Globalisation, green crime, human rights, and state crime

Examples of global crime

Examples of global crime

→ Trafficking

→ Sex tourism

→ Fraud/money laundering

→ Terrorism

→ Cyber crime

→ Identity theft

Held et al -- global criminal economy

Globalisation of crime has led to spread of transnational organised crime

Castells -- global criminal economy

Global criminal economy is worth over £1 trillion yearly

→ Takes many forms; trafficking, smuggling immigrants, cybercrime, green crime, terrorism, sex tourism

→ Drugs trade alone worth $300-400 bil annually at street prices

Global risk consciousness

→ Globalisation creates insecurity; risk consciousness

→ Risk seen as global, not tied to particular places

• Economic migrants/asylum seekers fleeing persecution creates anxiety in Western countries

• Fear of job loss, terrorism, climate change, etc. fuels hate crime against minorities

→ Results in intensification of social control at national level

• UK has tightened border controls

Taylor -- globalisation, capitalism and crime

Globalisation led to greater inequality

→ TNCs can switch manufacturing to low-wage countries

• Produces job insecurity/unemployment/poverty

→ Deregulation = govts have little control over economies, spending on welfare declines

Globalisation, capitalism and crime

produces rising crime + new patterns of crime

→ greater insecurity amongst poor = people turn to crime e.g. drugs trade

→ large scale criminal opportunities for the elite e.g. deregulating financial markets = opportunities for tax evasions

→ new employment patterns = opportunities for illegal working

→ poverty in developing world also increases trafficking

Evaluation of globalisation, capitalism and crime

→ Useful in linking global trends in capitalism to changes in crime patterns

→ Doesn’t explain why not all poor people turn to crime

Rothe & Friedrichs -- crimes of globalisation

IMF commits ‘crimes of globalisation’

→ Imposing pro-capitalist ‘structural adjustment programmes’ on poor countries

→ Requiring them to cut public spending/causing unemployment

Patterns of criminal organisaiton due to globalisation

→ Glocal organisations

→ McMafias

Hobbs & Dunningham -- patterns of crime

Organisation of crime linked to globalisation; increasingly involves individuals acting as a ‘hub’ around which a loose-knit network forms. Links legit and illegit activitieas

→ Different from hierarchical; ‘mafia’ style organisations of the past

→ Global links (e.g. drug smuggling globally); locally based with global connections

→ Glocal organisations

Glenny -- patterns of crime

‘McMafia’ organisations emerged in Russia post-communism

→ Govt deregulates economy = rise in food prices + rent

→ Commodity prices kept below world market price, so rich ex-KGB bought them cheap and sold them

• Created new elite oligarchs

→ Turned to mafia for protection

What is green crime?

→ Harm/crime done to the environment, including to animals

Beck -- global risk society + the environment

Most threats to human wellbeing/the ecosystem are human-made, not natural disasters

→ In late modern soceity, increase in productivity/technology leads to new manufactured risks

• Mostly environmental harm, serious consequences for humanity e.g. climate change

→ Increasingly on a global scale, so Beck says LM society is a global risk society

Green criminology

→ Pollution causes global warming is legal, so criminologists have opposing views on it

→ Traditional criminology; only studies patterns/causes of lawbreaking

• Polution is legal, so TC doesnt care

→ Green criminology; more radical, starts from the notion of harm, not criminal law

• Legal definitions cant provide consistent global standards as law is diff everywhere

• Many of worst env. harms are technically legal; subject matter is much wider

• Form of transgressive criminology; oversteps boundaries of TC to include new issues

Evaluation of traditional and green criminology

TRADITIONAL

→ Criticised for accepting official definitions of environmental problems/crimes at face value

GREEN

→ Criticised for making subjective judgements about what actions should be deemed wrong

Two views of harm

→ Nation states/TNCs apply anthropocentric (human-centred) view of environmental harm

• Humans have right to dominate nature; economic growth > envionment

→ Green criminology = ecocentric view

• Humans/environment are interdependent

• Environmental harm hurts humans too

South -- types of green crime

PRIMARY GREEN CRIME; results directly from destruction/degradation of earths resources

→ Pollution (air/water), deforestation, species decline

SECONDARY GREEN CRIME; flouts rules aimed at preventing/regulating environmental disaster

→ French blowing up Rainbow Warrior to prevent protests against nuclear tests

Toxic waste dumping -- green crime

→ Legal disposal of toxic waste is expensive, so businesses use eco-mafias to dispose

• provide by illegal dumping

→ Illegal waste dumping is globalised, western businesses shipping waste to poorer countries where its cheaper + less safe

→ Dumping may not even be illegal there; underdeveloped countries dont have legislation to outlaw

Green & Ward -- state crime

State crime is ‘crimes perpretrated by, or with the complicity of, state agencies’

→ Crimes by police/govts as well as leaders

Rummel -- state crime

1900-1987:

→ 169mil people killed by governments

McLaughlin -- state crime

Four categories of state crime:

