Globalisation and crime in
contemporary society
Green crime
Crime against the enviroment
Who……
What……
Why……
Should…
Picture
Could……
How……
When…
Where……
How is green crime linked to
Globalisation?
Lesson Overview
Objectives: To know what impact globalisation has had on crime.
To understand the impact globalisation has had on crime.
To be able to evaluate sociological explanations of globalisation and crime.
Outcomes: -
Differentiated learning : Level of difficulty of key words used in activity
8 Questions
Literacy: VCOP
8 questions
SMSC: SMSC- What rights do all human beings have? (state crime)
Do humans have more rights than animals and the environment?
If so what are they? (consider within green crime)
How is green crime linked to
globalisation
Green crime is increasingly
seen as a form of global
crime for two reasons
REASON 1
The planet is a single
ecosystem in which
humans being ,other species
and the enviroment are
interconnected and
interdependant .
Harm done to other species
or aspects of the
enviroment such as air
,water supplies , the ocean
and the rainforest are seen
as increasingly impacting
negatively on on the quality
and future of humanlife
where ever it is in the world .
Reason 2 –why green crime is
linked to globalisation
• green crime is carried out by powerful
interests, particularly transnational
corporations such as oil and chemical
companies working with the co-operation of
nation states and local wealthy elites
Manufactured risks -Beck
• Many of the threats to our ecosystem cames
from manufactured risks and this is a result of
massive demand for consumer goods and
technology which has an effect on
us(humanity) but on our enviroment to.
• For example greenhouse gas emissions are
contributing to global warming and climate
change .
• We live in societies threatened by global risks
Policing green crime
Difficulty in policing green crime
1. Very few local or international laws
governing the state of the enviroment
. International laws difficult to
construct because not all countries
agree to sign up to global agreements
. For examples USA & China reluctant
to agree to meet international targets
to reduce carbon emissions .
2. Laws that exist are shaped by
powerful capitalists interests , esp
global ‘big business’. Gov in
developing countries to question and
take action against transnational
corporations because they are
dependant on them for their income .
Laws that do exist to protect
enviroment is often weak
Sociologial perspectives
Radical criminologist : Rob
White
• Green crime should be defined
as ‘any action that harms the
physical enviroment and any
creatures that live within it ,
even if no law has technically
been broken’
• Current laws are inconsistent
as they often different across
countries and biased as they
are influenced by businesses
who have vested interest in
harming the enviorment for
their own gain because the
business require that
Eco-centric vs anthropocentric
view of green crime
Eco-centric
Damage to the
enviroment is damage to
the other species as well
putting human race at risk
in the future
Anthropocentric (this is the
view of big business)
Humans have the right to
exploit the enviroment
and other species for their
own benefit .
White -argues that this capitalist ideology is
responsible for a great deal of enviormental harm
Key study : Nigel South –classifying
green crime
• Primary crime
• Direct result of the destruction
and degradation of the planets
resources
• Crimes of air pollution –
industrial carbon and
greenhouse gas emissions
• Crimes of deforestation-illegal
logging (you can further study
this in the handout povided )
• Crimes of species decline and
animal rights
• Crimes of fresh water abd
marine pollution such as iol
spillages
• Secondary crime
• Crimes that are a result of flouting
existing laws and regulations
• Dumping toxic waste-esp
developing world
• Breach of health and safety rules
causing disaster such as Bhopal
disaster
• Offloading products such as
pharmaceuticals onto third world
markets after they have been
banned on safety grounds in the
west
Evalaution of green criminology
• Green criminology recognises the
growing importance of
enviromental issues and
manufactured global risks
• It recognises the
interdependence of humans
,other species and the
enviroment
• However its focus on harm rather
than criminality means green
criminology is often accused of
being engaged with subjective
intrepetation rather than
objective scientific analysis and is
therefore biased.
