The Media and Crime

Crime as Consumer Spectacle Crime and deviance are major themes in popular culture. This includes fictional and non-fictional crime stories. In fiction, comic books, thrillers and films often have acts of crime and violence, particularly murder and theft and the detection of offenders, as central features. Media news is full of stories of crime and deviance, which have become an integral part of contemporary media via infotainment, where information is packaged to entertain. Examples include programmes like ‘Crimewatch’ and ‘Cops’. Also Hayward and Young have argued advertisers have turned images of crime and deviance into tools for selling products in the consumer market, e.g. through video games and gangsta rap where crime is represented as a style and fashion choice.

Agenda SettingMany of the issues that people think about and discuss are based on the list of subjects (agenda) that media reports tell them about. This is known as agenda-setting. People are only able to discuss and form opinions based on what they have been informed about and this is done through mainstream mass media, rather than personal experience. However, the media can’t report every criminal or deviant act that occurs and therefore they are very selective in what they report. People’s perceptions of crime and deviance in society are therefore influenced by what the media choose to report.

News ValuesGreer and Reiner point out that in news, documentaries and fiction, stories of sexual and violent crimes are the ones that capture the popular imagination. The media are always seeking a newsworthy story of crime and deviance and they exploit the possibilities for a ‘good story’ by exaggerating, over-reporting and sensationalising some crimes. This is done to attract audiences. Reiner suggests that media coverage of crime and deviance is filtered through the values and assumptions of film script writers and journalists about what makes a story ‘newsworthy’. These are stories that are exciting, interesting and that media audiences want to know about. These values and assumptions are known as news values. Jewkes suggests the following news values:News Value MeaningThreshold Events have to be significant or dramatic enoughProximity Items which have cultural meaning or geographical closenessPredictability Stories that can be known in advance as the media can plan aheadIndividualism Focus on the actions of individuals, avoiding complex explanationsSimplification Events that are easily understood and not too complicatedRisk When crimes can be presented/misrepresented as random and

unpredictable so everyone is at risk of being a victimSpectacle and graphic images

Events with film etc as they enable a visual and dramatic portrayal

Celebrity or high status people

Crime and deviance involving high status individuals as victims or offenders

Children Children as offenders or victimsSex Sex crimesViolence Violent events enable the media to report using dramaConservatism Events that lead to calls for more punishment and deterrence

The Backwards Law: Public Perceptions and the Distortion and Exaggeration of CrimeSurveys show the majority of people base their knowledge of crime and the criminal justice system on media reports rather than on their own experience. Surette suggests there is a backwards law with the media constructing images of crime and justice which are an opposite or backwards version of reality. Greer suggests this is shown by news and crime fiction in the following ways:

Over-representing and exaggerating sex, drug and violent crimes. Under-representing the risks of the most common offence of property crime. Over-exaggerating police effectiveness in clearing-up crimes. Exaggerating risks of becoming victims faced by higher status white people, elderly,

women and children. Emphasising individual incidents of crime, rather than providing any understanding of

crime patterns or causes of crime.Left Realists suggest media reporting disguises the reality that both offenders and victims are mainly working class and poor.Marxists would suggest reporting of crime conceals white collar and corporate crimes which are rarely reported. The hyperreality of crimeThe backwards law, combined with agenda setting and news values, means the media socially construct a distorted view of crime and the CJS and increase the publics’ fear of crime. This illustrates Baudrillard’s idea of hyperreality which suggests the media do not reflect reality but actively create it. An example of this is that between 1995 and 2010, crime had been falling or steady, however three quarters of the population thought it was increasing.

The Media as Moral EntrepreneursThe media act as moral entrepreneurs by labelling or stereotyping certain groups and activities as deviant and as social problems, suggesting they are a threat to society which should be condemned. Media stories can demonise some groups as folk devils and sensitise the public to an extent that it is encouraged to support action against them. One way this is done is through the creation of moral panics.

