state crime Flashcards
What is state crime?
when govt commits a criminal act, which may be against either domestic or international law. May take many forms including genocide, terrorism, torture. To be considered this type of crime, offence has to be condoned by state or their authority.
What are McLaughlin’s 4 types of state crimes?
political
security and police forces
economic
social and cultural
What is McLaughlin’s political state crime?
offences in context of political motivation. examples include censorship and collusion- an agreement to do something illegal that usually involves misleading or defrauding others.
What is McLaughlin’s security and police forces state crime?
committed by either of those organizations, examples include torture, use of child soldiers. There are currently 8 governments that enlist use of children and estimate of 250,000 child soldiers globally.
What was McLaughlin’s economic state crime?
state is liable for that are implicated in economic motivations may be not enforcing health and safety regulations, examples include the Chinese famine 1959-1961, when govt policy contributed to death of 15 million.
What was McLaughlin’s social and cultural state crime?
crimes such as institutional racism, which are facilitated by state as an actor. Examples include murder of Stephen Lawrence 1994, example of how police are racist.
How are these crimes punished?
international forces placing sanctions on states- e.g.- United Nation responding to international concerns e.g.- ending Iraq and Iran war in 80s.
members of state putting pressure on govt to act
What does Roth say about the punishment of state crimes?
despite the impact and harm caused by state crimes, they still remain under prosecuted and under researched.
why are these crimes under researched and under prosecuted?
Laws vary across nations- state crimes may be legitimised by a govt, may be disapproved by wider international community
Who monitors and who prosecutes?- Roth- “how can the state be a criminal actors when legally the state itself defines criminal behavior”
What does Chomsky say about the underreporting of state crimes?
people don’t put pressure on state because they are x aware hey are happening and because education teaches us not to question authority.
What are the 4 explanations of state crimes?
the authoritarian personality
crimes of obedience
modernity
the culture of denial
What is the Authoritarian personality?
Adorno et al- willingness o obey orders of superiors w x questions. Time of ww2, many Germans had this due to punitive socialisation patterns. Similarly often thought that people who carry out torture and genocide must be psychopaths.
How does Arendt criticise the Authoritarian personality?
study of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichman showed him to be relatively normal and not even particularly anti sematic.
What are crimes of Obedience?
state crimes are crimes of conformity as they require obedience to higher authority. example- corrupt police force, the officer who accepts a bribe is conforming to units norms whilst also breaking the law. Research suggests that many ppl are willing to obey authority even when involves harming others. Sociologists focus on social condition in which atrocities become acceptable.
What do Green and Ward say to support crimes of obedience?
order to overcome norms against the use of cruelty, individuals who become torturers need to be re-socialised. States create “enclaves of barbarism” where torture practised, segregated from outside society. Allows torture to be seen as 9-5 job from which he can return to normal everyday life.
What are Kelman and Hamilton’s three features of crimes of obedience?
Authorisation- when acts are ordered or approved by those in authority, moral principles replaced by duty to obey.
Routinisation- once crime done, strong pressure to turn act into routine individuals can perform in detached manner.
Dehumanisation- enemy portrayed as sub-human to replace moral principles.
What does Bauman say about modernity state crimes?
certain key features of society that made holocaust happen.
division of labour- no one felt personally responsible.
bureaucratisation made killing routine job, also meant victims were seen as “units.”
instrumental rationality- rational efficient methods used to achieve goals
science and technology- industrially produced gas t kill them
What is the culture of denial state crime?
Alvarez- growing impact of international human rights movement and this is bringing pressure to bear on states
What does Cohen argue about the culture of denial?
state now has to make greater efforts to justify human rights crime, democratic states follow 3 stage spiral of state denial.
1-state claims there was x massacre, but then human rights organizations show it did.
2- the state justifies saying it was self-defence for example and x murder.
3- “even if it is what u say it is, its justified”, example to fight the war on terror.
How can we evaluate state crimes?
how do we draw the line using transgressive approach, e.g.- everyone agrees torture causes harm but x necessarily absence of health and safety regulations.
humans rights ethnocentric?, e.g.- reduced women’s rights in Iraq are a part of culture, a crime bcus does x fit w western view?
