1. State Crimes

2. Exam Question
• In today's society we learn about crime and deviance
largely from the mass media. Unfortunately however
the image we are given is often an inaccurate one.
While we expect fictional portrayals of crime- in films,
on TV, in novels and so on- not to be an accurate
representation, many sociologists argue that the image
presented via the news media also distorts the reality
of crime.
• Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess
sociological explanations of media representations of
crime and their effects (21 marks)

3. Learning Objectives:
• To understand what is meant by state crimes
• To be aware of examples of state crimes
• To appreciate why state crimes are so serious
• To investigate human rights as an illustration
of state crime
• Understand the different types of green crime
• Be able to evaluate sociological explanations
of environmental harm

4. Last Lesson Recap
• What is Globalisation?
• The global criminal economy has created an
increase in certain crimes, what examples are
there?
• How is Globalisation linked to Marxism and
Crime?
• Patterns of Criminal Organisation are said to
have changed due to Globalisation, the two
changes are ‘Glocal’ Organisation and
McMafia explain the two

5. What are state crimes?
state organised
crime
Chamblis
State crime is ….
s
‘illegal or deviant activities
perpetrated by, or with the
complicity of, state agencies’
(Green & Ward, 2005)

6. State crimes are committed by, or on
behalf of states and governments in order
to further their policies
• Genocide
• War crimes
• Torture
• Imprisonment without trial
• Assassination
It doesn’t include acts that benefit individuals
who work for the state (e.g. policeman who takes bribes)

7. McLaughlin identifies 4 categories of state crime:
• Political crimes – e.g. corruption or
censorship
• Crimes by security – genocide, torture and
disappearance of dissidents
• Economic crimes – e.g. violation of health and
safety laws
• Social and Cultural Crimes – e.g. institutional
racism
What examples can you think of?

8. Example of State crimes Genocide
Terrorism
Torture
Police Corruption

9. Israel attack on Gaza strip
Use of white phosphorous

12. Outside a UN school

13. Below the UN school

14. Guantanamo Bay -USA

15. Torture in Iraq

16. US forces
in Iraq

17. • R. J. Rummel calculated that from
1900 to 1987 over 169 million
people had been murdered by
governments.
• This figure excludes deaths in wars
(about 35 million, some of them
war crimes)

18. Cambodia – Pol Pot

21. Nazi Germany

22. Vietnam War - Napalm

23. Scale of State Crime
The state’s power enables it to commit large
scale crimes with widespread victimisation e.g.
in Cambodia between 1975 and 1978, the
Khmer Rouge government killed up to a fifth of
the country's entire population
“Great power and great crimes are inseparable.”
(Michalowski & Kramer, 2006

24. Scale of State Crime What link
to
Marxism
• The state’s power means it can conceal its crimes
or evade punishment more easily
• Principle of National Sovereignty makes it
difficult for external authorities (e.g. UN) to
intervene or apply international conventions
against genocide, war crimes etc
• Media focuses on state crimes in 3rd world
countries – but avoids reporting on such crimes
in UK and USA.

25. The state is the source of law
State’s role is to define what is criminal. They manage the
criminal justice process and prosecute offenders.
State crime can undermine the system of justice…’above
the law’.
It’s power to make the law means that it can avoid its
own harmful actions being defined as criminal e.g. Nazi
Germany sterilising disabled people
It can also use the criminal justice system to control and
persecute it’s enemies.

26. Human Rights & State Crime
• State crime can be examined through the notion of
human rights.
• There is no agreed list of human rights most
definitions include natural rights e.g. right to life &
liberty, and civil rights e.g. right to vote, fair trial,
education
• A right is an entitlement and acts as a protection
against the power of the state over an individual
• Right to fair trial means the state cannot imprison
a person without due process of law

27. How can states violate human rights.
(include arguments from Schwendlingers and
Cohen)

28. Crime as the violation of human rights
• Critical Criminologists (Schwendinger) argue that we
should define crime in terms of the violation of
basic human rights, rather than the breaking of
legal rules. States that deny individuals human
rights must be regarded as criminal
• States that practice imperialism, racism or sexism,
or inflict economic exploitation on their citizens
are committing crimes
• The state can be seen as a perpetrator of crime
and not simply as the authority that defines and
punishes crime

29. State crime in Iraq
• Saddham Hussein concentrated power
in a small circle of relatives and cronies.
The loyalty of security services was
secured by material benefits and
blackmail rather than ideological belief.
• During Hussein’s regime, torture, extra-
judicial executions, inhuman
punishments, war crimes and genocide
were rife, and accepted at the highest
levels of government despite Iraq being
a signatory of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

30. Torture in Iraq
• Mass executions of Shi’ite Arabs (some involved in
the 1991 uprising) took place at Abu Graib and Al
Radwaniyah prisons in 1993. Some members of
Saddam’s ruling family had their own private torture
chambers, employing eye gouging, piercing of hands
by drills, rape, acid baths, amputation of ears,
branding of foreheads etc. Hundreds of thousands of
Kurds and Shias are said to have disappeared.

