Most serious forms of crime 2

Question 1

1. The scale of state crime

Answer 1

The power of the state enables it to commit extremely large-scale crimes with widespread victimisation. E.g. in Cambodia between 1975 & 1978, the Khmer Rouge government of Pol Pot is believed to have killed up to two million people – a fifth of the country’s entire population. The state’s monopoly of violence gives it the potential to inflict massive harm, while its power means it is well placed to conceal its crimes or evade punishment for them. Although media attention is often on state crimes committed by Third World dictatorships such as Pol Pot’s, democratic states such as Britain & the USA have also been guilty of crimes such as the military use of torture in Iraq, Northern Ireland & elsewhere which is often not focused on by the media.

However, the principle of ‘national sovereignty’ – that states are the supreme authority within their own borders – makes it very difficult for external authorities (such as the United Nations) to intervene. This is despite the existence of international conventions & laws against acts such as genocide, war crimes & racial discrimination – e.g. the failure of the UN to act appropriately during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Question 2

2. The state is the source of law

Answer 2

It is the state’s role to define what is criminal, to manage the criminal justice system & to prosecute offenders. State crime undermines the system of justice. Its power to make the law also means that it can avoid defining its own harmful actions as criminal.
E.g. in Nazi Germany, the state created laws permitting it to sterilise disabled people against their will. State control of the criminal justice system also means that it can ‘legally’ persecute its enemies.

Labelling theory recognises that state crime is socially constructed, & so what people regard as a state crime can vary over time & between cultures or groups.

Application: Link the idea of state crimes to the Marxist notion of ‘crimes of the powerful’ & the ability of those with power both to commit more serious crime & to get away with it. Also, whether people consider something as a state crime may be manipulated by ruling-class