Sociology-crime-globalisation, green crime, human rights, state crime Flashcards

Question

What do Hobbs and Dunningham conclude about patterns of criminal organisation?

Answer 1

Changes associated with globalisation have led to changes in patterns of crime. However, it is not clear that such patterns are new, nor that the older structures have disappeared. It may be that the two have always co-existed. Equally their conclusions may not be generalisable to other criminal activities elsewhere

Answer 2

What Glenny calls 'McMafia'. This refers to the organisations that emerged in Russia and Eastern Europe following the fall of communism-itself a major factor in the process of globalisation

Answer 3

The break-up of the Soviet Union after 1989, which coincided with the deregulation of global markets. Under communism, Soviet state had regulated prices of everything, but following fall of communism, Russian government deregulated most sectors of economy except for natural resources such as oil. These commodities remained at old Soviet prices, often only a 40th of world market price. Anyone with access to funds, such as former communist officials and KGB generals, could buy up oils, gas, diamonds or metals for next to nothing. Selling them abroad at an astronomical profit, these individuals became Russia's new capitalist class, often popularly referred to as 'oligarchs'

Answer 4

A period of increasing disorder. To protect their wealth, capitalists therefore turned to 'mafias' that had begun to spring up. These were often alliances between former KGB men and ex-convicts. Among the most ruthless were the Chechen mafia

Answer 5

The old mafias were based on ethnic and family ties, with a clear-cut hierarchy. The new Russian mafias were purely economic organisations formed to pursue self-interest. Eg the Chechen mafia originated in Chechnya, but soon began to 'franchise' its operations to non-Chechen groups. 'Chechen mafia' became a brand name that they sold to protection rackets in other towns, so long as they always carried out their word, otherwise the brand would be damaged

Answer 6

With the assistance of these fluid and violent organisations, the billionaires were able to find protection for their wealth and a means of moving it out of the country. Criminal organisations were vital to the entry of the new Russian capitalist class in the world economy. At the same time, the Russian mafias were able to build links with criminal organisations in other parts of the world

Answer 7

As crime against the environment. Much of it is linked to globalisation and the increasing interconnectedness of societies. Regardless of the division of the world into separate nation-states, the planet is a single eco-system, and threats to the eco-system are increasingly global rather than just local in nature, eg atmospheric pollution from industry in one country can turn to acid rain that falls in another, poisons its watercourses and destroys its forests. Similarly accidents in nuclear industry

Answer 8

They are now human-made rather than natural

Answer 9

we can now provide adequate resources for all (at least in developed countries). However, the massive increase in productivity and technology that sustains it, have created new, ‘manufactured risks’-dangers that we have never faced before. Many of these risks involve harm to the environment and its consequences for humanity, such as global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions from industry

Answer 10

Like climate change, many of these risks are global rather than local in nature, leading Beck to describe late modern society as ‘global risk society’. An example of how the global nature of human-made risk can produce crime and disorder comes from Mozambique in 2010

Answer 11

In Russia, global warming triggered the hottest heatwave in a century, causing wildfires that destroyed parts of the country’s grain belt. This shortage led Russia to introduce export bans and pushed up the world price of grain. The knock-on effect in Mozambique, which is heavily dependant on food imports, was a 30% rise in the price of bread. This sparked extensive rioting and looting of food stores that left dozens dead. Mozambique’s own harvest had been hit by drought, possibly also the result of global warming. At the same time, international speculators were engaging in what the World Development Movement called ‘gambling on hunger in financial markets’ (Patel)

Answer 12

Traditional criminology, and green criminology

Answer 13

Has not been concerned with such behaviour, since its subject matter defined by the criminal law, and law has been broken. The starting point for this approach is the national and international laws and regulations concerning the environment. For example, Situ and Emmons define environmental crime as ‘an unauthorised act or omission that violates the law’. Like other traditional approaches in criminology, it investigates the patterns and causes of law breaking

Answer 14

It has a clearly defined subject matter-however, it is criticised for accepting official definitions of environmental problems and crimes, which are often shaped by powerful groups such as big business to serve their own interests

Answer 15

Takes a more radical approach. It starts from the notion of harm rather than criminal law