Deviancy Amplification, Folk Devils and Moral PanicsHall et al and Cohen show how the media, through exaggerated and sensationalised reporting of crime can whip up a moral panic. This is a wave of public concern about some exaggerated or imaginary threat to society. The deviants are labelled as folk devils who present a threat to society. Hall et al and Cohen suggest the media generated moral panics tend to appear during periods of uncertainty, such as during periods of rapid social change or political or economic crisis. Creation of a moral panic can sensitize the police, and other agencies of social control, to the group or problem and can lead demands by the media and public for action to stamp down on

the alleged deviance. Often the response will be harsher measures against the demonised folk devils. This can include heavier policing, more arrests or harsher punishments.This action can often amplify deviant behaviour, e.g. by causing more arrests. The media reporting, public demand for action and subsequent action therefore can create deviance where there was none before or make the deviant behaviour seem like it is increasing. This could be because the demand for action against the deviant behaviour results in higher arrest rates, or because media coverage of the deviant behaviour encourages other people to take part in it. This is known as deviancy amplification.How relevant is the concept of moral panic today?McRobbie and Thornton suggest the concept of moral panic is outdated in the age of the new media. This is because new media technology, the sophistication of media audiences in a media-saturated society, 24/7 news and competition between media organisations have changed the reporting and reaction to events that might have once caused a moral panic.Pluralists and postmodernists argue that there is such a huge diversity of media reports and interpretations of events through citizen journalism and social media that people are a lot more sceptical of mainstream media reports and are less likely to believe them. This makes it difficult for the media to define issues or events in a way that can develop into a moral panic.24/7 news reporting as well means events have a short shelf life so cannot sustain audience interest long enough to develop into a moral panic.Hunt suggests boundaries separating moral and immoral behaviour have become blurred while Beck argues in contemporary ‘risk society’ there are many risks and uncertainties so many things that used to generate moral panics are now part of normal daily life. Hall dismisses the whole concept of moral panics. He argues that the media do sensationalise specific crimes which can cause public concern but the media then over exaggerate the ability of the CJS to solve these crimes. Therefore, public concern is generated only to be soothed by the media, which creates complacency not panic.Hall argues there are rational concerns about real crimes, particularly in disadvantaged communities. Therefore people’s concerns about crime are not media generated but are genuine and sociologists shouldn’t deny this. Hall argues the concept of moral panics is simply an ideological construction by liberal sociologists who dismiss peoples’ anxieties as a product of the media to avoid people demanding more action and repression by the state.

Do the Media Cause Crime?There are many ways that have been suggested for how the media may cause crime:Moral panics and deviancy amplificationThis may cause or worsen crime.Bulimic societyMedia promotion of consumer culture intensifies relative deprivation in what Young called a bulimic society, generates strain and leads to crime.The mediascapeCultural criminologists argue the media turn crime into a commodity that people desire. The media encourage audiences to consume crime in the form of images of crime. Hayward and Young argue we live in a media saturated society where we are immersed in the mediascape. This is an expanding mixture of digital images, including images of crime. In the mediascape the image and reality of crime are blurred. This means media representations of crime and crime control now actually creates crime and crime control.For example, gang assaults are staged for the camera and packaged together as underground fight videos. Police car cameras actually alter the way the police work, with US police forces, for example, using reality TV shows like ‘Cops’ as promotional videos.The commodification of crimeCorporations and advertisers use media images of crime to sell products, especially to youth. For example, gangsta rap and hip hop combine images of street crime with images of consumer success.Examples include car adverts using images of riots and graffiti, as well as the fashion industry labelling brands with deviant terms such as ‘Obsession’. Companies use controversy to sell their products, e.g. Grand Theft Auto.Some products are now seen as symbols of deviance and result in people wearing them being treated differently. For example Bluewater shopping centre banned the wearing of hoodies and some pubs and clubs refuse entry to individuals wearing certain brands. These brands therefore become ways of classifying people as potential criminals.CybercrimeJewkes argues the internet creates opportunities to commit crimes in new ways, e.g. fraud, but also opportunities for new crimes, e.g. software piracy.Wall identifies four categories of cybercrime:

1) Cyber-trespass: crossing boundaries into others’ cyber-property, e.g. hacking and viruses.

