ACR101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: State Terrorism, Bloody Sunday Inquiry, White-Collar Crime
ACR101 Week Nine
STATE CRIME
Crimes of extremely powerful people. Crime occurs everywhere. We recognise that the state can
behave in criminal ways, breaking their own laws as well as international laws. The difference
between state crime and street crime is the scale of the harm. Need to be able to identify and define
state crime and the types of state crime + obstacles in our way from preventing these.
TYPES OF STATE CRIME:
• White collar crime
• Violent crime (e.g. abuse of police power; abuse in prison)
• Environmental crime: states become implicit sometimes by their commission or by their
omission - failure to act cooperatively.
• Cyber crime: Russia is accused of cyber hacking - interfering in crime.
• War crimes
o Torture
o Summary execution
• Crimes against humanity
o Genocide
May be done by omission or commission. There is a conversation about the importance of having a
federal anti-corruption system. Corruption is an element of state crime.
CASE STYDY: 'BLOODY SUNDAY':
• Derry, Northern Ireland, 1972;
• Protest against the use of 'internment' - imprisonment-without-trial - of Catholics suspected of
being IRA;
• Misuse of force and power
• Scale of harm
• Dual role of government as law enforcer and perpetrator.
• Saturday riots towards British soldiers by Catholics (became the Sunday Matinee).
• Catholics would be placed in detention for long periods of time.
• Social tension and religious tension caused.
• The group that viewed themselves as oppressed eventually began to protest. A march through
the streets. Soldiers retaliated and shot tear gas and water cannons into the crowd and there
were 14 fatalities, wounded many others. Soldiers claimed that people were armed in the
crowd but there was no evidence that this was true.
• Took 11 weeks to decide that the account of the situation were given the correct account.
That Catholics were defending themselves and weren't the ones at fault but instead the state
was.
• The role of power and the harshness of reality.
• Many people refused to accept that anyone in that crowd did anything wrong.
• International community can have a big role on the outcome. State is forced to see their
wrongdoings by outside criticism. International immunity.
WHAT 'BLOODY SUNDAY' TELLS US ABOUT STATE CRIME:
• State's can commit horrific and brutal acts.
• Limited legal options for victims and victims families.
• Issues of poer…ipartial, idepedet iestigatio is ulikely. Issues are heaily politiised
[The 'Widgery Inquiry'].
• Deial is oo. Agai…it is aout poer ad legitiay.
• Even when the facts are undisputed [the 'Saville Inquiry' (2010)], prosecution is still difficult or
remote.
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• International community is relatively powerless to act?
"UNHCR was disappointed to observe that the current policies, conditions and operational
approahes… do ot oply ith iteratioal stadards ad i partiular:
a. Constitute arbitrary and mandatory detention under international law;
b. Despite a sound legal framework, do not provide a fair, efficient and expeditious system for
assessing refugee claims;
c. Do not provide safe and humane conditions of treatment in detention; and
d. Do not provide for adequate and timely solutions for refugees."
UNHR (2013) [Emphasis in original].
DEFINING 'STATE CRIME': A JURIDICAL APPROACH:
State crimes are "acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials in pursuit of their
jobs as representatives of the state".
(Chambliss, 1989: 184)
• But whose 'law' is the standard by which you judge 'state crime'?
• Some things pursued by representatives of the state are not technically 'crime' or against the
law e.g. The Holocaust!
DEFINING 'STATE CRIME': A SOCIAL INJURY APPROACH:
Schwendinger and Schwendinger (1975) suggest that states commit crime when they 'injure' their
citizens by failing to guarantee security, well-being, food, shelter, clothing, medical services and
workplace rights.
• Overcomes some of the challenges with a juridical approach.
• Too broad?
• Can bad policy be criminal?
• A left-wing 'moral crusade' (Cohen 1993: 98)?
DEFINING 'STATE CRIME': AN ORGANISATIONAL DEVIANCE APPROACH:
"…the ter 'state rie' should e restricted to:
1. Violations of human rights and,
2. State organisational deviance."
Green and Ward (2000: 110)
• Too much interpretation?
• Legal disputes over terminology;
• Similar to WCC - is it possible to identify a single offender or group of offenders (e.g. Sgt.
Robert Bales)? Who do we blame for the Bloody Sunday? The Catholics? The government? The
soldiers?
• Again, there are difficulties in enforcing any sanctions, even when they are considered
warranted.
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THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL COMMUNITY REJECTS THE IDEA OF 'STATE CRIME':
"Crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by
punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced."
(International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg) Judgement and Sentences, 1946: 221).
• Traditional conceptualisations of crime as an 'individual' action, despite collective offending;
• Challenges in punishing states without affecting citizens;
WHY IS IT DIFFICULT TO PROSECUTE STATE CRIME?:
LIMITATIONS TO THE ICC:
• Requires voluntary compliance from
nations and is undetermined by lack of
participation from nations like the US,
China, Russia and Israel;
• No investigative body to gather evidence;
• Long, expensive, slow trials;
• Only focused on African nations? Unfairly
shaped by inequality?
LIMITATIONS TO PROSECUTING STATE CRIME:
• Why do you punish?
• Can you punish a 'state' without unfairly
punishing innocents>
• Long-term impacts of punitive sanctions;
• Whose understanding of 'crime' do we
use?
• Is there such a thing as 'state crime'?
FUTURE OF 'STATE CRIME':
• An important and viable concept?
• What is happening now?
o US military action in Syria (e.g. drone strikes)
o Mass surveillance in Australia and elsewhere!
o Oppression of minority groups in China.
o How to understand state crime.
AND SO…:
• Is 'state crime' a viable concept?
• How will it be affected by influences like globalisation?
• Can we overcome the obstacles to successful prosecution of state crimes?
• How best can society respond and manage the harms created by states?
NOTES FROM THE CLOUD
• The 'state' in this sense refers to a self-governing entity. When taking a legal definition of
'crime', it is the state which creates the laws that define crime. The state enforces these laws
through the criminal justice system. 'State crime', however, is a concept used to refer to
instances when the state itself commits a crime. While it may make sense to think of a state as
being capable of breaching its own laws, it is difficult to think of ways to effectively respond to
this problem. The state is unlikely to define its own conduct as criminal, or investigate and
prosecute itself for breaching its own laws.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
We recognise that the state can behave in criminal ways, breaking their own laws as well as international laws. The difference between state crime and street crime is the scale of the harm. Need to be able to identify and define state crime and the types of state crime + obstacles in our way from preventing these. There is a conversation about the importance of having a federal anti-corruption system. Case stydy: "bloody sunday": derry, northern ireland, 1972, protest against the use of "internment" - imprisonment-without-trial - of catholics suspected of being ira; Soldiers retaliated and shot tear gas and water cannons into the crowd and there were 14 fatalities, wounded many others. Soldiers claimed that people were armed in the crowd but there was no evidence that this was true: took 11 weeks to decide that the account of the situation were given the correct account.