Answer 16

For example White argues that the proper subject of criminology is any action that harms the physical environment and/or the human and non-human animals within it, even if no law has been broken. In fact, many of the worst environmental harms are not illegal, and so the subject matter of green criminology is such wider than that of traditional criminology. For this reason, green criminology is a form of transgressive criminology-it oversteps the boundaries of traditional criminology to include new issues

Answer 17

It also known as ‘zemiology’-the study of harms. Furthermore, different countries have different laws, so that the same harmful actions may be a crime in one country but not in another. Therefore, legal definitions cannot provide a consistent stand of harm, since they are the product of individual nation-states and their political processes. By moving away from a legal definition, therefore, green criminology can develop a global perspective on environmental harm

Answer 18

This approach is like the Marxist view of ‘crimes of the powerful’. Marxists argue that the capitalist class are able to shape the law and define crime so that their own exploitative activities are not criminalised or, where they are, to ensure that enforcement is weak. Similarly, green criminologists argue that powerful interests, especially nation-states and transnational corporations, are able to define in their own interests what counts as unacceptable environmental harm

Answer 19

In general, nation-states and transnational corporations adopt what White calls an anthropocentric or human-centred view of environmental harm, which assumes that humans have a right to dominate nature for their own ends, and puts economic growth before the environment

Answer 20

An ecocentric view that sees human and their environment as interdependent, so that environmental harm hurts humans also-this view sees both humans and the environment as liable to exploitation, particularly by global capitalism. In general, green criminology adopts the ecocentric view as the basis for judging environmental harm

Answer 21

From a green criminology perspective, South classifies green crimes into two types: Primary and Secondary

Answer 22

These are crimes that result directly from the destruction and degradation of the earth’s resources. South identifies four main types of primary crime: crimes of air pollution, crimes of deforestation, crimes of species decline and animal abuse, crimes of water pollution

Answer 23

Burning fossil fuels from industry and transport adds 6 billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere every year and carbon emissions are growing at around 2% per annum, contributing to global warming. The potential criminal are governments, business and consumers. According to Walters, twice as many people now die from air pollution-induced breathing problems as 20 years ago

Answer 24

Between 1960 and 1990, one fifth of the world’s tropical was destroyed, for example through illegal logging. In the Amazon, forest has been cleared to rear beef cattle for export. In the Andes, the ‘war on drugs’ has led to pesticide spraying to kill coca and marijuana plants, but this has created a new green crime, destroying food crops, contaminating drinking water and causing illness. The criminals include the state and those who profit from forest destruction, such as logging companies and cattle ranchers

Answer 25

50 species a day are becoming extinct, and 45% of mammal and 11% of bird species are at risk. 70-95% of earth’s species live in the rainforests which are under severe threat. There is trafficking in animals and animal parts. Meanwhile, old crimes such as dog-fights and badger-baiting are on the increase

Answer 26

Half a billion people lack access to clean drinking water and 25 million die annually from drinking contaminated water. Marine pollution threatens 58% of the world’s ocean reefs and 34% of its fish. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused massive harm to marine life and coasts. Criminals include businesses that dump toxic waste governments and discharge untreated sewage into rivers and seas

Answer 27

These crimes grow out of the flouting of rules aimed at preventing or regulating environmental disasters. For example, governments often break their own regulations and cause environmental harms. South suggests two examples secondary crimes: state violence against oppositional groups, and hazardous waste and organised crime

Answer 28

States condemn terrorism, but they have been prepared to resort to similar illegal methods themselves. For example, in 1985 the French secret service blew up the Greenpeace ship in Auckland harbour, New Zealand, killing one crew member. The vessel was there in an attempt to prevent green crime, namely French nuclear weapons testing in the south Pacific. Day says, ‘in every case where a government has committed itself to nuclear weapons or nuclear power, all those who oppose this policy are treated in some degree as enemies of the state’

Answer 29

Disposal of toxic waste from the chemical, nuclear and other industries is highly profitable. Because of the high costs of safe and legal disposal, businesses may seek to dispose of such waste illegally. For example, in Italy, eco-mafias profit from illegal dumping, much of it at sea. Walters notes, ‘the ocean floor has been a radioactive rubbish dump for decades’. For example, 28,500 rusting barrels of radioactive waste lie on the seabed off the Channel Islands, reportedly dumped by UK authorities and corporations in the 1950s

