T8; STATE CRIME

- state crime definition; GREEN + WARD -2 reasons state crime = most serious - Case studies of state crime; MCLAUGHLIN (4 categories of state crime) -> genocide in Rwanda, State-corp crime (2 types - > Kramer and Michalowski (1993) challenger space shuttle, Deepwater horizon oil rig disaster), war crimes (2 types) -> Kramer and Michalowski (1993) , WHYTE

What is another example of the crimes of the powerful, similar to corporate crime, which highlights the flaws of trad criminology? Who argues we should defo investigate this?

• state crime

• Marxists

Penny Green and Tony Ward (2012) define state crime as… 'illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by, or with the complicity of, state agencies.'

‘illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by, or with the complicity of, state agencies.'

What can be said is an example of secondary green crime therefore? (links!)

• state crime

• corporate crime

State crime is all forms of crime committed by or on behalf of states and governments in order to further their policies. State crimes do not include…

acts that merely benefit individuals who work for the state, such as a police officer who accepts a bribe.

What are the two reasons for State crime being the most serious form of crime?

• 1 The scale of state crime

• 2 The state is the source of law

  
  

Eugene McLaughlin (2012) identifies what four categories of state crime?

• Political crimes, for example corruption and censorship.

• Crimes by security and police forces, such as genocide, torture and disappearances of dissidents.

• Economic crimes, for example official violations of health and safety laws.

• Social and cultural crimes, such as institutional racism.

What category does the Genocide in Rwanda fall under in ref. to colony + act? How did it occur in reference to social class distinctions (who owned livestock and did not), which later became ‘ethnicisied’?

• Implements social/cult crime via division from colony, crimes by security + police forces (genocide)

• Rwanda = Belgian colony 1922 → used minority Tutsi to rule over Hutu majority, issued racial identity cards, segregated edu etc

• Independence 1962 → elections put Hutus = power

• 1990s→ escalating economic and political crisis → civil war, w/ Hutu gov cling on to power via f hate propaganda against the Tutsis.

• The shooting down of the Hutu president's plane in 1994 triggered the genocide → 800,000 Tutsis ‘cockroaches’ (initally done by Hutu militia, then later 1/3 pop. of Hutus)

What is state-corporate crime? What category of state crime can this fall under?

• State crime committed in conjunction with corporate crimes.

• economic crimes e.g violation of health + safety laws, political e.g corruption

What two types of state-corporate crime does Kramer and Michalowski (1993) distinguish between give examples?

• occurs when states initiate, direct or approve corporate crimes.

• occurs when states fail to regulate and control corporate behaviour, making crime easier

• 'state-initiated' e.g Challenger space shuttle disaster 1986

  • risky cost-cutting decisions made by state agency NASA → killed 7 astronauts

• 'state-facilitated' corporate crime. e.g Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico 2010

  • killed 11 workers, environmental impacts due to failure to oversee companies cost-cutting decisions

How can we distinguish between two kinds of war-related crime?

• Kramer and Michalowksi (2005) - Afghan +Iraq ‘war on terror’

• Whyte- USA's 'neo-liberal colonisation of Iraq’, Kramer and Michalowksi (2005) → other crimes committed during Iraq war, what has become normalised?
  

• illegal wars - justify invasion of Iraq 2003 = self-defence, the USA and UK = false claim that the Iraqis possessed weapons of mass destruction

• Crimes committed during war/aftermath - constitution was illegally changed so → economy = privatised. Iraqi oil revenues were seized to pay for 'reconstruction'.

  • Kramer and Michalowski → torture of prisoners, torturers = never committed

  • Kramer (2014) → terror bombing of civilians = 'normalised'.