State Crime

Question 1

Green & ward (integrated theory)

Answer 1

State crime happens for similar reasons to regular crime (opportunity, power, rational choice for personal gain)

Question 2

Kelman & Hamilton (crimes of obedience)

Answer 2

How states commit crime

• authority (states give orders for crime; permitting war crimes)
• dehumanisation (state promotes one group over others to impact people’s thoughts —> Nazis)
• routinisation (making state crime seem normal, desensitising people; Nazi/Chinese regime —> De Swann: people are rewarded for upholding this routine like the gestapo in Nazi)

Question 3

Bauman

Answer 3

Argues globalisation —> individualism making routinisation and dehumanisation regimes easier

Question 4

Techniques of neutralisation (Sykes and matza)

Answer 4

• countries can neutralise their crimes by labelling it as something else (torturing terrorists is fine as they had murder intentions)

Cohen outlines this spiral:
- “it didn’t happen”
- “not how it looks”
- “it had to be this way”

Question 5

Problems with researching state crime

Answer 5

• researchers can face governmental and official resistance
• difficult to access
• info covered by dark figures