Examiners notes
in relation to theory and methods
• Research methods
• Theory
• Operationalising means • It would make sense to
the measurement of
use green crime to
abstract concpets,
illustrate the crimogenic
Green crime is easy to
nature of capitalism . If
measure because it is
an exam essay tilte
legally defined but harm
focuses on Marxist
is more difficult
explnation of crime and
because it is a matter of
deviance
intrepetation
Examine some of the ways in which
green crime and globalisation may be
related. (12 marks)
Globalisation and crime in
cotemporary society
Human rights and state crime
Defintion of state crime & examples
• Illegal activties carried out by
the agents of the state such
as armed services, the secret
services ,civil servants ,the
police and prision services on
behalf of the government
and political leaders in the
name of state interests.
• Genocide ,ethnic cleansing ,
use of torture ,assasination
of political opponents
,supporting terrorists
activities against elected
governments and invading
less powerful states.
George Bush & Tony Blair
‘technically war criminals’
Discuss…
George Bush & Tony Blair
‘technically war criminals’
• USA and UK invaded Iraq to remove Saddam
Hussein from power
• Some argue this broken international laws as
they have not secured the agreement of the
international community via United Nations
Security
Eugene McLaughlin
• Censorship of the media and institutional racism
as state crimes
• Herman Schweindinger definitions of state crimes
should include also human rights crime ,violating
people’s right (human rights) should be defined
illegal and therefore is criminal . However his
definition is broad .
• He suggest is some groups are denied same opps
as the majority of the population on the basis of
racism,sexism and homphobia , or if they are
economically exploited results in unequal
conditions that are a results of crimes against
human rights
Disagreement over what counts as
state crimes
1. state crimes that is carried out by powerful
people or groups who can define their activies
as legitimate , this makes it difficult to measure
the extent of state crime .
2. Gov have the power to cover up such activities
and actually control the flow of information and
esp the media by issuing legal instructions to
prevent journalists for speaking about state
crimes in the ‘public interest’
Continued
• The powerful can define what counts as crime on
society . What is defined as crime or violence is an
ideological construct. E.g gov can define killing
done by a member of the public as a problem but
this would not apply if it is done by a soldier .
• This is ideological relativity –gov can decide who is
defined as terrorists or freedom fighter and what
counts as war crimes. E.g Holocaust =war crime but
dropping atom bomb in Japanese cities Hiroshima
and Nagasaki by the West is seen as necessary
Continued: Cohen
•
cohen critical of Schwendinger that •
state crime should include violating
human rights
• Genocide and torture are clearly
crimes but economic exploitation is
not clearly criminal but is morally •
unacceptable .
•
• There is not enough agreement
over what makes up human rights .
For example most people would
accept that freedom should be a
human right but not everyone
1.
would agree that freedom from
poverty is a right
2.
Difficult to find out extent of state crime
because of governments denial of their
actions or justifying their actions to cover
up their illegal acts .
E.g national interest
Those who carry out acts on behalf of gov
do not see themsleves as criminal they
use techniques of neutralization to deny
or justify crimes .
deny their victims by labelling them as
terrotists or extremists
They deny injury or damage by saying
the other side started it
3. deny responsibility by saying they were
simply following orders or doing their
duty
Cohen criticises Schwendinger
• Immorality is being
confused with
criminality
• He is taking a high
moral value position
attempting to impose
this view in the world of
criminology
• Links to whether
sociology should be
objective or subjective
• Schwendinger is clearly
in the other camp
Kelman and Hamilton –’crimes of
obedience’
• Socialised into believing it
is their duty to obey and
that their behaviour is
acceptable and necessary
because enemies are
animals and monsters to
which normal rule of
morality does not apply
• Critics of the concept of
state crimes argue that
the so called criminality
of state crime is
outweighed by the fact
that the act was
committed in the name of
national interests
• E.g necessary to go
beyond law in defeating
terrorism so assasination
and torture are
‘necessary evils
Examiners comments
theory and methods
• Methods
• Difficult to research
state crime we consider
ocs hiding conventional
crimes-dark figure of
crime but this is even
harder and acts as the
true dark figure of
crime
• The is a new area and
still evolving . It is
important to be
evaluative you may
have noctied how the
study of state crime is
relant on secondary
sources be aware of the
strenghts and
weaknesses of these.
Exam question