Interlink

Question 1

Crimes of powerful

Answer 1

Nation-states & larger corporations have the power to inflict serious damage on the environment. The state also has great power to cause harm to its own citizens & those of other countries. Yet in both cases, this power also means that such harm may be concealed, go unpunished or even be defined as something other than crime. This is a big focus for Marxist sociologists.

Question 2

Transgressive criminology (criminology that transgresses or goes beyond the boundaries of normal criminology) or zemiology

Answer 2

Many argue that criminologists should study harms as well as acts actually defined as crimes. If an act injures humans or the environment, but which is very often not against the law due to power issues detailed above, it should still be studied. This raises the issue of why some harms get defined as crimes, while others are not which links back to issues of power.

Question 3

Crimes without frontiers

Answer 3

Some of the harms done to the environment do not respect national boundaries – they inflict damage on a global scale (e.g. air pollution). Many other crimes are not confined to a single nation-state, such as cybercrime. State crimes occurring in one country involve decisions from other countries – e.g. Syria. As the world becomes ever more interconnected, the scope for globalised crime increases.