Topic 8 - Globalisation, Green Crime, and State Crime Flashcards
1
Q
Globalisation
A
- HELD
- The widening, deepening, and speeding up of worldwide inter connectedness in all aspects of life, cultural to the criminal, the financial to the spiritual
2
Q
Causes of globalisation
A
- Spread of ICT
- Influence of global mass media
- Cheap air travel
- Deregulation of financial markets and opening up competition
- Easier movement so businesses can easily relocate
3
Q
The global criminal economy
A
- HELD = globalisation of crime which is the interconnectedness of crime against national borders (transnational organised crime)
- CASTELLS crime operates on the same basis as any legitimate business e.g., cyber crime, money laundering, and trafficking in body parts
- Supply and demand with demand from rich western countries
4
Q
Transnational corporations
A
- Switch their manufacturing to low wage countries
- Produces job insecurities
- Unemployment
- Poverty
5
Q
Marketisation
A
- Led to individual consumers which has undermined social cohesion - less concerned with outlook of others
- Increasing materialistic culture promoted by the global media portrayed success in terms of lifestyle consumption (LEFT REALISTS)
- Leads poorer people to turn to crime e.g., LA de-industrialisation has led to drug gangs increasing
6
Q
Criminal opportunities
A
- Globalisation has created criminal opportunities for more elite groups in society who manipulate the deregulation of financial markets = movement of money around the globe = avoid paying tax
- Enables criminal organisations to launder money easily through overseas banks and businesses
- Led to new patterns of opportunity
- Recruiting flexible workers has allowed for illegal workers to be recruited (breaches of health and safety and paid below minimum wage )
7
Q
A03 Patterns in crime
A
- Does not adequately explain how the changes make people turn to crime e.g., not all poor people commit crime
8
Q
Crimes of globalisation
A
- ROTHE and FRIEDRICHS = International Monetary Fund and World Bank
- These organisations are dominated by major capitalist states such as the USA
- RWANDA = caused unemployment in the 1980s and created an economic base for the 1994 genocide
- CAIN = cause widespread both directly and indirectly
9
Q
Patterns of criminal organisations
A
- HOBBS and DUNNIGHAM argues crime is a ‘glocal’ system which involves networks of both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures across the globe
- Crime involves individuals with contacts acting as a ‘hub’ around by a loose network forms
- The changes associated with globalisation have led to a move away from the old hierarchal gang structure to loose networks
10
Q
Drug trafficking
A
- Locally based with global connections
1 Zone of production = Asia and South America
2 Zone of distribution = Africa and the Eastern world
3 Zone of consumption - Western world
11
Q
A03 HOBBS and DUNNINGHAM
A
- It is not clear that these patterns are new or that the old structure has disappeared
- It may be that they both co-exist and always have done
- This is symbolic of post-modernism = crime becomes a highly non-generalisable concept
12
Q
McMafia
A
- GLENNY = organisations that emerged in Russia and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism and refers to transnational organised crime
13
Q
Russian mafia
A
- The state regulated the price of everything = when communism collapsed the government deregulated most sectors of their economy (except from oil)
- Bought oil pipelines and sold for a profit - new capitalist class = OLIGARCHS
- Russian mafia used as protection rackets and made violent threats
14
Q
Global risk consciousness
A
- Knowledge about risk comes from the media = distort the dangers we Dave and as a result cause moral panics
15
Q
Green crime
A
- Crimes against the environment
- The planet is a single-ecosystem and harming one place of the world effects another e.g., pollution in one country can turn into acid rain in another
16
Q
Global risk society and the environment
A
- BECK argues in late modernity we can now provide adequate resources for all
- Created ‘manufactured risks’ (dangers we have never failed before)
e.g., Mozambique 2010 - global warming caused hottest heatwave in 100 years = wildfires = 30% cost increase in bread = increase in crime
17
Q
Traditional criminologists
A
- SITU and EMMONS ‘an unauthorised act or omission that violates the law’
- Focuses on the patterns and causes of law breaking
- Clearly defined subject
18
Q
A03 Traditional criminologists
A
- Accepting the official definitions of environmental problems and crimes which are often shaped by powerful groups
- Subjective
19
Q
Green criminology
A
- Takes a radical approach starting from the notion of harm rather harm criminal law