Answer 30

A globalised character. For example, Bridgland describes how, after the tsunami of 2004, hundreds of barrels of radioactive waste, illegally dumped by European companies, washed up on the shores of Somalia. In other cases, Western businesses ship their waste to be processed in Third World countries where costs are lower and safety standards are often non-existent. For example, as Rosoff et al note, the cost of legitimately disposing of toxic waste in the USA is about $2,500 a ton but some Third World countries will dispose of it for $3 a ton

Answer 31

Similarly, transnational corporations may offload products (such as pharmaceuticals) onto Third World markets after they have been banned on safety grounds in the West. Illegal waste disposal illustrates the problems of law enforcement in a globalised world-the vert existence of laws to regulate waste disposal in developed countries pushes up the costs to business and creates an incentive to dump illegally in. Third World countries In some cases, it is not even illegal, since less developed countries may lack the necessary legislation outlawing it

Answer 32

This is how South describes the fact that poorer groups are worse affected by pollution. For example, black communities in the USA often find their housing situated next to garbage dumps or polluting industries

Answer 33

Both the strengths and weaknesses arise from its focus on global environmental concerns However, by focusing on the much broader concept of harms rather than simply on legally defined crimes, it is hard to define the boundaries of its field of study clearly. Defining these boundaries involves making moral or political statements about which actions ought to be regarded as wrong. Critics argue that this is a matter of values and cannot be established objectively

Answer 34

It recognises the growing importance of environmental issues and the need to address the harms and risks of environmental damage, both to humans and non-human animals

Answer 35

However, by focusing on the much broader concept of harms rather than simply on legally defined crimes, it is hard to define the boundaries of its field of study clearly. Defining these boundaries involves making moral or political statements about which actions ought to be regarded as wrong. Critics argue that this is a matter of values and cannot be established objectively

Answer 36

‘illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by, or with the complicity of, state agencies’. It includes all forms of crime committed by or on behalf of states and governments in order to further their policies. State crimes do not include acts that merely benefit individuals who work for the state, such as a police officer who accepts a bribe

Answer 37

The scale of state crime, and the state is the source of law

Answer 38

The state’s enormous power gives it the potential to inflict harm on a huge scale. For example, Green and Ward cite a figure of 262 million people murdered by governments during the 20th century. As Michalowski and Kramer note, ‘great power and great crimes are inseparable. Economic and political elites can bring death, disease and loss to tens of thousands with a single decision’

Answer 39

It is the state’s role to define what is criminal, uphold the law and prosecute offenders. However, its power means that it can conceal its crimes, evade punishment for them, and even avoid defining its own actions as criminal in the first place. State crime undermines the system of justice and public faith in it. States of all kinds, including democracies such as Britain and the USA, have been guilty of crimes, but the principle of national sovereignty-that states are the supreme authority within their own borders-makes it difficult for external authorities such as the United Nations to intervene

Answer 40

Four categories of state crime: Political crimes, for example corruption and censorship. Crimes by security and police forces, such as genocide, torture and disappearances of dissidents. Economic crimes, for example official violations of health and safety laws. Social and cultural crimes, such as institutional racism

Answer 41

The UN defines genocide as ‘acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group’

Answer 42

In 1994 Rwanda was the scene of ‘the 20th century’s fastest genocide’

Answer 43

Rwanda became a Belgian colony in 1992 and the Belgians used the minority Tutsi to mediate their rule over the Hutu majority. But Hutus and Tutsis were not separate ethnic groups-they spoke the same language and often intermarried. They were more like social classes: Tutsis owned livestock and Hutus did not; Hutus could become Tutsis if they could afford to buy cattle

Answer 44

However, the Belgians ‘ethnicised’ the two groups, issuing them with radical identity cards, and educated the two groups separately. Rwanda gained independence in 1962 and elections brought the majority Hutus to power. By the 1990s an escalating economic and political crisis led to civil war, with Hutu hardliners in the government attempting to cling on to power by fuelling race hate propaganda against the Tutsis

Answer 45

The shooting down of the Hutu president’s plane in 1994 triggered the genocide. In 100 days, 800,000 Tutsis (along with moderate Hutus) were slaughtered, legitimated with dehumanising labels describing Tutsis as ‘cockroaches’ and ‘rats’ Initially, the killing was done by marauding groups of Hutu militia. Later, many Hutu civilians were forced to either join the killing or be killed themselves, and a third of the Hutu population are estimated to have actively participated in the genocide