2) Cyber-deception and theft: e.g. identity theft, piracy.3) Cyber-pornography: including pornography involving minors and opportunities for

minors to access pornography on the internet.4) Cyber-violence: doing psychological or inciting physical harm, e.g. cyber-stalking and

encouraging hate crimes.Much of this crime is globalised which makes it very difficult to police.

Knowledge and learning of criminal techniques

This could be through video games, e.g. Grand Theft Auto, or factual and fictional representations of crime.This can link to the idea of imitation/copycatting, where the media provides deviant role models.However, some sociologists argue this acts as a form of catharsis where individuals can act out criminal behaviour in the virtual world of the media, rather than in society.Reduction of social controls over crimeThe media may undermine internal (e.g. self-control) and external controls (e.g. the police) in two ways:

1) Stories about the police and CJS suggesting they are corrupt, ineffective and inefficient. This reduces public cooperation and the perception by potential offenders of the risks of getting caught.

2) Stories/images that glamorise crime or desensitizing people to violence.Desensitisation occurs when people are exposed to violence and crime so much that it becomes normalised.However, other sociologists have argued that the media may actually sensitise us to violence and crime and therefore make us more likely to challenge it in society.Providing targets for crimeMedia products provide targets for property crime, e.g. smartphones, TVs.Fear of crimeThere is some evidence that there is a link between media use and fear of crime. Gerbner et al found that heavy users of television had higher levels of fear of crime. If people are fearful of crime and feel increasingly vulnerable in a risk society, they may take part in crimes such as hate crime.However, it is difficult to prove that this is solely due to the media. For example, people who consume more media, e.g. TV, might have already been fearful of crime and that causes them to stay in more and watch more TV.

Globalisation and CrimeGlobalisation involves a process of deterritorialization meaning that an increasing number of social, political and economic activities are no longer attached to specific countries, but are transnational and stretched across the globe. The world has become a single territory for both legal and illegal business.

The Nature and Extent of Global CrimeCastells argues globalisation has led to a global criminal economy, meaning new opportunities and types of crime emerge, such as the illegal trade in weapons, nuclear materials, body parts, drugs; cybercrimes, green crimes and money-laundering. This economy is worth over £1 trillion per year. It includes:The international illegal drug tradeThe world drug report 2007 suggested the trade was worth $322 billion each year. This was higher than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 88% of the countries in the world. The Home Office estimates that up to half of acquisitive crime (theft) is drug-related. Human-traffickingThe illegal movement and smuggling of people, for a variety of purposes such as ranging from illegal removal of organs for transplants, exploitation of women and children (prostitution and forced labour). National Crime Agency (2014) estimated there were as many as 13,000 people in Britain who were victims of this. There is also a related global criminal network dealing with the trade of illegal immigrants: smuggling people at high costs into countries which they are unable to enter legally. Money-launderingThis is concerned with making money obtained illegally look like it came from legal sources. Castells calls this matrix of global crime because criminals such as drug-dealers deal with large amounts of cash which they need to launder to avoid their criminal activities coming to the attention of law-enforcement agencies. The deregulation of global financial markets, banking secrecy and modern communication make it possible to launder ‘dirty money’ through complex financial transactions. CybercrimeRefers to a wide range of criminal acts committed with the help of ICT, predominantly the internet. This is one of the fastest growing crimes. Detica estimates cybercrimes such as identity theft, fraud, online scams etc cost the UK £27 billion each year. Examples of cybercrime include:

Internet based fraud financial scams (Nigerian letters) Child pornography and paedophilia Terrorist websites and networking (2015, ISIS) Cyber-attacks such as hacking and virus attacks (TalkTalk 2015) Identity theft

Transnational Organised Crime

Castells argues that globalisation has created transnational networks of organised crime, which operate in many countries. These employ millions of people and often work in collusion with corrupt state officials and legitimate businesses. Farr suggests there are two main forms of global criminal networks:

1. Established Mafias Italian-American mafia and Chinese Triads are long established groups organised around family and ethnic characteristics.

2. Newer organised crime groups – emerged due to globalisation and collapse of communist regimes in Russia and Eastern Europe. The newer groups include Russian, Eastern European and Albanian criminal groups and the Colombian drug cartels.

