definition of state crime

• Chambliss - domestic law definition


  defines state crime as acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials in pursuit of their jobs as representatives of the states
• war crimes 


  2 types of war related crimes

  1. illegal wars
  2. crimes committed during war / aftermath
• michalowski - social harms and zemiology

  • defines state crime as including not just illegal acts, but also ‘legally permissible acts whose consequences are similar to those of illegal acts’ in the harm they cause.
  • recognises that harm done by states is not always against the law
• hillyard et al - zemiology and state crime

  • argue we should take wider view of state wrongdoing
  • replace study of crimes with zemiology - the study of harms, whether or not they are against the law
  • e.g state-facilitated poverty
  • this prevents states from getting away with crimes not regarded as criminal in state law
• a03 of social harms and zemiology

  • difficult to determine what level of harm must occur before an act is defined as criminal
  • social construct - this 'harms' definition only replaces the states definition with a sociologists definition of harm
• definitions of state crime

  • green and ward - basic definition
  • Chambliss - domestic law definition
  • hillyard et al - zemiology definition
  • labelling theory definition
  • internal law definition
  • human rights definition
• labelling theory definition of state crime

  • state crime is socially constructed, and so what people regard as a state crime can vary over time and between cultures or groups
  • this definition prevents sociologists imposing their own definition of state crime when this may not be how the perpetrators and victims define the situation
  • e.g state has the power to label some people as victims but not others
  • before 1991, legal to rape your wife
• rothe and Mullins - international law definition of state crime

  • Some sociologists base their definition of state crime on international law – that is, law created through treaties and agreements between states
  • Rothe and Mullins (2008) define a state crime as any action by or on behalf of a state that violates international law and/or a state’s own domestic law.
• criticisms of international law definition

  • international law focuses on war crimes rather than state crimes such as corruption
  • social construct - Japan bribed impoverished states by giving them aid in order to get the to vote to the overturn the international ban on whaling (hunting for whales)
• human rights

  • Natural rights - the right to life, liberty and free speech.
  • Civil rights - the right to vote, to privacy, to a fair trial, or to education.
• Schwendingers (1975) - human rights definition

  • argue that we should define state crime as the violation of people’s basic human rights by the state
  • this definition enables states to act in public interest, otherwise may result in public shaming and citizens lose respect for state
  • argue that the sociologist’s role should be to defend human rights, if necessary against the state’s laws
  • example of transgressive criminology
• transgressive criminology

  • criminology that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of criminology, which are defined by the criminal law.
  • e.g hillyard et al 'social harms' approach, Schwendingers human rights definition