Answer 46

State crimes are often committed in conjunction with corporate crimes. Kramer and Michalowsi distinguish between ‘state-initiated’ and ‘state-facilitated’ corporate crime

Answer 47

Occurs when states initiate, direct or approve corporate crimes

Answer 48

The Challenger space shuttle disaster. Risky, negligent and cost-cutting decisions by the state agency NASA and the corporation Morton Thiokol led to the explosion that killed 7 astronauts 73 seconds after blast-off (Kramer)

Answer 49

Occurs when states fail to regulate and control corporate behaviour, making crime easier

Answer 50

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The rig, leased by BP, exploded and sank, killing 11 workers and causing the largest accidental oil spill in history, with major health, environmental and economic impacts. The official enquiry found that while the disaster had resulted from decisions by the companies involved (BP, Halliburton and Transocean), government regulators had failed to oversee the industry adequately or to notice the companies’ cost-cutting decisions

Answer 51

Illegal wars, and crimes committed during war or its aftermath

Answer 52

Under international law, in all cases other than self-defence, war can only be declared by the UN Security Council. On this basis, many see the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the name of the ‘war on terror’ as illegal. For example, Kramer and Michalowski argue that to justify their invasion of Iraq in 2003 as self-defence, the USA and UK knowingly made the false claim that the Iraqis possessed weapons of mass destruction

Answer 53

For example, Whyte describes the USAs ‘neo-liberal colonisation’ of Iraq, in which the constitution was illegally changed so that the economy could be privatised. Iraqi oil revenues were seized to pay for ‘reconstruction’. In 2004 alone, over $48 billion went to US firms . But poor oversight by the occupying powers meant it is unclear where much of this went, and ‘cost-plus’ contracts (where all the contractor’s costs are met automatically by the government, regardless of what they are for) led to an enormous waste. This case is also an example of state-corporate crime

Answer 54

Include torture of prisoners. A US military inquiry into Abu Ghraib prison found numerous instances of ‘sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses’ of prisoners. Nine soldiers were convicted, the highest-ranking being a staff sergeant. No commanding officers were prosecuted and personnel from private companies were also implicated but none were prosecuted

Answer 55

Notes how the terror bombing of civilians has become ‘normalised’. This began in the 1930s and continued through the Second World War with the American fire-bombing of 67 Japanese cities and atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No trials for war crimes took place. Indiscriminate and often deliberate bombing of civilians has continued in recent conflicts in Iraq and Syria

Answer 56

As ‘acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials in pursuit of their jobs as representatives of the state’

Answer 57

Using a state’s own domestic law to define state crime is inadequate. It ignores the fact that states have the power to make laws and so they can avoid criminalising their own actions. Furthermore, they can make laws allowing them to carry out harmful acts. For example, the German Nazi State passed a law permitting it to compulsorily sterilise the disabled. This definition also leads to inconsistencies, for example, the same act may be illegal on one side of the border but legal on the other

Answer 58

This recognises that much of the harm done by states is not against the law. Michalowski therefore defines state crime as including not just illegal acts, but also ‘legally permissible acts whose consequences are similar to those of illegal acts’ in the harm they cause. Similarly, Hillyard et al argue that we should take a much wider view of state wrongdoing. We should replace the study of crimes with ‘zemiology’, whether or not they are against the law. For example, these harms would include state-facilitated poverty

Answer 59

This definition prevents states from ruling themselves ‘out of court’ by making laws that allow them to misbehave. It also creates a single standard that can be applied to different states to identify which ones are most harmful to human or environmental wellbeing

Answer 60

Critics argue that a ‘harms’ definition is potentially very vague: What level of harm must occur before an act is defined as a crime? There is a danger that it makes the field of study too wide. Who decides what counts as a harm? This just replaces the state’s arbitrary definition of crime with the sociologist’s equally arbitrary definition of harm

Answer 61

Labelling theory argues that whether an act constitutes a crime depends on whether the social audience for the act defines it as a crime. The audience may witness the act either directly or indirectly, for example through media reports. This definition recognises that state crime is socially constructed, and so what people regard as a state crime can vary over time and between cultures or groups

Answer 62

This prevents the sociologist imposing their own definitions of state crime when this may not be how the participants (perpetrators, victims and audiences) define the situation