McMafiaGlenny uses the term McMafia to describe the way transnational organised crime mirrors the activities of legal transnational corporations like McDonalds. Most of this refers to the newer organised crime groups.After the collapse of communism and the state in Russia and Eastern Europe, a new capitalist class emerged which needed security. This was provided by ex-convicts who had formed new mafias.However, these mafias were purely economic formed on the basis of self-interest, unlike the established mafias. They soon began to ‘franchise’ their operations to other groups who were able to use the name of the mafia as long as they maintained the ‘brand’, just like the franchising of a McDonalds.These new mafias also began to link with other established mafias in other parts of the world.From global to local: glocalism Hobbs and Dunnighan suggest that global criminal networks work within local contexts. For example, the international drugs trade and human-trafficking require local networks of drug dealers and pimps to organise supply at a local level and existing local criminals need to connect to the global networks to continue their activities. Hobbs coined the term glocal to describe this interconnectivity between local and global criminals. This means the form that global crime takes will differ between different local areas as it is affected by local conditions.

How Globalisation has Affected Crime1. Disorganised capitalismLash and Urry argue globalisation has been accompanied by less regulation and fewer state controls over business and finance. This is known as disorganised capitalism. Corporations now operate transnationally in global markets, moving money, staff and manufacturing to countries where profits are higher and labour costs are lower. Also health and safety and environmental pollution regulations are less demanding and less likely to be enforced.Criminals have taken advantage of this lack of regulation and control to conduct criminal activities with little chance of being caught by law enforcement.2. Growing inequality and capitalismTaylor

Taylor suggests the winners from globalisation are the rich financial investors and transnational corporations based in the developed western countries. The workers in rich and poor countries are the losers as they suffer from more inequality. This therefore encourages the poor to turn to crime.Globalisation has also provided criminal opportunities for elite groups. For example, deregulation of financial markets has created opportunities for insider trading and tax avoidance by moving funds around the globe.Globalisation has also led to new patterns of employment which has created new opportunities for crime. It has led to the increased use of subcontracting to recruit illegal workers who may be employed for less than minimum wage or working in breach of health and safety laws.Rothe and Friedrichs

Rothe and Friedrichs also look at how international financial organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank can be involved in crimes of globalisation. These bodies impose pro-capitalist programmes on poor countries as conditions of the loans they supply. This often requires governments to cut spending on health and education and to privatise services, such as water supplies, and natural resources.This enables Western corporations to expand into these countries but also creates conditions for crime. Rothe et al showed how this created mass unemployment in Rwanda which contributed towards the Rwandan genocide and Cain argues that while they may not break any laws, the actions of the IMF and World Bank can cause widespread social harms.3. Supply and demand in a globalised worldGrowing global inequality, and particularly poverty in the developing world, coupled with rising expectations generated by a global media, has led to factors that push people to emigrate to the developed western countries as they think they will be better off. However, these countries have made immigration more difficult and this has created a market in illegal human-trafficking. Many illegal immigrants are in debt to smuggling gangs, leading them to virtual slavery/prostitution to repay their debts. In affluent countries demand for illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine provides means of making a profit for those deprived of other opportunities. Supply is met by poverty-stricken farmers in countries like Columbia and Afghanistan who gain highest income by growing

opium poppies and coca. This is to meet the demand for illegal drugs by people in richer countries. 4. More opportunities for crimeGrowing globalisation and global communications offer:

Opportunities for new types of crime New means of carrying out crimes – through the speed, convenience and

anonymity of the internet, especially the hidden dark web. Example credit cards ‘skimmed’ in the UK can be used for a few minutes in Australia and millions of pounds can be moved around the world in seconds.

