State Crime Flashcards
(7 cards)
The state commits crimes that violate human rights
Schwendinger argue that we should define crime in the terms of violating human rights rather than the breaking of legal rules. States that deny human rights must be regarded as criminal. For example Nazi germany was allowed to break the human right for the Jews simply by passing new laws. This makes society subservient to the state
Evaluation of the state commits human rights violations
Cohen criticises this as while gross acts of genocide and torture are clearly crimes, other acts such as economic exploitation are not criminal even if we find it morally wrong
State crime and the culture of denial
Cohen sees the issue of human rights and state crime as central to criminology and is interested in the way the state legitimates and conceals their human rights violations. This is very common in dictatorships and will follow a spiral of denial. They will deny it ever happened, then if they’re is eveidnec they will say that it’s not what it looks like, then if it is a clear abuse their will say it is justified.
Evaluation of state crime and the culture of denial
It is becoming increasingly difficult for the government to hide and conceal state crimes due to the growing surveillance in society through social media- the many can now watch the few
Neutralisations theory
Matza examines the way states neutralise their crimes. Most states do not deny that the event happened but creates a different scenario of what happened. They deny the victim, the injury, the responsibility, then condemn the condemners, and appeal to higher loyalties. People are willing to commit crimes of behalf of the state even if it harms others such as the my lai massacre where they feel authorisation, routinisation, and dehumanisation.
Evaluation of neutralisation theory
Global political organisations can punish government officials who commit state crime such as slobodan who committed war crimes
Evaluation of