Answer 63

However, this definition is even vaguer than ‘social harms’. For example, Kauzlarich’s study of anti-Iraq War protestors found that while they saw the war as harmful and illegitimate, they were unwilling to label it criminal. By contrast, from a ‘harms’ or an international law perspective, the war can be seen as illegal. It is also unclear who is supposed to be the relevant audience that decides whether a state crime has been committed, or what to do if different audiences reach different verdicts about an act. It also ignores the fact that audiences’ definitions may be manipulated by ruling-class ideology. For example, the media may persuade the public to see a war as legitimate rather than criminal

Answer 64

Some sociologists base their definition of state crime on international law-law created through treaties and agreements between states, such as the Geneva and Hague Conventions on war crimes. For example, Rothe and Mullins define a state crime as any action by or on behalf of a state that violates international law and/or a state’s own domestic law

Answer 65

The advantage of this is that it does not depend on the sociologist’s own personal definitions of harm or who the relevant social audience is. Instead it uses globally agreed definitions of state crime. International law also has the advantage of being intentionally designed to deal with state crime, unlike most domestic law

Answer 66

Like the laws made by individual states, international law is a social construction involving the use of power. For example, Strand and Tuman found that Japan has sought to overturn the international ban on whaling by concentrating its foreign aid on impoverished ‘microstates’, including six small Caribbean island nations, to bribe them to vote against the ban. Another limitation is that international law focuses largely on war crimes and crimes against humanity, rather than other state crimes such as corruption

Answer 67

Human rights include: Natural rights that people have simply by virtue of existing, such as the right to life, liberty and free speech. Civil rights, such as the right to vote, to privacy, to a fair trial, or to education. Schwendinger and Schwendinger argue that we should define state crime as the violation of people’s basic human rights by the state or its agents. States that practice imperialism, racism, sexism or economic exploitation are committing crimes because they are denying people their basic rights

Answer 68

Risse et al argue that one advantage of this definition is that virtually all states care about their human rights image, because these rights are now global social norms. This makes them susceptible to ‘shaming’ and this can provide leverage to make them respect their citizens’ rights

Answer 69

It is inevitably political. If we accept a legal definition, we become subservient to the state’s interests. The Schwendingers argue that the sociologist’s role should be to defend human rights, if necessary against the state’s laws. Like the ‘harms’ approach, their view is an example of transgressive criminology, since it goes beyond the traditional boundaries of criminology, which are defined by the criminal law

Answer 70

While gross violations of human rights, such as torture, are clearly crimes, other, such as economic exploitation, are not self-evidently criminal, even if we find them morally unacceptable

Answer 71

There are also disagreements about what counts as a human right. While most would include life and liberty, some would not include freedom from hunger. However, Green and Ward counter this with the view that liberty is not much use if people are too malnourished to exercise it. Therefore if the state knowingly permits export of food from a famine area, for example, like the British government did during the Irish famine of the 1840s, then this is a denial of human rights and a state crime

Answer 72

Adorno et al identify an ‘authoritarian personality’ that includes a willingness to obey the orders of superiors without question

Answer 73

They argue that at the time of the Second World War, many Germans had authoritarian personality types due to the punitive, disciplinarian socialisation patterns that were common at the time. Similarly, it is often thought that people who carry out torture and genocide must by psychopaths, however, research suggests that there is little psychological difference between them and ‘normal’ people. For example, Arendt’s study of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann showed him to be relatively normal and not even particularly anti-Semitic

Answer 74

Crime is usually defined as deviance from social norms, however, state crimes are crimes of conformity, since they require obedience to a higher authority-the state or its representative. For example, in a corrupt police unit, the officer who accepts bribes is conforming to the unit’s norms, while at the same time breaking the law. Conforming to one norm means deviating from the other

Answer 75

Research suggests that many people are willing to obey authority even when this involves harming others. Sociologists argue that such actions are part of a role into which individuals are socialised. They focus on the social conditions in which atrocities become acceptable or even required

Answer 76

In order to overcome norms against the use of cruelty, individuals who become torturers often need to be re-socialised, trained and exposed to propaganda about ‘the enemy’. States also frequently create ‘enclaves of barbarism’ where torture is practiced, such as military bases, segregated from outside society. This allows the torturer to regard it as a ‘9 to 5’ job from which he can return to normal everyday life

