State crime Flashcards
What are state crimes?
When the government commits a criminal act which may be against either domestic or international law
- genocide, terrorism, torture
What are human rights crime?
Offences which violate human rights according to international law
- torture or war crimes
Have to have been condoned y the state or their authority, or be built into part of their policy
Who is the state?
A nation under a government
- all bodies seek to achieve a monopoly of legitimate use of force
- affect who is liable to be held responsible
What is considered a state or human rights crime?
Result of treaties, conventions and international agreements
- UN declaration of human rights set out a universal set of HR
What 4 types of state crime had McLaughlin developed?
1- Political
2- Security and police forces
3- Economic
4- Social and cultural
How are state crimes prosecuted or punished?
1- International forces placing sanctions on states
- UN responding to international concerns
- ending Iraq-Iran war in the 80s
2- Members of the states putting pressure on the government to act
- people in one nation could pressure their gov to put action into place affecting another nation
How does Roth criticise how state crime are punished?
X Despite the impact and harm caused by state crime, they still remain bot under-researched and under-prosecuted
What are the 4 reasons as to why state crimes are under-researched and under-prosecuted?
1- Laws vary across nations
2- Who monitors and prosecutes?
3- Difficult to trace who is accountable
4- Ideology
1- Laws vary across nations
Can be justified by government, but disapproved by a wider international community, hard to gain support
2- Who monitors and who prosecutes?
Roth- ‘how can the state be a criminal actor, when legally the state itself defines criminal behaviour?’
3- Difficult to trace who is accountable
Challenging to separate layers of people and actions involved in crime
4- Ideology
Chomsky argues that people don’t speak up/put pressure on states because they may not be aware they are happening
Secondly, because education teaches us not to question authority
What are the 4 explanations for state crimes?
1) The authoritarian personality
2) Crimes of obedience
3) The culture of denial
4) Modernity
1) The authoritarian personality
Adorno- willingness to obey the orders of superiors without question
- argue in WW2 many Germans had this personality due to punitive, disciplinary socialisation patterns
- often thought people who carry out torture/genocide must be psychopaths
How can we criticise The authoritarian personality?
X no research
Arendts - study of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann showed him to be relatively normal
2) Crimes of obedience
State crimes are crimes of conformity
- require obedience to a higher authority, R suggests many people are willing to obey authority, focus on social conditions
1- Authorisation
- moral principles replaced
2- Routinisation
- act routine, detached
3- Dehumanisation
- enemy portrayed as sub-human
3) The culture of denial
Alvarez- growing impact of international human rights, more pressure on states
Cohen- states have to make greater efforts to conceal, justify and re-label crime
3 stages of ‘Spiral of denial’
1- ‘it didn’t happen’, media and V show it did
2- self-defence not murder ‘if it did it is something else’
3- ‘it is justified even if its what you say’
e.g. to fight the war on terror
4) Modernity
Nazi holocaust represented a breakdown of modern civilisation
Bauman- certain features of modern society has made the holocaust possible
- division of labour- no one felt fully responsible
- bureaucratisation normalised killing
- instrumental rationality
- science and technology
Evaluation of state crime
X How do we draw a line using this transgressive approach
- everyone would agree that torture causes harm, but does the absence if heath and safety regulations always cause harm
X Discussion on human rights ethnocentric
- reduced Ws rights in Iraq are part of their norms and values
- argue it is a crim just because it doesn’t fit our Western views
