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As the U.S.-led “War on Terror” surges on, questions about the legitimacy of and motivation underlying the war continue to capture public debate. On a broader level, the war has raised issues concerning criminal activity that was once considered the unique problem of a few “rogue” nations, but which is now recognized as an evil affecting even the most stable democratic countries. In State Crime, Penny Green and Tony Ward explore state criminal behavior using a theoretical analysis of state crime, bolstered by numerous examples from international case studies. Because of the complexity of their analysis, the authors are only able to discuss a few practical solutions for preventing state crime. However, the book still provides an excellent foundation for understanding the conditions that both permit and encourage states to act in criminal ways.
Green and Ward begin by developing a working definition of “state crime” that they employ throughout the book. Pointing to the conceptual difficulties in defining “state crime” when it is states themselves that determine what activities are considered criminal, the authors argue that criminologists must look to broader, universal norms to determine when state action is deviant. As such, they define state crime as “state organizational deviance involving the violation of human rights.” Breaking down this definition into its three components—the state, organizational deviance, and human rights—the authors then elaborate on each term for the sake of their working definition. When speaking of “states,” the authors rely upon a Marxist conception of “public powers” possessing an exclusive authority to use force. They define “organizational deviance” as a violation of certain standards of behavior in order to achieve the state’s operative goals. Finally, the authors classify “human rights” broadly as moral claims made to the satisfaction of fundamental needs.
Following this conceptual introduction, Green and Ward explore several variants of state criminal activity. These categories include the more commonplace and underreported crimes (corruption, state-corporate crime, and organized crime), crimes considered particularly heinous (state terror and terrorism, torture, war crimes, and genocide), and crises where the state is not the direct criminal actor (natural disasters and police crime). Green and Ward demonstrate how in each category, the criminal state commits deviant acts that violate human rights in pursuit of an organizational goal. The authors then return to a more conceptual discussion of the relationship between political economy and state criminal activity. They conclude by outlining the criminal acts characterizing both Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and the policies of Iraq’s recent “liberators”—namely, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The nine chapters cover a range of state crimes, focusing on several major themes. Such themes reiterate the conditions that encourage state actors to engage in criminal behavior. What is interesting about these conditions is their cumulative nature—crimes that develop under one condition are often
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sustained and magnified by another. For example, Green and Ward regularly revisit how debt repayment schemes in developing countries create an atmosphere ripe for state crime. These schemes place such a financial burden on states that they often collude with corporations offering prospects of capital growth. Such collusion frequently entails the softening of environmental and other regulations. The debt service obligation can also exacerbate political instability in countries where the legitimacy of state power is questioned. Such political volatility leads states to adopt clientelistic or patrimonialist patterns of governance, fostering organized crime, corruption, and authoritarianism. As Green and Ward argue, this political atmosphere becomes a breeding ground for the horrific crimes of torture and genocide.
Interestingly, though, the authors do not limit their analysis of debt repayment structures to the states most directly affected, but also criticize the powerful democracies and global finance institutions that propagate the circumstances under which state crime in the developing world flourishes. In Chapter Eleven, “The Political Economy of State Crime,” the authors focus on three paradoxes: (1) international financial institutions attach to loans a set of “good governance” and human rights conditions, yet set strict requirements that force indebted nations to cut nutrition, health, and education expenditures for the poorest citizens, which further strains political legitimacy and encourages greater authoritarianism; (2) human rights serve the interests of the economically powerful by providing a language “that make[s] the ruling institutions of global society appear to serve universal interests” when they are actually serving their own; and (3) powerful states and institutions will seek to uphold human rights violations by force.
One of the book’s strongest themes is the role of civil society in countering state criminal activity. Green and Ward argue that countries with strong civil societies are best equipped to constrain state crime by (a) identifying the behavior as criminal, (b) implicating the state that supports the behavior, and (c) imposing informal sanctions. This leaves the reader wondering what specific form such “organized public intolerance” would take, as well as how concerned global citizens can forge “a united front that will oppose and denounce state crimes by any means.” Perhaps such issues lie outside the scope of Green and Ward’s analysis; still, their cursory treatment here may be unsatisfying to an audience seeking more concrete solutions.
Readers with limited background in sociology and criminology may find the authors’ numerous references to sociological theories daunting. In this sense, the book is better suited to scholars undertaking more in-depth research into state crime—who have a reason to consult the extensive reference list—than to students of human rights with a broader interest in understanding state criminal behavior. Still, State Crime provides a solid conceptual framework for future investigation in the area.
—Christine A. Monta
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HLSHRJ@law.harvard.edu
This file was last modified: Wednesday, 03-Aug-2005 10:51:04 EDT