State Crime

• What are state crimes?

  Crimes committed by governments
• How did Penny Green and Tony Ward define state crimes?

  Illegal activities by state agencies
• What is more likely when governments break laws?

  They break international law
• What is transgressive criminology concerned with?

  Causing harm rather than breaking the law
• Who divided state crimes into four types?

  Eugene McLaughlin
• What are the four types of state crime identified by Eugene McLaughlin?

  Security crimes, economic crimes, social crimes, practical crimes
• What is the first reaction in the spiral of denial regarding human rights abuses?

  To deny that anything occurred
• What follows the denial stage in the spiral of denial?

  Questioning the version of events
• What is the final stage of the spiral of denial?

  Justifying the abuse that occurred
• How does Matza's techniques of neutralisation relate to state crimes?

  They can be applied to state crimes
• What are the concerns regarding the definition of state crimes?

  • Parameters of what constitutes state crime
  • Difficulty in limiting crime to specific laws
  • Debate over harm versus legal transgressions
• What do some critics argue about human rights discourses?

  They can be ethnocentric
• Why is it difficult to justify human rights arguments in some contexts?

  Local norms may conflict with human rights
• What is the purpose of a discourse of human rights?

  To challenge and change societal values