state crime Flashcards
Green and Ward -
• defines state crime as illegal activities perpetrated by or with the complicity of state agencies.
• state crimes can include genocide, torture, imprisonment without trial and assassination.
• the power of state enables it to commit extremely large scale crimes with widespread victimisation and to evade punishment.
H and J Schwendingers
• argue that we should define crime in terms of the violation of basic human rights rather than the breaking of legal rules
• eg states that practice imperialism, racism or sexism, inflict economic exploitation on their citizens are committing crimes because they are denying basic rights.
• In this view the definition of crime is inevitably political and there is a role for sociologists to defend human rights, if necessary against the state and its laws.
criticism H and J Schwendingers
Cohen argues criticises the Schwendingers’ view. While ‘gross’ violations of human rights such as genocide and torture are clearly crimes, other acts such as economic exploitation are not self evidently criminal - even though we may find them morally unacceptable.
Cohen - spiral of denial
- he sees the issue of human rights and state crime as increasingly central to political debate and criminology.
- Cohen is particularly interested in the ways in which democratic states conceal and legitimate their human rights crimes. He points to a 3 stage ‘spiral of state denial’:
• It did not happen - the state claims there was no infringement.
• If it did happen - it is not what it seems. It was self defence.
• Even if it is what it what you say it is, it is justified - to protect national security
evaluation of cohen
Demonstrates processes - descriptive rather than explanatory
sykes and matza - neutralisation techniques
identify 5 neutralisation techniques that offenders use to justify their deviant behaviour - they seek to impose a different construction of the event
• Denial of victim - look what they do to each other, they are brutal, terrorists.
• Denial of injury - we are the real victims.
• Denial of responsibility - I was only following orders
• Condemning the condemners - you are in no position to judge… you are racists.
• Appeal to higher loyalty - self righteous justification, values we share.
kelman and hamilton - situational factors
• It was thought that to torture/massacre others, it required a pathological personality however research has shown that it can be situational factors that such behaviour becomes acceptable.
Kelman and Hamilton(1989) studied ‘crimes of obedience’ and identified 3 features:
• Authorisation: When acts are ordered or approved by those in authority, moral principles are replaced by the duty to obey.
• Routinisation: Once the crime has been committed, individuals may repeat their actions in a detached manner.
• Dehumanisation: When the enemy is portrayed as less than human the usual principles do not apply.
evaluation of kelman and hamilton
This links to the Milgrim Experiment and also the Holocaust and the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany
Bauman
• argues for the Nazis to be able to commit mass murder - many of the features of modernity were essential.
• These included science, technology and the division of labour.
• He claims that the key to understanding the holocaust is the ability of modern society to dehumanise the victims and turn murder into a routine administrative task.
Michalowski and Kramer - The Scale of State Crimes
- The state’s power enables it to commit large scale crimes with widespread victimisation e.g. in Cambodia between 1975 and 1978, the Khmer Rouge government killed up to a fifth of the country’s entire population.
- “Great power and great crimes are inseparable” – Michalowski and Kramer 2006.
- The state’s power means it can conceal its crimes or evade punishment more easily.
evaluation of Michalowski and Kramer
The media focuses on state crimes in Third World countries – but avoids reporting on such crimes in the UK and the USA.