5. Cultural globalisation and ideology of consumerismMass tourism, migration and the influence of media has spread a similar culture and ideology of consumerism across the globe. Both developed and developing countries are exposed to the ideology of the ‘good life’ which lies in consumer goods from affluent Western lifestyles.6. Growing individualisationBauman argues that there is growing individualisation. Any improvements to their living conditions and happiness is down to their efforts and they can no longer rely on safety nets such as the welfare state. Taylor suggests individuals are left alone to weigh the costs and benefits of their decisions and to choose the course that will bring the highest rewards. 7. Global risk societyGlobalisation adds to the insecurity and uncertainty of life in and generates what Beck calls a global risk society. People become more ‘risk conscious’ and fearful of things like losing their jobs, having identities stolen, terrorism etc. The causes of these risks are often located globally and it is therefore hard to identify who is responsible. The media play on these fears, with scare stories and moral panics caused by sensationalised reporting of events such as terrorist attacks. This can lead to hate crimes. This has also resulted in increased social control, such as tougher border control measures, e.g. many countries have introduced fences and technology to monitor borders.Criticisms of the study of crime and globalisation

Secretive and complex nature means it is a difficult area for sociologists to investigate, e.g. the investigation of global financial crime requires specialist skills.

For many crimes there is a dependence on secondary sources, reliable statistics may not be available.

Raises questions over the validity of some of the research. Research is dangerous, global crime involves powerful and dangerous individuals. Some regard it as a distraction from research into the more routine crime Easy to exaggerate the significance of the impact of globalisation.

State CrimesThe state is responsible for making and enforcing the law, however they also break the law. These crimes carried out by the agents of the state are known as state crimes.State crimes, like corporate crimes, are an example of crimes of the powerful which Marxists talk about.Green and Ward describe state crimes as illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by, or with the complicity of, state agencies to further state policies. State crime can be seen as perhaps the most serious form of crime for two reasons:

1) The scale of state crime : because the state has enormous power it can inflict harm on a huge scale, e.g. Green and Ward say 262 million people were murdered by governments during the 20th century.

2) The state is the source of law : this means it can conceal its crimes, avoid punishment for them and avoid defining its own actions as criminal.

Problems with Defining State Crimes There have been various different definitions put forward for state crime:Domestic lawChambliss defines state crimes as acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials as part of their jobs as representatives of the state.However, this ignores the fact the state is the source of law within nations, and it defines what a crime is. Therefore it has the power to avoid defining its own acts as criminal. For example, the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany was permitted under law at the time.It also means what is a crime in one country, might not be in another, depending on the laws in each country.Social harmsMichalowski defines state crimes as including illegal acts, but also legal acts that have consequences which are as serious as illegal acts.Hillyard et al argues we should replace the study of crimes with zemiology (the study of harms, whether or not they’re against the law). This means harms could include poverty caused by state policies, e.g. cuts to welfare benefits.This definition ensures states cannot deliberately write laws to avoid defining their own actions as criminal. It also can be applied in different countries with different laws.However, this definition is still quite vague. What level of harm must occur and who decides what counts as a harm?LabellingLabelling theory argues that whether an act is considered a crime or not depends on whether the social audience for that act define it as a crime.This recognises that state crime is socially constructed and therefore what people recognise as state crime can change over time. It also avoids sociologists defining state crime according to their own values and not those of the participants (perpetrators, victims and audience).However, this is even vaguer than social harms. People may see something as wrong and harmful but be unwilling to define it as a crime. It also ignores the fact that audiences’ definitions may be manipulated by ruling class ideology.

International lawRothe and Mullins define a state crime as any action by or on behalf of a state that violates international law. This is law which is created through treaties and agreements between states such as the Geneva and Hague Conventions on war crimes.This doesn’t depend on a sociologists’ personal definitions or the social audience. International law is also intended to deal with state crime.However, international law is a social construction. Powerful nations won’t create international laws against actions that benefit them. Also international law doesn’t really deal with state crimes such as corruption and instead focuses more on war crimes.Human rightsThese are natural rights that people have simply because they are human, e.g. the right to life. They also include civil rights, e.g. the right to vote.The Schwendingers argue we should define state crime as the violation of people’s basic human rights by the state or its agents.One advantage of this is that virtually all states care about their human rights image because these rights are global social norms. This is an example of transgressive criminology.However, there are disagreements about what counts as a human right. Some might not argue freedom from hunger is a human right. However, Green and Ward argue that rights such as liberty are not much use if people are too malnourished to exercise this right. Therefore states that deliberately starve sections of the population, e.g. Britain during the Irish famine in the 1800s, this is a denial of human rights.

