State crime, human rights and the limits of criminology

Part of a special section on race, class, and state crime. The writers strive to propose how criminology can remedy its neglect of the important phenomenon of state crime without adopting such a broad definition of “crime” as to destroy what coherence criminology has as a distinct field of study. In...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Green, Penny J. (Author) ; Ward, Tony 1957- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2000
In: Social justice
Year: 2000, Volume: 27, Issue: 1, Pages: 101-115
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Keywords:
Description
Summary:Part of a special section on race, class, and state crime. The writers strive to propose how criminology can remedy its neglect of the important phenomenon of state crime without adopting such a broad definition of “crime” as to destroy what coherence criminology has as a distinct field of study. In order to evaluate the universality of their approach, they draw on examples from two different state traditions, Anglo-American and Turkish. They note that their definition permits them to analyze countries as diverse as Turkey and the U.K. from the viewpoint of a continuum rather than as two discrete, incomparable state formations—authoritarian and democratic. They demonstrate how “crime” can be defined independently of the state by using the concepts of human rights and deviance, which can be linked by the concept of legitimacy.