Answer 77

Happened in Vietnam, where a platoon of American soldiers killed 400 civilians

Answer 78

Three general features that produce crimes of obedience: Authorisation-When acts are ordered or approved by those in authority, normal moral principles are replaced by the duty to obey. Routinisation-Once the crime has been committed, there is strong pressure to turn the act into a routine that individuals can perform in a detached manner. Dehumanisation-When the enemy is portrayed as sub-human, normal principles of morality do not apply

Answer 79

Some commentators argue that the Nazi Holocaust represented a breakdown of modern civilisation and a reversion to pre-modern barbarism

Answer 80

Certain key features of modern society made the Holocaust possible: A division of labour-Each person was responsible for just one small task, so no-one felt personally responsible for the atrocity. Bureaucratisation-Normalised the killing by making it a repetitive, rule-governed and routine ‘job’-and meant that the victims could be dehumanised as mere ‘units’. Instrumental rationality-Where rational, efficient methods are used to achieve a goal, regardless of what the goal is: In modern business, the goal is profit; in the Holocaust, it was murder. Science and technology-From the railways transporting victims to the death camps, to the industrially produced gas used to kill them

Answer 81

The Holocaust was a modern, industrialised mass production ‘factory’ system, where the product was mass murder For Bauman, the Holocaust was the result not of a breakdown of civilisation, but one of the very existence of modern rational-bureaucratic civilisation

Answer 82

Not always a division of labour, ideological factors, modernity is not the whole answer

Answer 83

Not all genocides occur through a highly organised division of labour that allows participants to distance themselves from the killing. For example, the Rwandan genocide was carried out directly by large marauding groups

Answer 84

Ideological factors are also important. Nazi ideology stressed a single, monolithic German racial identity, that excluded minorities such as Jews, Gypsies and Slavs, who were defined as inferior or even sub-human. This meant they did not need to be treated according to normal standards of morality

Answer 85

Thus, while the modern, rational division of labour may have supplied the means for the Holocaust, it was racist ideology that supplied the motivation to carry it out. A decade of anti-Semitic propaganda preceded the mass murder of the Jews and helped to create many willing participants and more sympathetic bystanders

Answer 86

According to Alvarez, recent years have seen the growing support impact of the international human rights movement, for example through the work of organisation such as Amnesty International, and this bringing pressure to bear on states

Answer 87

states now have to make a greater effort to conceal or justify their human rights crimes, or to re-label them as not crimes. Cohen is interested in the ways states do this. While dictatorships generally just flatly deny any human rights abuses, democratic states have to legitimate their actions in more complex ways. In doing so, their justifications follow a three-stage ‘spiral of state denial’:

Answer 88

Stage 1-‘It didn’t happen’ eg the state claims there was no massacre. But then human rights organisations, victims and the media show it did happen: ‘here are the graves; we have the photos’. Stage 2-‘If it did happen, “it” is something else’ eg the state says it was self-defence, not murder. Stage 3-‘Even if it is what you say it is, it’s justified’ eg to fight the ‘war on terror’

Answer 89

He draws on the work of Sykes and Matza, who identify their deviant behaviour, and shows how states use the same techniques to justify human rights violation

Answer 90

Denial of victim-‘They exaggerate; they are terrorists; they are used to violence; look what they do to each other. Denial of injury-‘We are the real victims, not them’. Denial of responsibility-‘I was only obeying order, doing my duty.’ This justification is often used by individual policemen, death camp guards etc. Condemning the condemners-‘They are condemning us only because of their anti-Semitism (Israeli version), their hostility to Islam (Arab version), their racism.’. Appeal to higher loyalty-Self-righteous justifications that claim to be serving a higher cause, whether the nation, Zionism, Islam, the defence of the ‘free world’, national security etc

Answer 91

These techniques do not deny that the event has occurred. ‘They seek to impose a different construction of the even from what might be the case’. For example, Cohen argues that in its ‘war on terror’, the USA had to publicly justify its coercive interrogation practices, which Cohen describes as ‘torture lite’

Answer 92

These included hooding, shaking, sleep deprivation, the use of stress positions and ‘water boarding’ (simulated drowning). The US claimed that these techniques were not torture because they merely induced stress and were bit physically or psychologically damaging. Cohen sees this as a neutralisation technique aimed at normalising torture