31. Torture
Torture is a form of
state crime perpetuated
in every known nation, if
the term is interpreted
to include mental as
well as physical
suffering imposed by
state officials to obtain
information.

32. Abuse of women in Darfur
• Darfuri women, after an assault on their
village, are systematically raped, taken into
captivity, and sold or given into sexual slavery.
They can be held as slaves for a week, often
repeatedly gang raped by militiamen and
soldiers, or they can be married off under
coercive marriage laws to friends of the
Sudanese Armed Forces as far away as
Khartoum.

33. Child abuse in Darfur
• Children are often recruited as agricultural workers and sex
workers and as domestic workers in Khartoum. According to
both the UN and Human Rights Watch, all armed parties in
Darfur, including the rebels, were involved in recruiting child
soldiers.
• "In Darfur, the Government of Sudan has not only failed in its
responsibility to protect its own citizens from human rights
violations, but it also bears a direct responsibility for many of
the abuses which have taken place.“
• http://www.standnow.org/blog/slavery-darfur-report-darfur-
consortium

34. Ethnic cleansing
• Non-Arab civilians are
targeted for attack and
abduction by government-
supported Janjaweed
militias and the Sudanese
Army based on their
belonging to this perceived
ethnic group. The abduction
and enslavement is
systematic and
government-sanctioned –
and therefore an act of
ethnic cleansing.

35. Zimbabwe today
• A dictator is able to impose his or
her will on a nation when a
number of factors apply.
Institutions that should act as a
countervailing force to the
dictator’s power are either
crippled or completely destroyed.
In some cases they become an
extension of the despot’s rule.
• People are murdered, tortured,
and abducted to instil fear in
others.

36. Rwandan genocide
• Between April and June 1994, an • Some Tutsis managed to escape to
estimated 800,000 Rwandans were refugee camps
killed. Most of the dead were Tutsis,
a scapegoated group, and most of
the perpetrators were Hutus.
Longstanding tension between these
two groups was brought to a head
when the Tutsis were blamed for a
plane crash in which the president
died. The presidential guard
immediately initiated a campaign of
retribution.
• The early organisers included military
officials, politicians and businessmen,
encouraged by radio propaganda.
Soldiers and police officers
encouraged ordinary citizens to take
part. In some cases, Hutu civilians
were forced to murder their Tutsi
neighbours by military personnel.

37. Examples of Corruption reducing human rights
• Survey in Uganda found one in ten
children had to pay for primary
education which is supposedly free
(UN 2000)
• Russian study found 12 million people
lack necessary healthcare because
cannot afford to bribe doctors.
• Japan is exceptional in that urban
voters have to pay for things that
rural poor are given free. Extortion is
aimed at the wealth only. (Bouissou
1997)

38. State Crime and the culture of denial
1. Read through page 134 and 135
2. Summarise what you have read
3. Neutralisation techniques and conflict in Gaza act

39. Green Crimes and the State

40. • Green or environmental crime can be defined
as crime against the environment.
• A lot of it can be linked to globalisation and
the increasing interconnectedness of societies
e.g. atmospheric pollution from industry in one country can turn into acid
rain that falls in another poisoning its watercourses and destroying its
forests
• Problems caused in one locality can have
worldwide effects (Chernobyl disaster spread
radioactive material over thousands of miles)

41. ‘Global Risk Society’ and the
Environment
• Most threats to human well being and the eco-
system are now human-made rather than natural
disasters
• The massive increase in productivity and technology
has created new ‘manufactured’ risks
• Many of these risk involve harm to the environment
and have serious consequences for humanity e.g.
climate change/global warming
• The risks are increasingly on a global scale rather
than local in nature, leading to late modern society
as ‘global risk society’

42. Green Criminology
• When pollution that causes global warming is
legal, Is it a matter for criminologists?
• Traditional Criminology says No & Green Criminology says Yes
• Traditional Criminology- studies the patterns and
causes of law breaking (however criticised for accepting
official definitions of environmental problems and crimes
often shaped by powerful groups to serve their own interests)
– in the above case no law has been broken

43. • Green Criminology- looks at the notion of harm rather
than criminal law. White (2008) criminology is any
action that harms the physical environment &/or the
human and non-human animals within it, even if no
law has been broken
• Many of the worst environmental harms are not illegal
• It’s a form of transgressive criminology – oversteps the
boundaries of traditional criminology to include new
issues
• Laws also differ from state to state (may be a crime in
one country and not another)
• Therefore by moving away from a legal definition
green criminology can develop a global perspective on
environmental harm

44. Two views of harm
• Nation states and TNC’s apply an
anthropocentic (human centred) view of
environmental crime. Humans have a right to
dominate nature for their own ends, putting
economic growth before the environment
• Green Criminology takes an ecocentric view
that sees humans and their environment as
interdependent, so that environmental harm
hurts humans also

45. Types of Green Crimes
• There are two types of green crime: primary and
secondary
• Primary green crimes are crimes that results
directly from the destruction and degradation of
the earth’s resources
• Secondary green crime is crime that grows out of
the flouting of rules aimed at preventing or
regulating environmental disasters e.g.
Governments often break their own regulations
and cause environmental harms

46. Activity- page 130
1. What are the four examples of primary green
crime?
2. What are the two examples of secondary
green crimes?

