State Crime

Question 1

How do Green and Ward (2004) describe state crime?

Answer 1

state organisational deviance involving the violation of human rights

Question 2

What are human rights?

Answer 2

human rights are those that suggest everyone, because of their common humanity, is entitled to the same treatment wherever they may be in the world.

Question 3

What did the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) establish?

Answer 3

established a legal framework of defining and enforcing human rights - it is suggested (by Green and Ward) these have become global norms

Question 4

What did O’Bryne (2012) argue?

Answer 4

states are increasingly assessed based on the extent to which they preserve human rights.

Question 5

what are the problems with defining state crime?

Answer 5

state is the source of the law, they define what a crime is and can avoid defining their own actions as criminal

states justify actions using ‘techniques of neutralisation’

Question 6

What did Schwendinger (1975) state?

Answer 6

due to difficulties defining state crime, a more transgressive approach should be adopted - whereby state crime should be considered in terms of violations of human rights.

Question 7

name examples of state crime

Answer 7

torture/punishment of citizens
assassination
war crimes
genocide
state sponsored terrorism
corruption

Question 8

explain how assassination is an example of state crime and give an example.

Answer 8

assassination is targeted murder, often used as instruments of state power.

an example of this is the Russians are widely believed to be behind the poisoning of Alexander Litvineco in London as he was a spy. A report said it is likely Putin approved of his assassination.

Question 9

explain how genocide is a state crime and give an example.

Answer 9

this is the mass muder of people , often a minority group.

An example of this is Nazi Germany whereby Jewish people were brutally murdered in the Nazi regime - it is estimated 6 million Jewish people died as a result of the holocaust

Question 10

Explain how war crimes are state crimes and give an example.

Answer 10

War crimes are illegal acts committed during war.

For example, first and second Caco war - mass killings of Haitian civilians by American troops.

Question 11

explain how torture/punishment of citizens is an example of state crime and give an example.

Answer 11

breaks human rights and exploits power

example is America still holds people at naval base in Cuba to torture them- they have not been charged with any offence or given trial.

Question 12

How did Kelman and Hamilton (1989) explain state crime?

Answer 12

crimes of obedience model:

authorisation - acting in accordance with official state policy (similar to Adorno’s AP theory) , normal moral principles replaced with duty to obey.

dehumanisation- marginalisation and social exclusion of minorities, enemy is portrayed as subhuman so normal principles of morality do not apply.

routinisation- organising actions so they become part of regular routine and can be performed in a detached way.
violent states reinforce this by creating, what Swann (2001) called ‘enclaves of barbarism’, this means violence is encouraged and then the perpetrators can leave returning to everyday life where social norms exist.

Question 13

What did Bauman (1989) argue about the holocaust?

Answer 13

the holocaust was made possible by the 3 processes in the crimes of obedience model - authorisation, dehumanisation and routinisation

Question 14

How does the integrated theory explain state crime?

Answer 14

suggests state crime arises as a result of the integration of three factors :

motivations of offenders
opportunities to commit crimes
failures of control (intentional or not)

Question 15

What is the idea of techniques of neutralisation?

C ….. / S & M

Answer 15

Cohen (2001) applied Skye and Matza’s (1957) theory of techniques of neutralisation to explain how states can deny they have committed serious breaches of human rights. They do this by relabelling crime or excusing it as regrettable yet justifiable.

Question 16

How is the idea of modernity used to explain state crime?

Answer 16

Bauman argues that due to modernity there have been technological advancements. This means state crime can develop.

For example, genocides such as the holocaust were made possible. In 4 years, 6 million people were killed - this would have taken 180 years if only normal terrorist tactics were used.

Question 17

How is a ‘culture of denial’ used to explain state crime?

Answer 17

Cohen (2006) argued we live in a culture of denial, whereby states use three strategies to legitimise there actions.

1. deny crime
2. say it isn’t a crime
3. justify actions with ulterior reasoning

Question 18

What are the issues with researching state crime?

Answer 18

Cohen argues it is difficult to establish the true extent of state crime because governments deny/justify.

Carried out by powerful people- they have huge armoury of state agencies who can control information.

State secrecy means there’s no official statistics- ‘dark figure’ of hidden state crime is probably much greater than known.

Tombs and Whyte (2003)- researchers are likely to face strong resistance

Greene and Ward (2012)- research can be difficult and dangerous.

Question 19

Explain how the Hillsborough Stadium tragedy (1989) is an example of denial by the state/techniques of neutralisation.

Answer 19

96 people were killed in a major crowd crush during a football game.

Liverpool fans were blamed by police and conservative government for football hooliganism and drunkenness which caused the deaths. This was overturned 30 years later , finding poor design of stadium and poor crowd control by police.