State Crime Flashcards
Define state crime
Criminologists Green and Wars define state crime as illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by state agencies or crimes by other individuals/groups working on behalf of state agencies.
What is the state?
The state involves the political organisation of a country and the government and all its organisations.
Give 6 examples of state crime
- Genocide
- Torture to extract confessions or information from prisoners
- Police brutality
- Imprisonment without trial of political opponents
- war crimes
- political crimes such as election rigging and corruption
Define genocide
The extermination of entire national, ethnic, racial or religious groups
Offenders of state crime
- state officials like politions, civil servants, police officers and security forces
- militas and government supporters acting with the encouragement/backing of the state
- ordinary soldiers
- civilians
Victims of state crime
- citizens of the state in question or of another state that has been subject to aggression or occupation by a foreign state
- members of a religious or ethnic minority
- political opponents of the government
What is the level of public awareness for state crime?
The level of public awareness is often high due to the large scale nature of the crimes particularly if the media give it full coverage. However some offenders have power and money so are able to conceal their crimes e.g passing law that legalise and justify their actions or through censoring the media. War crimes of the defeated are more likely to come to light and be punished than those committed by the victors.
Are state crimes deviant, criminal or both?
State crimes are deviant because they go against widely accepted standards of behaviour (such as war crimes, genocide, torture and police brutality). They’re also crimes but states make their own laws and can choose whether to define their acts as criminal. International laws define these crimes as human rights abuse.
Summarise what happened in Myanmar
From 2017-18 725,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar. UN investigators found villages burnt, indiscriminate killing, children assaulted and women gang raped. March 24th 2017 UN looked into human rights violations by military forces and 5 months later Myanmars army launched a large attack on Rakhine state. 875 people who fled were spoken to to created a testimony. 392 villages were destroyed, 40% of homes and 37,700 building affected. A report named 6 military figures who should go on trial. Christopher Sidoti said ‘none of us thought the evidence for genocide would be as strong as it was’