47. Evaluation
• Strengths and Weaknesses of green criminology arise
from its focus on global environmental concerns
• It recognises the growing importance of
environmental issues and the need to address the
harms and risks of environmental damage, both to
humans and non-human animals
• However by focusing on much broader concept of
harms rather than on legally defined crimes its hard
to define the boundaries of its field of study clearly
• Defining the boundaries involves making moral or
political statements about which actions ought to be
regarded as wrong.

48. State Responsibility for Green Crimes
• So called natural disasters are often made worse
when societies are so unequal that poorer people
are forced to live on areas of land that are prone
to landslide or flooding.
• Building regulations may be flouted on a wide
scale and as a result if clientelism, so many lives
are lost in earthquake zones.

49. New Orleans
1. Is this a state
or individual
crime?
2. How does this
link to green crime?
3. How does this link
to theory?

50. Naples

51. Plenary
With a partner, look at the following picture of state and green crime. Then
discuss the following questions....
•Which picture shows green crime and state crime.
•Why is it green or state crime?
•Is it a crime in your opinion?
•Why is it difficult to tackle such crimes?

52. Key ideas Traditional Green criminology
Defined as crimes against the criminology Less bound by laws but by
environment such as toxic harm caused to the
waste dumping and If pollution that causes
environment or people.
deforestation. Green crime is global warming is legal Green criminology is a
linked with globalisation as and no real crime has much wider field and so
the world is one single eco- been committed then called Transgressive
system. Ulrich Beck reminds traditional criminology is Criminology – goes
us that many environmental not interested. beyond traditional
issues are manufactured criminology.
rather than natural. Environmental/
Green crime Harm
Secondary crimes Anthropocentric is a human
Primary crimes
Crimes that result from flouting centred approach which
Crimes that result directly assumes humans have the
rules aimed at preventing an
from the destruction of the right to dominate nature for
environmental disaster.
earth:- their own ends. The
 State violence against Ecocentric view sees
 Crimes of air pollution.
oppositional groups – despite humans and their
opposing terrorism states have  Crimes of deforestation. environment as
used the method themselves. interdependent, so harming
 Crimes of species decline
Hazardous waste and and animal rights. one is harming another.
organised crime –illegal Green criminology takes the
 Crimes of water pollution. ecocentric approach.
dumping.

53. Human rights Problem Solution
The right to life, liberty States create laws which
Herman and Schwendinger
and free speech. make their actions legal
(1970) argue we should
and free them from
Civil rights define crime as a violation of
criminal charges.
human rights rather than law
The right to vote, to breaking. States that deny
privacy, fair trial and Human rights humans their rights are then
education. seen as criminals. This new
approach has been called
The social conditions Stanley Cohen – The spiral of Transgressive criminology
of state crimes state denial (1996) as it transgresses (goes
Three ways dictators deny beyond) the traditional
Three features which boundaries of criminology
human rights violations:-
produces state crimes:- (criminal law).
Stage 1: ‘It didn’t happen’,
Authorisation –
this works until the media
obedience. New problem
uncover evidence that it did.
Routinisation – Not everybody agrees on
Stage 2: ‘If it did happen, it human rights. Is freedom
pressure to continue.
is something else’. from poverty a human right?
Dehumanisation – Could states be charged as
Stage 3: ‘Even if it is what criminals for not making its
Enemy is a monster.
you say it is, its justified’ we members wealthy?
had to do it.

54. Definition Case studies Eugene McLaughlin (2001)
Crimes or deviant activities Four types of state crime:-
Pol Pot – Leader of  Political crimes - corruption
perpetrated by or with
the Communist party or censorship (controlling
permission of state agencies.
in Cambodia. Slave what the media says).
Examples:- labour, malnutrition,
poor medical care  Crimes by security and
Genocide (deliberate and resulted in the death police forces – Genocide
systematic destruction of of 21% of the and torture.
an ethnic, national or population (1.7
religious group).  Economic crime - violations
-2.5M). of health and safety.
War crimes
Torture State crimes
Imprisonment without trial  Social and cultural crimes
Assassination - institutional racism.
The problem of national sovereignty
States are the supreme authority Abu Ghraib
within their borders. Nazi Germany
The problem is the state is the source of A prison in Baghdad Hitler started the T4 –
law meaning it decides what crimes are, Controlled by US led euthanasia program
manages the criminal justice system coalition forces. from 1939 – 1941.
and prosecutes offenders, meaning it Accusations of abuse in 275,000 terminally ill
can evade its own law. 2004 – 11 soldiers and mental patients
charge and convicted for were killed.
mistreatment.