- WHITE argues the attention of criminology should be any action that harms the physical environment and or human or non-human animals with it, even if the law has not been broken
- A from of transgressive criminology = oversteps the boundaries of traditional criminology to include new issues = zemiology (the study of harms)
- Similar to Marxism = crimes of the powerful
20
Q
Types of harm
A
- WHITE
1 Anthropocentric harm - human centred view of environmental harm, generally adopted by nation states and transnational corporations who assume humans have the right to dominate the natural environment - it puts economic growth before environmental harm
2 Ecocentric harm - sees humans and their environment as inter-dependent and that environmental harm hurts humans as well - green criminologists adopt this view
21
Q
Types of green crime
A
- SOUTH (primary crimes)
1 Crimes of air pollution
2 Crimes of deforestation
3 Crimes of species decline and animal rights
4 Crimes of water pollution
22
Q
Crimes of air pollution
A
- Burning fossil fuels from industry and transport adds 6 million tons of carbon to the atmosphere every year
23
Q
Crimes of deforestation
A
- In the Amazon, forest has been cleared to rear beef cattle for export
24
Q
Crimes of species decline and animal rights
A
- Crimes such as dog-fighting are increasing
25
Q
Crimes of water pollution
A
- Criminals include businesses that dump toxic waste and governments who discharge untreated sewage into rivers and seas
26
Q
Secondary crime
A
- SOUTH rose that arise out of the flouting if the rules aimed at preventing or regulating emotional disasters
1 State violence against oppositional groups
2 Hazardous waste and organised crime
27
Q
State violence against oppositional groups
A
- States have been known to resort to illegal methods to deal with environmental protestors
- 1985: French secret service blew up Greenpeace ship and killed a crew member
28
Q
Hazardous waste and organised crime
A
- Disposal of chemical and nuclear waste is highly profitable
- Eco-mafias profit from dumping toxic waste illegally at sea
- WALTERS “the ocean floor has been a radioactive rubbish dump for decades”
- Waste dumping = globalised character
29
Q
Environmental discrimination
A
- SOUTH
- When it comes to poorer groups being worse affected by pollution
30
Q
A03 Green criminology
A
- Strengths: it recognises the growing importance of environmental issues and the need to address harms and risks to both humans and non-humans
- Weaknesses: because it focuses on the broader concept of harm rather than legal it becomes very difficult to define. Critics also argue that it is a matter of values and these cannot be established objectively
31
Q
State crime
A
- GREEN and WARD “Illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by, or with the compliancy, of state agencies”
32
Q
What forms do state crimes take
A
- Genocide
- War crimes
- Torture
- Imprisonment without trial
- Assassination
33
Q
Four categories of state crime
A
McGLAUGHLIN
1. Political crimes
2. Crimes by the police or security forces
3. Economic crimes
4. Social and cultural norms
34
Q
The scale of state crime
A
- The power of the state means it can commit crimes on a vast scale with widespread victimisation
- GREEN and WARD estimate 262 million people have been murdered by governments in the 20th century
- MICHALOWSKI and KRAMER “the great power and great crimes are inseparable”
35
Q
The state is the source of law
A
- The role of the state is to define what is criminal and to manage the criminal justice system
- The power it holds means it can avoid having its own actions defined as criminal
- “Principle of national sovereignty” means states have supreme authority within their own boundaries which makes it difficult for the UN and other bodies for indefinite periods of time
36
Q
Genocide in Rwanda
A
- Genocide “acts committed with intent to destroy any group”
- 1994 Rwanda: (Tutsis - 800,000 killed over 100 days - rats and cockroaches) and Hutus
37
Q
State/corporate crime - Challenger space shuttle disaster
A
- Risky, negligent, and cost cutting decisions by state agency NASA = 7 killed astronauts 73 seconds after blast off
38
Q
War crimes
A
- Invasion of Iraq in 2003
39
Q
Domestic law (defining state crime)
A
- CHAMBLISS “acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials in pursuit of their jobs representatives of the state”
40
Q
A03 Domestic law
A
- Subjective as states have the power to make and enforce their own laws
41
Q
Social harms and zemiology (defining state crime)
A
- MICHALOWSKI “not just illegal but legally permissible acts whose consequences are similar to those of illegal acts” in terms of harm
- Zemiology = the study of harms
42
Q
A03 Social harms and zemiology
A
- The issue of harm can be vague, who decides what counts as harm?
