Causes of State Crime

Causes of State Crime:

• State crimes can be committed for a wide variety of reasons but are more common in authoritarian regimes

• As the state is the creator of laws, many state crimes are legitimised by the actions of the state

• Why do individuals carry out these acts on behalf of the state?

Authoritarian Personality:

• Adorno, researching the holocaust, suggested that state crimes were possible due to the presence of authoritarian personalities

• Willingness to obey superiors, regardless of the morality of the act

• Large-scale acts of genocide in Cambodia, Japan, Ukraine, the Soviet Union under authoritarian leaders

Obedience:

• Many large-scale state crimes, such as genocide, rely upon the obedience of those ordered to commit acts

• Kelman and Hamilton (1989) suggested three features of obedience in state crime

  • Authorisation:

    • This is where 'acts' are ordered by someone in charge.

    • Milgram famously demonstrated this principle in his 'electrical shock research - obedience to authority.

    • Normal moral principles are overruled by the need/desire to obey authority.

  • Routinisation:

    • This is where pressure from the hierarchy/organisation/ government etc… Turns the act into a routine so it can be performed again, repeated in a detached manner.

  • Dehumanisation:

    • The enemy is made to look as non-human as possible - eg refused clothing, shaved head, id number replacing name etc…

    • It makes it easier to do unpleasant things to them (eg torture)

    • Bauman (1989) - argues that the features of 'modernity' (science, technology, divisions of labour etc...) all help to create conditions where such acts have become more acceptable and common.

Example of Routinisation:

• Bauman suggested that the Holocaust was possible due to modernity

• 6 million people were exterminated in concentration camps in under 4 years due to the routinisation of concentration camps

• It would have taken over 180 years to kill the same number using terrorist tactics like those used on Kristallnacht (when approx. 90 people were killed).

Culture of Denial:

• Cohen (2006) suggested that states often look to hide or legitimise their actions - a spiral of state denial

  • Stage 1 - Denial of the crime

  • Stage 2 - Suggestion that it isn't a crime

  • Stage 3 - Justification of actions

Case Study: Jamal Khashoggi:

• Saudi Arabian journalist, living in exile was killed in Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tukey in 2018

• Saudi Government denied knowing his fate initially, but two weeks later stated he was killed when forced extradition went wrong

• This was then labelled as a 'rogue operation' and the Saudi government knew nothing of the attempt nor where the body was

Cohen (2006):

• Adapting the work of Matza and Sykes (1957) Cohen suggested nations use techniques of neutralisation to manage state crime

  1. Denial of victims - they are terrorists etc...

  2. Denial of injury - they started it/it's self-defence etc.

  3. Denial of responsibility - We were following orders etc

  4. Condemning the condemners - they are picking on/victimising us etc...

  5. Appealing to higher loyalty... there is a bigger cause and sacrifices are inevitable - protecting Israel, protecting Judaism, protecting Islam etc...