Home as a Site of State‐Corporate Violence: Grenfell Tower, Aetiologies and Aftermaths

Abstract

Focusing on the aftermaths and consequences of the Grenfell Tower fire, this article reveals the factors which combined to produce a fire that could have such devastating effects. Further, it delineates the discrete ways in which distinct types of harms -physical, emotional and psychological, cultural and relational, and financial and economic -continue to be produced by a combination of State and corporate acts and omissions. Some of these harms are readily apparent, others are opaque and obscured. It concludes by showing how failures to mitigate these factors constitute one manifestation of the more general phenomenon of 'social murder'.While research, writing and activism around the phenomena of corporate and State crime have burgeoned since they first reached mainstream academic attention in the 1960s, such crimes remain relatively obscured by the crimes of the usual suspects. This is despite the fact that corporate and State crimes and harms kill, injure, defraud, and poison many, many more people than so-called conventional crimes; moreover, they often do so relatively silently, with their role and mutual complicity rarely becoming apparent and, if attaining visibility, are rarely brought within the purview of crime, let alone violent crime (Tombs and Whyte 2015). Finally, if curiously, they are rarely exposed in relation to 'the home'.Here I cast a critical lens on a recent atrocity -the fire at Grenfell Tower in West London -and examine how we might focus on this as an instance of State-corporate violence. In indicating the ways in which a combination of State and corporate acts and omissions resulted in a fire producing a range of social harms, I bring to the fore how 'home' can be the site of State-corporate criminality and harm.The article begins by setting out some of the key parameters of corporate crime, then State-corporate crime, before indicating why, and how, many of these are best understood as crimes of violence. The main sections of 120 C

Fast Fashion: A Case of Social Harm and State‐Corporate Crime

“…While corporate crime is a broad term, covering a plethora of offences, Tombs and Whyte (2015) list the following four types: financial theft and fraud (financial services fraud), crimes against consumers (food crimes), crimes against workers (safety crimes) and crimes against the environment (air pollution). Corporations do not exist in a vacuum; their harmful or even criminal activities are often enabled by their relationships with the state, which legitimises (by not regulating their practices) or turns a blind eye to their activities (by not enforcing existing laws) (Tombs 2020). State crimes are, on the other hand, acts that cause material, physical or social harm to individuals as a result of government policies, whether these harms are intentional or unintentional (Barak 1991).…”

“…As with the diseases experienced by workers described above, these accidents prevent the workers from maintaining a state of health that would allow them to live an active and prosperous life (Doyal and Gough 1991, p.54). More than 1,100 dead garment workers and 2,500 injured is a tragic event in itself, but such a disaster propels further harmful consequences that unfold in ripples, spreading geographically and longitudinally (Tombs 2020). In an astute analysis of harm that resulted from the fire and collapse of the Grenfell Tower in West London in 2017, Tombs (2020) lists some of these ripple effects as: airborne toxins, the heightened likelihood of drug and alcohol dependency as a result of the trauma of the fire, various mental health problems, such as stress, post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety.…”

“…More than 1,100 dead garment workers and 2,500 injured is a tragic event in itself, but such a disaster propels further harmful consequences that unfold in ripples, spreading geographically and longitudinally (Tombs 2020). In an astute analysis of harm that resulted from the fire and collapse of the Grenfell Tower in West London in 2017, Tombs (2020) lists some of these ripple effects as: airborne toxins, the heightened likelihood of drug and alcohol dependency as a result of the trauma of the fire, various mental health problems, such as stress, post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety. Furthermore, financial costs of health treatments and loss of employment have a negative impact on the well‐being of the workers affected and their whole families as well.…”

Towards a Criminology of the Domestic

“…The potential for crime victims to feel additionally violated if an offence occurs domestically is increased if the range of types of offences that can be played out in that environment widens ever further. As Tombs's (2020) contribution to this issue indicates, corporate crimes, even – potentially manslaughter – are committed in the domestic environment. The sale of goods that are unsafe and dangerous and pose ongoing threats in the home has been a significant challenge in recent times and draws our attention to ways in which the danger of physical harm are present in domestic environments.…”

“…The ‘State‐corporate violence’ that Tombs (2020) outlines victimises people in their domestic environment. Such practices often have a disproportionate impact on poor and marginalised communities such as those living in environments where traffic pollution, for example, causes harm to health as well as raising criminogenic risks in more traditional terms (Lynch, Stretesky and Long 2018).…”