Case StudiesMcLaughlin identifies four categories of state crime:

1) Political crimes , e.g. corruption, censorship.2) Crimes by security forces , e.g. genocide, torture.3) Economic crimes , e.g. violations of health and safety laws.4) Social and cultural crimes , e.g. institutional racism.

The Rwandan genocide (1994)Genocide is an attempt to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.Rwanda was a Belgian colony in 1922 and Belgians used the minority Tutsi to help them rule over the Hutu majority. Hutus and Tutsi’s were the same ethnic groups, spoke the same language and were more like social classes. However, the Belgian’s made them into ethnic groups, issuing them with racial identity cards and educated the two groups separately.Rwanda gained independence in 1962 and elections brought the majority Hutus to power. By the 1990s an economic and political crisis resulted in the government producing race hate propaganda against the Tutsi’s in an attempt to cling onto power. In 1994 the Hutu president’s plane was shot down and this triggered the genocide. In 100 days 800,000 Tutsi’s were slaughtered, as well as many moderate Hutus. This was legitimised with dehumanising labels describing Tutsis as cockroaches.The Challenger space shuttle disaster (1986)This is an example of a state initiated corporate crime. This occurs when states initiate corporate crimes. In this case, negligent cost cutting decisions by NASA (a state agency) and the corporation Morton Thiokol led to the explosion that killed 7 astronauts shortly after take-off.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster (2010)This is an example of a state facilitated corporate crime. This occurs when states fail to regulate corporate behaviour, making crime easier.The rig exploded and sank, killing 11 workers and causing the largest accidental oil spill in history, with major health, environmental and economic impacts. The official inquiry found that while the disaster resulted from the decisions of companies involved (BP, Halliburton and Transocean), government regulators had failed to oversee the industry adequately or notice the companies’ cost cutting decisions.War crimesThere are two main types:

1) Illegal wars: Under international law, other than in self-defence, war can only be declared by the UN Security Council. On this basis, many see the US led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as illegal.

2) Crimes committed during or after war: For example, Whyte describes the fact that Iraq’s constitution was illegally changed so the economy could be privatised. Iraqi oil revenues were seized to pay for reconstruction. In 2004 alone, over $48 billion went to US firms, but poor oversight meant it is unclear where much of this went. This is another example of state-corporate crime.Kramer and Michalowski identity other crimes committed during the Iraq War, including torture of prisoners. A US military inquiry into Abu Ghraib prison found numerous instances of criminal abuses of prisoners. However, only 9 soldiers were convicted.Kramer also notes how the terror bombing of civilians has become normalised. For example, after the Second World War and the nuclear bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, there were not trials for war crimes. Bombing of civilians has also continued in recent conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

Explaining State CrimesThe authoritarian personalityAdorno et al identify an authoritarian personality that includes a willingness to obey the orders of superiors without questions. They argue that at the time of the Second World War, many Germans had this personality type due to socialisation patterns that were common at the time, e.g. education and the family reinforced ideas of obedience.The crimes of obedience modelCrime is usually defined as deviance from social norms. However, state crimes are crimes of conformity as they require obedience to the state. For example, in a corrupt police unit, the officer who accepts bribes is conforming to the unit’s norms, despite committing a crime.Research suggests many people are willing to obey authority even when this involves harming others.Kelman and Hamilton identify three features that produce crimes of obedience:

1. Authorisation – making it clear to individuals they are acting in ways that agree with state policy and with state authority and support.

2. Dehumanisation – involves the state portraying minorities as sub-human to whom normal rules do not apply. This makes state discrimination etc more acceptable to ordinary people.

3. Routinization – organising the actions in such a way that they become part of a regular routine and can be performed in a detached way. Violent states reinforce and manage this by creating enclaves of barbarism. These are places where state violence is encouraged and rewarded and where the perpetrators of violence can leave to return to an everyday life.

ModernityBauman argues certain key features of modern society made the Holocaust possible:

A division of labour : each person was responsible for one small task, so no one felt personally responsible for the atrocity.

Bureaucratisation : this normalised the killing by making it a repetitive and route job. It also meant the victims could be dehumanised as ‘units’.

Instrumental rationality : this is where efficient methods are used to achieve a goal, regardless of what the goal is.

