State Crimes Flashcards
(17 cards)
State Crime
Includes all forms of crime committed by or on behalf of the states and government.
Joanne Connolly - State Crimes and Human Rights
- It’s difficult to define state crimes as states have the power to determine what is or isn’t criminal. When states do commit crimes, these can transgress domestic or international laws, may cause environmental damage or abuse human rights.
- Researching state crimes can be especially difficult as states have the power to conceal their actions and to impede, prosecute or imprision those seeking to gain evidence of their wrongdoing. This results in researchers often having to rely on secondary data, particularly from television or press reports, or postings from social media.
- Because state crimes are carried out by the state or it’s agencies, with power over entire populations, the harm resulting from state crimes is potentially far more damaging than that caused by more conventional forms of criminality.
State Crimes and Globalisation
State crimes have increased with globalisation:
- Increase in international trade, more motivation to invade countries and easier to do so
- International criminal networks makes it easier to commit sate crimes in othr countries
State Crimes and Globalisation - contempary examples
BBC Articles:
- Ukraine conflict: Russia’s Kharkiv attacks are war crimes, says Zelensky
- Do not call Ukraine invasion a ‘war’, Russian tells media, schools. Instead, ‘special military operation’ should be used to describe Moscow’s assault on Ukraine.
State Crimes and Globalisation - criticisms
Is there an actual increase? Are we just more aware of it?
Eugene McLaughlin - Is state crime, crime?
State crime is difficult to define. Their massive power allows them to commit a vast wealth of crimes leading to widespread victimisation. They are hard to control because:
- States decide what is and isn’t a crime
- States control the CJS
- States can undermine the CJS in their own countries
- States can re-define laws to justify their actions.
There are 4 types of state crimes:
- Political (corruption)
- Police crimes (torture, genocide)
- Economic crimes (bribery)
- Social and cultural crimes (institutional racism)
No official statistics of state crimes exist. Much of the harm done by the states is not against the law. Conventional crime hs not taken place. Some believe the solution is to replace ‘crime’ with ‘harm’ (zemiology).
State crime can be based on international definitions of crime. Whenever broken, the guilty state can be condemned by the wider world and pressured to change behaviour and ensure it’s citizens are treated well.
These make sure that there is a common, shared understanding of what state crime is.
Eugene McLaughlin - criticisms
- Harm is a subjective term
- Which state gets to decide on the definition and which states get to enforce the law?
The Schwendingers - Alternative definitions
The term state crime should be replaced with the expansion of human rights to ensure people’s basic rughts are respected. It will transcend iternational boundries and put great pressure on states across the world. In today’s increasingly global world, states are keen to avoid negtive publicity of being labelled as human rights deniers.
1948: The United Nations State signed and agreed to ‘decleration of Human Rights’, which recognises fundamental protection of the world’s population through simply being human. 58 countries signed, 8 abstained and 2 didn’t vote.
The Schwendingers - criticisms
‘Human rights’ is a subjective term - who gets to decide what it is?
Right to life is subject to interprentation in cases of the death penalty and abortion. Right to a fair trial can be selectively enforced (Guantanamo). Overall, it’s difficult to apply universally.
The Problems with state crimes - cases
March 2018: attack by the Russian Government on causing May to order the explusion of 23 Russian diplomats from the UK. No one had been prosecuted for the attempted murder.
October 2018: Saudi Crown Prince was responsible for ordering the murder of Saudi Arabian dissident but no prosecution occured.
Penny Green and Tony Ward - Sociological explanations of state crime
To commit crimes on a mass scale against their own people, states have to rely upon the people who work for them - military, police, even ordinary civillians. What motivates people to commit crimes on such a mass scale?
- authoritarian personality and socialisation (charisma of leader and socialisation into a strict authoritarian reigime)
- Winning consent and obedience (use of propaganda to normalise deviance and demonise populations, leading to maltreatment of certain groups to be normalised)
Supports from the military, police and their citizens through these key agencies allow state rulers to commit mass state crimes.
Penny Green and Tony Ward - examples, Russia
- Marina Ovsyannikova: Russian journalist intempted news bulletin with anti-war protest sign. Russian gov published in media that she was a Western spy/working for the West. She was trying to highlight Russian propaganda about Ukraine.
- BBC News article: Ukraine conflict: what war crimes is Russia accused of? - kidnapping 16,221 children under ‘temporary transfers’ leading them to remain permanently. Forced to take Russian citizenship.
What other war crimes is Russia said to have carried out in Ukraine? - mass burial sites found in several parts of Ukraine previously occupied by Russian troops, including some civillian bodies showing signs of torture: 2022: - April: 400 bodies found in town outskirts of Kyiv
- September: 450 bodies in mass grave in Izium
- March: Russian forces carried out air strike on a theater which was being used as a refuge for children and a hospital in Mariupol.
- President Zelensky said Russian troops could’ve committed more than 400 war crimes in Kherson reigion whilst under occupation from March to November.
Penny Green and Tony Ward - examples, Germany
Nazi Germany normalised the dehumanisation and mistreatment of Jews, the disabled, Slavs, ect.
McLaughlin - the problem of state crime - The Iraq War
March 2003:
2 main justifications Americaused:
1) Saddam Hussain is an imminent threat with very fast and powerful weapons of mass destruction
2) Saddam Hussain had strong connections with Al-Quada and the 9/11 attacks.
Afte the invasion, no weapons were found. The Bush Government admitted to this 18 months before the war, however after the invasion, the gov tried to lie and change their previous words.
McLaughlin - the problem of state crime - The Myanmar and Rohingya genocide
Series of ongoing persecutions and killings of the Muslim Rohingya people by the Tatmadaw (armed forces of Myanmar).
State crimes = human rights violation, however, nothing has changed/interviews have occured 8 years on.
Milgram - Why do ordinary people commit barbaric acts?
Obediance to authority.
The participant acted as a teacher to the ‘learner’ (actor) and was encouraged by the scientist/observer to shoot volts at the ‘learner’ everytime they made a mistake. The participant was told beforehand which shots were fatal, and the encouragement was not threatening, but definately intimidating.
100% participants shot 300 volts.
65% shot the maximum volts - fatality.
Obeying authority and preforming barbaric acts under certain circumstances even with ordinary humans.
Stan Cohen - The spiral of denial
1) It starts with the state denying wrongdoing.
2) The state then redefines what happened.
3) Promotes ther actions in interests of national security.
4) State crimes continue to take place.
