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Sociology > state crime T12 > Flashcards

state crime T12 Flashcards

1
Q

why is state crime the most serious form of crime?

A
  • the scale of state crime
  • the state is the source of law
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2
Q

the state is the source of law

A
  • able to avoid defining its own harmful actions as criminal
  • state control CJS so can persecute enemies
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3
Q

scale of state crime

A
  • large-scale widespread victimisation
  • can conceal crimes / escape punishment
  • national sovereignty makes it difficult for organisations to intervene
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4
Q

McLaughlin

A

4 types of state crime
- political (corruption & censorship)
- crime by security and police force (genocide, torture)
- economic crime (h&s violation)
- social and cultural (institutional racism)

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5
Q

definitions of state crime

A
  • domestic vs international law
  • social harms and zemiology
  • human rights and state crime
  • labelling and societal reaction
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6
Q

example of state concealing crime

A

USA & UK military torture in Iraq - Guantanamo Bay

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7
Q

example of state avoiding defining harmful actions as criminal

A

Nazi Germany created laws permitting persecution of Jews and sterilising disabled people against will

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8
Q

problem with domestic law v international law

A
  • ignores states creating laws to avoid criminalising own actions (Nazi Germany)
  • acts may be legal in one place and not another
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9
Q

Rothe & Mullins

A

state crimes should be defined as any law violating international law/treaties = globally agreed definition

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10
Q

evaluation of Rothe & Mullins

A

international law socially constructed involving use of power so powerful nations may use influence to overturn international bans (Japan bribed other nations to vote against whaling ban)

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11
Q

Zemiology

A

crime should be replaced with the ‘study of harms’

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12
Q

Michalowski

A

much harms done by the state are not illegal but legally permissible despite causing harm

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13
Q

Hillyard

A

should replace study of crime with zemiology (e.g. state-facilitated poverty has widespread consequences but not illegal)

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14
Q

evaluation of zemiology

A

definition too vague - who decides what counts as harm?

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15
Q

Schwendinger

A

crime should be defined as breaking human rights not law (inflicting racism, sexism etc deny basic rights)

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16
Q

Risse

A

supports human rights definition as most states care about human rights image as it’s a global norm = by breaking would lead to shame and consequence

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17
Q

Cohen’s evaluation of Schwendinger

A

violations like genocide & torture are clear crimes but economic exploitation not evidently criminal so there is a limited agreement on what counts as human rights (e.g. should freedom from poverty be a human right?)

18
Q

examples of state crime

A
  • Guantanamo Bay
  • Nazi Germany
  • Khmer Rouge
  • Argentina military takeover
19
Q

Argentina military takeover

A
  • 30,000 disappearances
  • babies given to those who supported regime
  • 1976-83
20
Q

Khmer Rouge - Cambodia

A
  • communist regime
  • mass genocide
  • population dropped by 1/3
21
Q

theories of state crime

A
  • crimes of obedience
  • culture of denial
  • modernity
22
Q

how are state crimes crimes of obedience?

A

they require obedience to higher authority. people are willing to obey authority even when it involves harming g others due to being socialised into it

23
Q

Green & Ward

A

to overcome norms against the use pf cruelty, individuals need to be re-socialised, trained and exposed to propaganda about ‘the enemy’

24
Q

Kelman & Hamilton

A
  • studied My Lai massacre in Vietnam where American troops killed 400 civilians
  • explained crime of obedience in terms of
    1) authorisation
    2) routinisation
    3) dehumanisation
25
Q

authorisation

A

following orders of those in authority, moral principles are replaced by duty to obey

26
Q

routinisation

A

once the act is committed it is seen as a routine that one can be detached from

27
Q

dehumanisation

A

enemies re presented as sub-human so normal principles of morality dent apply

28
Q

Bauman

A

Holocaust was a product of modernity which was made possible by
- division of labour
- bureaucratisation
- instrumental rationality
- science and technology

29
Q

division of labour

A

each person was responsible for a small task so no one felt personally responsible

30
Q

Bureaucratisation

A

enabled Nazis to dehumanise victims and turn to mass murder into a routine administrative task

31
Q

instrumental rationality

A

efficient methods used to achieve a goal

32
Q

science and technology

A

e.g railways transporting victims to camps, industrially produced gas, weaponry to fight war

33
Q

evaluation of modernity

A
  • not all genocides occur through highly organised division of labour that allows pps to distance themselves e.g. Rwandan genocide carried out my large groups
  • ignores ideological factors that caused Holocaust - racist ideology supplied by decades of propaganda
34
Q

Alvarez

A

recent years have seen growing impact of international human rights movement which brings pressure on states = led to culture of denial

35
Q

Cohen - culture of denial

A

states have to go to greater efforts to conceal and legitimise human rights crime

36
Q

Cohens 3 stage spiral of state denial (democratic states)

A

1) ‘it didn’t happen’ e.g. states claim no massacre but human rights organisations, victims & media show it did
2) claim it’s not what it looks like
3) justify action to protect nation e.g. fight ‘war on terror’

37
Q

Cohen’s techniques of neutralisation (justify abuses)

A
  • denial of victim
  • denial of injury
  • denial of responsibility
  • condemning the condemners
  • appeal to higher loyalty
38
Q

denial of victim

A

they exaggerate, they are terrorists, they are used to violence etc

39
Q

denial of injury

A

they started it, we are the victims

40
Q

denial of responsibility

A

only obeying orders, doing my duty

41
Q

Cohen’s view on war on terror

A

USA had to publicly justify its interrogation practices and claimed they were not torture as they were merely stress induced and not physically/psychologically damaging.
attempt to normalise torture

42
Q

evaluation of Cohen

A

draws attention to similarity between crimes of powerful & powerless. This is because govs use the same types f justifications for crime as w/c juveniles do. don’t deny the event happened but seek to impose a different construction of the event from what actually happened.

Sociology (26 decks)

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