Science and technology : this included the railways to transport victims to the death camps and the gas used to kill them.

Techniques of Neutralisation Because the international human rights movement has had more impact in recent years, e.g. organisations such as Amnesty International, Cohen argues states now have to make a greater effort to conceal or justify their crimes. Justifications follow a three stage spiral of state denial:Stage 1: “It didn’t happen”. The state claim nothing happened until evidence is produced.Stage 2: “If it did happen, ‘it’ is something else”, e.g. it was self-defence, not murder.Stage 3: “Even if it was murder (for example), its justified”, e.g. to prevent terrorism.Cohen examines how states deny or justify their crimes by using the work of Matza and the five techniques of neutralisation:

1) Denial of victim: e.g. the victim is exaggerating, the victim is a terrorist.2) Denial of injury: e.g. “we are the real victims, not them”.3) Denial of responsibility: e.g. “I was only obeying orders”.4) Condemning the condemners: e.g. “they are accusing us because they are racist”.5) Appeal to higher loyalty: the action was necessary in defence of freedom, national

security etc.These techniques do not deny an event has happened but simply try to explain them differently. For example, as part of the US war on terror, the USA had to justify its interrogation practices such as sleep deprivation and waterboarding. The US claimed these were not torture and as necessary to protect national security.

Problems of Researching State Crimes Cohen shows it is difficult to find the true extent as governments adopt strategies of

denial or justification of their actions. State crimes are carried out by powerful people with large amounts of resources at

their disposal to cover them up. Researchers are often reliant on secondary data, often from the media, which tend to

focus on state crimes in developing countries not Western democracies. States can use their power to prevent or hinder sociologists, e.g. by not providing

funding, or criminal proceedings.

Green or Environmental CrimeGreen or environmental crime refers to crime against the environment. This links to globalisation because environmental threats are global and affect everyone, e.g. air pollution in one country can turn into acid rain that poisons water and destroys forests in another. This links with Beck’s global risk society. Many of the risks we face globally involve harm to the environment and its consequences for humanity, e.g. global warming. In addition, many of these risks have come about as a result of technology, e.g. cars.An example of this is shown by a heatwave in Russia in 2010. This heatwave was caused by global warming and caused wildfires which destroyed large grain crops. This led Russia to ban exports of grain, therefore increasing the world price of grain. Mozambique, in Africa, is heavily dependent on imports of food products saw a 30% rise in the price of bread. This led to rioting and deaths as a result of the disorder.

Definitions of Green CrimeTraditional definitionWolf points out that the term green crime (also known as environmental crime and eco crime) was traditionally used to describe actions that break laws protecting the environment. However, the same actions may be defined as illegal in some countries but not in others because different countries have different laws.Transgressive definitionWhite adopts a transgressive approach and considers green crime to be any human action that causes environmental harm, whether or not it is illegal. This is sometimes referred to as an environmental justice approach.Many environmental harms are not actually illegal. Green criminologists argue nation states and transnational corporations are able to define what laws protect the environment and do this in a way to protect their own interests, e.g. allowing them to get away with some environmental harms.Therefore by following this approach green criminologists can study a wider range of subjects and avoid the issue of different laws in different countries.White identifies two views of environmental harm:

1) Anthropocentric view: this assumes humans have a right to dominate nature and puts economic growth before the environment.

2) Ecocentric view: this sees humans and the environment as interdependent and harms to the environment, hurts humans also. This is the view of green criminologists.

Case StudiesBhopalThe 1984 disaster in Bhopal in India is an example of both traditional criminological and environmental justice approaches. Union Carbide leaked poisonous gas which affected half a million people; by 2012 there had been approximately 25,000 deaths, with at least 120,000 people still suffering severe symptoms. The traditional criminological approach suggests the disaster arose because Union Carbide broke local health and safety laws, while the environmental justice approach suggest Union Carbide deliberately located plants in countries where health and safety laws were weak. Deepwater HorizonExplosions at BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 led to the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the oil industry, which, as well as causing the deaths of eleven people, caused extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats and to the Gulfs fishing and tourism industries. Volkswagen Emissions ScandalVolkswagen emissions scandal in 2015, in which 11 million vehicles were illegally fitted with a defeat device aimed at cheating emissions tests, breaching environmental regulations. Therefore responsible for 1m tonnes of extra air pollution each year.

