State crime

• Green and Ward (2005)


  'illegal or deviant activities perpertrated by or with the complicity of state agencies'

  • Genocide
  • War crimes
  • Torture
  • Imprisonment without trial
  • Execution
• McLaughlin (2001)

  Four categories of state crime:

  • Political
  • Crimes by security and police forces
  • Economic
  • Social and cultural
• Human rights

  Natural and civil rights

  Violation of basic huma rights rather than the breaking of legal rules
• Five neutralisation techniques - Matza (1957)

  • Denial of victim
  • Denial of injury
  • Denial of responsibility
  • Condemning the condemners
  • Appeal to higher loyalty

  The state has the power to commit state crimes but uses these techniques to legitimise their actions