43
Q
Labelling and societal reaction (defining state crime)
A
- A criminal act depends on whether the social audience sees it as a crime or not
- Crimes are socially constructed
44
Q
A03 Labelling and societal reaction
A
- Vague
- Unclear
- Ignores other factors such as the media
45
Q
International laws (defining state crime)
A
- ROTHE and MULLINS “any action by or on behalf of a state that violates international law/or a state’s own domestic law”
46
Q
A03 International law
A
- Defined by those in power and is therefore a social construct
- Focuses on war crimes/crimes against humanity rather than state crimes such as corruption
47
Q
Human rights
A
1 Natural rights - right to live, free speech etc
2 Civil rights - right to vote, privacy etc
48
Q
Crime as the violation of human rights
A
- SCHWENDINGER argues we should define crime in terms of violation of human rights rather than the breaking of legal rules
- The role of the sociologist should be to defend human rights (transgressive criminology)
49
Q
A03 SCHWENDINGER
A
- COHEN = little argument to what constitutes a human right e.g., torture, genocide etc
50
Q
The social conditions of state crime
A
- An authoritarian personality
- Crimes of obedience
51
Q
An authoritarian personality (social conditions of state crime)
A
- ADORNO ET AL someone who is willing to obey orders without question
- Individuals commit the actions they are socialised into and takes place in conditions where such behaviour becomes acceptable/required
52
Q
Crimes of obedience (social conditions of state crime)
A
KELMAN and HAMILTON studied 400 civilians by a platoon of American soldiers and found 3 key features the produce crimes:
1. Authorisation
2. Routinisation
3. Dehumanisation
BAUMAN = features of modernity are essential to enabling the state to commit crimes - dehumanise victims and turn mass murder into routine activity
53
Q
A03 Social conditions of state crime
A
- Not all genocide occurs through highly organised divisions of labour, e.g., Rwandan genocide conducted by large marauding groups
- Ideological factors are also important in the role of state crimes, e.g., Nazi ideology stressed a single German racial identity
54
Q
State crime and the culture of denial
A
COHEN
1. The growing impact of human rights movement
2. The increased focus in criminology Upton victims
- Spiral of denial
- Neutralisation theory
- Denial of the victim
- Denial of injury
- Denial of responsibility
- Condemning the condemners
- Appeal to higher loyalty
55
Q
Spiral of denial
A
- Flatly deny human rights and COHEN identified 3 stages:
1. It didn’t happen
2. If it did happen it’s not what it seems
3. It is justified
56
Q
Neutralisation theory
A
- Examination of the way that states will deny or justify their crimes, using the same technique when justifying torture/massacre etc
57
Q
Denial of the victim
A
- “They exaggerate; they are terrorists, look at what they do to each other”
58
Q
Denial of injury
A
- “We are the real victims not them”
59
Q
Denial of responsibility
A
- “I was only obeying my orders” (death camp guards)
60
Q
Condemning the condemners
A
- “Everyone is picking on us” (anti-semitism)
61
Q
Appeal to higher loyalty
A
- Self-righteous justification “it’s a free world”