Types of Green CrimesPrimary Green CrimesThese are crimes that are a direct result of the destruction of the earth’s resources. South identifies four main types:

1) Air pollution : burning fossil fuels adds 6 billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere each year. The potential criminals are governments, business and consumers.

2) Deforestation : between 1960 and 1990 one fifth of the world’s tropical rainforest was destroyed. This has been due to illegal logging, for grazing land for cattle for beef exports and pesticide spraying as part of the war on drugs. Criminals include the state, logging companies and cattle ranchers.

3) Species decline and animal abuse : 50 species a day are becoming extinct. There is trafficking in animals and animal parts and also dog fights and badger baiting.

4) Water pollution : 25 million people die a year from drinking contaminated water. Marine pollution also threatens ocean reefs and marine life. Criminals include businesses that dump toxic waste and governments that discharge untreated sewage into rivers and seas.

Secondary Green CrimesThis is crime that grows out of the breaking of rules aimed at preventing environmental harms. South suggests two examples:

1) State violence against oppositional groups : for example in 1985 the French secret service blew up the Greenpeace ship ‘Rainbow Warrior’ killing one crew member. The vessel was there in an attempt to prevent French nuclear weapons testing.

2) Hazardous waste and organised crime : disposal of toxic waste is highly profitable. Because of the high costs of safe and legal disposal, businesses may try to dispose of this waste illegally. In Italy eco-mafias profit from illegal dumping.This can also have a global character. For example, Bridgland describes how after the tsunami of 2004, hundreds of barrels of radioactive waste, dumped by European companies, washed up on the shores of Somalia.

In other cases, Western businesses ship their waste to be processed in developing countries where costs are lower and there are fewer health and safety regulations, e.g. many ships and tankers are broken down in countries such as Bangladesh. This can often cause pollution and also injuries and deaths to workers.

Who Commits Green Crime?Wolf identifies four groups:

1. Individuals – fly tipping 2. Private business organisations – land, air, water pollution3. States and governments - Military largest institutional polluter 4. Organised crime – Linked with government and business organisations

Victims of green crimesPotter points out that social inequalities are reinforced by environmental harms, with the least powerful – the working class, the poor and minority ethnic groups – being the most likely victims in both the developed and developing worlds. This is known as environmental racism whereby those suffering the worst effects are of a different ethnicity from those causing the damage.People in the developing world face far greater risks of being victims of green crime, whilst in the developed world, it is working class areas, rather than middle class areas that face greater risks.

Enforcement ActionGovernments are responsible for creating and enforcing laws. However, they often form policies in collaboration with businesses who are likely to be the main offenders. Snider, a Marxist, argues states are reluctant to pass laws and regulations against environmental harm by private businesses and generally only do so if there is public outcry or an environmental crisis. This is done to ensure profits are not threatened and investors aren’t frightened off. Sutherland points out that, like white-collar and corporate crimes, environmental crimes do not carry the same stigma as conventional crimes. Multinational corporations have the means and resources to avoid being labelled as a criminal and as a consequence laws may only be enforced through fines. This links to delabelling.

Explaining Green CrimesWhite argues green crime occurs because transnational corporations and nation-states tend to hold a broadly anthropocentric view of the world. This view suggests the most important consideration for nations is economic development and growth. This often causes environmental crimes.Wolf suggests green crime is motivated by many of the same factors as ordinary crime such as choice, strain and control. Marxists suggest that the most serious green crimes are examples of crimes of the powerful meaning crimes arising from criminogenic capitalism: corporations seek to minimise costs and maximise profits.

Problems of Researching Green Crimes Different laws: cannot compare statistics between countries.

Different definitions: varies between countries and researchers. Causes problems in measuring, monitoring and reporting green crime.

Difficulties in measurement: green crime is usually carried out by people who have the power to hide their crimes. They can also avoid prosecution if they are discovered.

The use of case studies: these have limited use in explaining and making generalisations about the causes of green crime.