State Crime And Human Rights

Question 1

Defining state crime

Answer 1

• difficult to define
  It could be:
  1. Breaking the laws of society in which the crime takes place
  2. Base definitions of state crime on international law
  3. To use the idea of human rights
• the state has the power to determine what is and isn’t legal (Nazi Germany)

x what is considered illegal in one country may not be in another

Question 2

McLaughlin’s 4 types of state crime

Answer 2

1. Political crimes
2. Security/ police force crimes
3. Economic crimes
4. Cultural crimes

Question 3

Human rights

Answer 3

• the Schwendingers say that state crime should be considered as any act by a state that violates people’s human rights
• ward and green- state crime is a violation of human rights perpetrated by the state in the deviant pursuit of organisational goals
  E.g. over 120,000 civilians have been violently killed since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, many were victims of actions by military forces of the state
  x rights are socially constructed and vary from society to society

Question 4

Corruption in the state

Answer 4

• state crimes don’t always involve an abuse of human rights
• these kind of crimes happen in patrimonial states (Weber) which are states based on personal and economic ties between rulers and subordinates
  E.g. Equitorial guinea- the state was largely financed by proceeds from struggling carried out with the support of the state and Liberia
• in the West this is “clientism” (ward and green) (less blatant corruption where politicians grant favours in return for political or financial support)

Question 5

Cohen and how states legitimise their actions

Answer 5

• the spiral of denial
  1. It didn’t happen
  2. If it did happen it was something else
  3. It’s justified
  Techniques of neutralisation
  1. Denial of victim
  2. Denial of injury
  3. Denial of responsibility
  4. Condemning the condemners
  5. Appeal to higher loyalty

Question 6

Crimes of obedience (Kelman and Hamilton)

Answer 6

• most people who carry out tortures and massacres are normal people
• crimes of obedience occur when the following three conditions are met:
  1. Authorisation- those in power approve the act
  2. Routinisation- once it has occured the activity becomes routine
  3. Dehumanisation- when the enemy is portrayed as not human