Moving Beyond Abstract Typologies? Overview of State and State-Corporate Crime

Abstract

The core focus of politicians, citizens, and the majority of criminologists continues to be on the most banal forms of lawbreaking street crimes. Yet state crimes occur vastly more often and are portentously harmful and costly—socially, politically, economically, culturally, and environmentally. As such, I suggest having a foundation for understanding and identifying what are often hidden “crimes” is as pertinent, if not more so today, as we continue to hear daily of atrocities, antitrust violations, tainted products, collusion, price gouging, crimes against humanity, human rights violations, to name just a few, by states and corporations. In addition, the topics covered in this special issue should not be seen as distinct, but rather as part of the overall broader system of power, neoliberalism, and the perpetuation of the inept status quo.

The Gambling Act 2005 and the (De)regulation of Commercial Gambling in Britain: A State-Corporate Harm

“…Yet, disconcertingly there appears to be a general lack of public and political awareness of the harms caused by gambling. Thus, as Rothe (2020: 12) has highlighted when discussing crime and harm more broadly, gambling-related harm is not only entrenched in neoliberalism but the ‘corrosive consumer culture . .…”

Crimes estatais-corporativos e violações de direitos humanos: um ensaio sobre a relação simbiótica entre Estados e corporações

“…As alterações significativas nas relações entre mercado, Estado e sociedade, e a divisão internacional do trabalho (Alamgir & Banerjee, 2019) possibilitam que o nexo mercado-estado continue a pavimentar o caminho para práticas de acumulação que resultam em violência (Banerjee, 2018). Em contrapartida, desde meados da década de 1970, o Estado atua, cada vez mais, como espectador, facilitador e conspirador na materialização do crime estatal-corporativo (Tombs & Whyte, 2020), um fenômeno que permanece em contínua produção e reprodução, amparado na banalidade da vida cotidiana neoliberal, cujas condições estão articuladas para facilitar e legitimar sua ocorrência (Rothe, 2020).…”

State Crime, Native Americans and COVID-19

“…Others use the term state-produced harm rather than state crime to describe policies and practices that may not be overtly illegal but perhaps should be, due to the degree to which they are injurious (Tombs 2018;Carlson 2020). A harms focus can be useful in identifying how those in power often engage in acts of omission (Rothe 2020), as is the case with the US and its relationship to AI/NA peoples.…”