity, even companies are attempting to appeal to the public by presenting as more eco-friendly e.g. Formula One’s net-zero pledge

Question 11

How do Green and Ward define state crime?

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Answer 11

“Violation of human rights, perpetrated by agents of the state in the deviant pursuit of organisational goals” - not just rogue individuals but people with the aim of implementing official/unofficial state policies

Question 12

What are some examples of state crimes?

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Answer 12

• Pol Pot’s Cambodia: in imposing agrarian socialism, many were forced to work in collective farms and forced labour projects towards the goal of “restarting civilisation”. The poor conditions Cambodians were subjected to and Pol Pot’s executions led to 21% of the population dying - genocide
• 1980s Rwandan Genoicide: Corruption in the Belgium government led to racial discrimination between the Tutsis and Hutus. The tensions the Belgians caused resulted in the genocide of 70% the Tutsi population
• Hitchen: the USA commited state crimes during the ‘war on terror’ as they violated the human rights of people suspected as terrorists. Extraordinary rendering = people being imprisoned without trial e.g. Guantanamo Bay and other ‘black sites’. Enhanced interrogation = torture techniques used to get ‘confessions’ e.g. waterboarding

Question 13

What are some contemporary examples of state crime?

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Answer 13

• Shaker Aamer was the last British detainee from Guatanamo Bay to be released in October 2015. He claimed to havbe been in Iraq for humanitarian work but the USA accused him of working with Al-Qaeda and he was taken in by bounty hunters
• The UN has found Israeli authorities responsible for war crimes such as torture, intentional attacks on civillians, and sexual violence. Also guilty of several crimes against humanity such as the extermination of Palestinians and gender persecution

Question 14

What is the issue with defining state crimes as crimes violating human rights?

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Answer 14

• Waters: human rights are socially constructed - depend on the time and culture - only formally established in 1948 in response to the holocaust
• Cohen: by making state crimes an issue of human rights we are confusing criminality and immorality. The violation of some human rights is obviously immoral and criminal e.g. genocide essentially being mass murder, but others are immoral but not criminal e.g. not having freedom from poverty. Ethnocentric: it is unfair to say that all LEDCs are guilty of state crimes as they simply cannot afford to bring their people out of poverty

Question 15

How do Green and Ward explain state crime?

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Answer 15

Integrated Theory:
- Similar explanation for why people commit conventional crimes e.g. street crime
- States have the opportunity, motivation, and lack the controls to stop them

Question 16

What other theories can be applied to Green and Ward?

AO2

Answer 16

• Clarke: rational choice theory - there is the opportunity to commit state crimes, states have something to gain from it which motivates them, and there aren’t enough controls to keep them in check
• Hirschi: control theory - society lacks enough controls to keep states law abiding

Question 17

How do Kelman and Hamilton explain state crime?

and what sociologist applies it to a real state crime

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Answer 17

‘Crimes of Obedience’: violent states encourage obedience from those who actually carry out human rights violations in 3 ways:
1. Authorisation: agents believe they are acting on behalf of the government - work for the state
2. Routinisation: it becomes normalised as ‘no big deal’ - people are desensitised. De Swann: ‘enslaved barbarism’ - conforming to state’s violence is rewarded and perpetrators are allowed to go back to normal life
3. Dehumanisation: the people targetted are presented as an enemy e.g. Hitler promoted antisemitism to present the holocaust as a ‘final solution’ to the ‘Jewish problem’

Bauman: Nazi Germany used these 3 stages in order to enact the holocaust and justify Jewish extermination

Question 18

How can we analyse Kelman and Hamilton?

AO3

Answer 18

• Supported by Milgram’s 1969 Obedience study which has made a positive contribution to sociology b y disproving the ‘German’s are bad thesis’ and explaining how people will commit crime due to orders from authority
• Uyghur Muslims in China are being forced to attend internment camps. Uyghur Human Rights Project estimates that about 1 in 17 Uyghurs had been imprisoned as of April 2024. This has been authorised by the state and the Uyghurs have been dehumanised as not Chinese enough and persecuted in the name of ‘re-education’

Question 19

How does Cohen explain the state getting away with crime?

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Answer 19

Techniques of Neutralisation:
- Denial of responsibility: agents dismiss it as ‘simply following orders’ e.g. Nazi soldiers post-WW2 e.g. Eichmann claiming this despite being one of the most senior Nazis
- Denial of injury: victims are labelled as terrorists and the state are the ‘real victims’ e.g. Israeli using right to defend themself from Hamas to justify human rights violations against Palestinians
- Condemnation of condemners: victims are called hippocrites who are guilty of worse themselves
- Appeal of higher loyalties: claim to have been on a ‘sacred mission’ from God

Question 20

What sociologists explain why it’s hard to research state crime?

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Answer 20

• Cohen: shows that it will be difficult to understand the true extent of state crimes because governments adopt strategies of denial
• Tombs and Whyte: researchers are likely to face strong opposition from states when researching this. States can prevent/hinder such research e.g. by denying access to certain files or even imprisoning the researcher e.g. Julien Asange, founder of Wikileaks, had to hide in London’s Venezuelan embassy for 8 years as the US wanted to prosecute him for leaking US war crimes
• Green and Ward: researching state crime can be dangerous for researchers due to the fact the state can prosecute researchers and have the power to isolate and label them as ‘enemies of the state’

Question 21

How does Cohen believe states deny their crimes?

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Answer 21

Culture of Denial
1. Argue the event didn’t happen
2. Try to redefine what happened and label it as ‘collateral damage’ or an ‘accident’ e.g. War on Terror was justified by allegations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction
3. State justifies abuse as the ‘lesser of 2 evils’ e.g. Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings used to ‘end WW2’

Question 22

What do Marxists say about state crime?

AO3

Answer 22

It is inevitable under capitalism:
- Even states try to get ahead and break the law to pursue their own goals
- Lots of state crimes are done for economic benefit e.g. middle eastern oil was an incentive for launching the invasion of Iraq
- This is because capitalism is criminogenic and the bourgeoisie choose when to enforce the law

Question 23

What do Functionalists say about state crimes?

AO3

Answer 23

• Reaffirm boundaries e.g. the war on terror reminded us of our stance against terrorism and showed other countries what would happen if they got weapons of mass destruction
• Social cohesion: often lead to a rise in nationalism e.g. increased Zionism in Israel post Hamas attacks, German Nationalism rose under Nazi rule and the holocaust
• Positive social change e.g. Geneva Convention, UN Declaration on Human Rights were made in response to state crimes during WW2 especially the holocaust
• Safety valve: enforces social control through fear

Question 24

How can we evaluate state crimes?

AO3

Answer 24

• They ARE the lesser of 2 evils and often committed in national interests - states have to react when a crime is committed against them or they’ll look weak
• Theories rely on secondary info - no first hand accounts
• Hard to define/measure what a state crime is