state crime and human rights

state crime

crimes committed by the government. penny and tony defined them as ‘illegal or deviant activities perpetuated by or with the complicity of state agencies’.

mclaughin

four types:

-crimes by the security and police forces

-economic crimes

-social and cultural crimes

-practical crimes

human rights

refers to legal or moral entitlements that all people should have regardless of where they live or any other characteristics.After world war two the united nations set out a list of 31 such rights in a universal declaration of human rights.

cohen

identified spiral of denial which states use when accused of human rights abuse It didn’t happen, it did happen but it was something else , it did happen but it was necessary.

transgressive criminology

a crime that is not against the law but one that causes harm

kelman and hamilton

crimes of obedience - this is the idea that rules aren’t being broken but there is conformity to the rules. example is nazi germany where soldiers were just following rules (authorisation), they would have been told to believe jews were subhuman (dehumanisation), no soldier responsible for the whole process (routinealisation)

rawanda

genocide - in the space of 100 days 800,000 people were killed.