→ Political; corruption/censorship

• PPE contracts during COVID

→ Economic; violating health/safety laws

→ Social/cultural; institutional racism

→ Crimes by security/police forces; genocide, torture, disappearance of dissidents

Scale of state crime

→ state’s power allows it to commit large-scale crimes with widespread victimisation

→ can also conceal crimes/evade punishment easily

→ state defines what is criminal, it avoids defining its own actions as criminal

→ national sovereignty makes it hard for external authorities e.g. the UN to intervene/apply international conventions against genocide/war crimes

Examples of state crime

→ Cambodian govt killing 1/5 of the country’s population in just 3 years

→ Egyptian dictator Mubarak embezzling from the state

Examples of state genocide

→ Germany; Holocaust

→ Rwanda 1994; 500k-1mil people from the Tutsi minority were killed by the Hutu majority in just 100 days

Examples of state assassination/targeted killing

→ Russian state killing Alexander Litvinenko in London via radiation poisoning

Examples of state war crimes

→ Illegal wars e.g. falsely claiming war is in self-defence

• US/UK invasian of Iraq; saying they had weapons of mass destruction

→ ==Crimes committed during war/aftermath ==e.g. torture of prisoners/bombing civilians

• Terror bombing of civilians in Syria

→ Murder of ethnic Albanians by former Yugoslav president Milosevic

Kramer & Michalowski -- state corporate crime

State crime is often committed alongside corporate crime ,as capitalist state serves corporate interests. Two types of this

→ State-initiated corp. crime: state initiates/approves CC

• Challenger space shuttle disaster

→ State-facilitated corp. crime: state fails to control corp behaviour, so crime is easier

• Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster

Chambliss -- defining state crime/domestic

State crime is Acts defined in law as criminal

• Committed y state officials in pursuit of their jobs as state representatives

Evaluation of Chambliss

→ States make laws; can avoid criminalising their actions

• e.g. Nazi Germany passing laws permitting sterilising the disabled

Ways of defining state crime

→ Domestic law

→ Social harms/zemiology

→ Labelling

→ International law

Michalowski -- defining state crime/zemiology

State crime includes both illegal acts and ‘legally permissible acts whose consequences are similar to illegal acts’ in the harm they cause

Hillyard et al -- defining state crime/zemiology

We should replace study of crimes with zemiology; study of harms, regardless of legality

→ Stops states getting away with making laws that allow them to misbehave

Evaluation of zemiology

‘Harm’s is vague

→ What level of harm must occur before being considered a crime?

Labelling -- defining state crime

→ Whether an act is criminal depends on whether the audience for hte act defines it as a crime

→ Recognises state crime is socially constructed; what people view as a crime varies over time/between groups

Evaluation of labelling to define state crime

Audience definitions could be manipulated by ruling-class ideologies

Rothe & Mullins -- defining state crime/international law

State crime is any action by/on behalf of a state that violates notre national or domestic law of that state

→ Use globally agreed definitions of state crime which are intentionall designed to deal with state crime

e.g. Geneva/Hague conventions on war crimes

Evaluation of international law to define SC

→ International law mostly focuses on war crimes

→ Not crimes like corruption

Human rights

→ Natural rights; rights we have by virtue of existing e.g. life, liberty, free speech

→ Civil rights; right to vote/privacy/fair trial/edcuation

Schwendinger -- human rights

Define crime in terms of violation of basic human rights, not breaking legal rules

→ States practising imperialism/racism/etc + exploiting citizens are committing crimes

→ Transgressive criminology; goes beyond traditional boundaries of criminology

Cohen -- evaluation of human rights + state crime

Gross violations of human rights are clearly criminal, but other acts e.g. economic exploitation may not be evidently criminal

Cohen -- culture of denial in starte crime

States conceal/legitimate their human rights crimes

→ Dictatorships deny committing HR abuses

→ Democratic states legitimate their actions + follow a three-state spiral of state denial

Neutralisation theory -- state crime + human rights

How states deny/justify their crimes

→ Denial of victim

→ Denial of injury

→ Denial of responsibility

→ Condemning the condemners

→ Appealing to higher loyalties

Adorno et al -- explaining state crime

‘Authoritarian personalities’ are willing to obey orders without question

→ Many Germans in Nazi period had this; disciplinarian socialisation was common at the time

Crime of obedience -- explaining state crime

→ State crimes involve obeying a higher authority (state) as part of the role individuals are socialised intoG

Green & Ward -- crimes of obedience

Torturers often socialised via propaganda about the ‘enemy’

Kelman & Hamilton -- crimes of obedience

3 features of crimes of obedience:

• Authorisation by those in authority; making it clear to individuals they’re acting in accordance with official policy

• Routinisation of the crime; pressure to turn act into a routine individuals perform in a detached manner

• Dehumanisation of the enemy; social exclusion of minorities

Bauman -- explaining state crime/modernity

Features of modern society made the Holocaust possible:

• Division of labour

• Bureaucratisation

• Instrumental rationality

• Science and technology

Evaluation of Bauman

Not all genocides involved organised division of labour

• Racist ideology wears important for the Nazis too