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Crimes of the Powerful (Level 6)

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
  • Convenor: Dr Sappho Xenakis
  • Assessment: a 4000-word essay (100%)

Module description

Long-standing debates exist within criminology about the scope and subject matter of state crime. The debates are reflected in the polarity of definitions of the concept, which locate breaches of the law by states at one end of the spectrum, and definitions based on non-statutory breaches of human rights at the other. How could the state be a criminal actor when legally it is the state itself that defines criminal behaviour by making and enforcing the law?

In other words, it could only be criminal on those rare occasions when it denounces itself for breaking its own laws. Yet, if criminology is to develop as a discipline that studies and analyses criminal, violent, abusive and deviant behaviours, then it is necessary to include state criminality in its field, on the grounds that the consequences of state crimes are more widespread and destructive than those of conventional crimes.

In this module we critically explore the definition and nature of state crime in criminological and political discourse. You will gain a critical understanding of:

  • the nature of the state
  • the scale and type of crimes committed by state agents and agencies
  • the definitional processes involved in the state labelling acts as criminal
  • the forces which explain why and how states enter into deviant or 'criminal' practices and omissions.

A range of crimes will be explored in both the domestic and international spheres.

Indicative syllabus

  • The power elite, human rights, and criminal law: scholarly and legal frameworks for understanding crimes of the powerful
  • Terrorism, states and corporations
  • The business of state torture practices
  • War crimes and power elites
  • Genocide, states, and corporations
  • Environmental and ecological crimes of the powerful
  • Economic crimes of the powerful
  • Resisting crimes of the powerful: infrastructures, actors, and trajectories
  • Prosecution and punishment of crimes of the powerful

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will understand the extensiveness and complexity of state-corporate relations enabling crimes of the powerful, as well as the institutional, legal and activist frameworks that challenge them.

More specifically you will:

  • have knowledge of how crimes committed by powerful actors have been understood and explained by criminologists
  • be able to critically analyse, evaluate and compare a range of theoretical approaches
  • be able to identify strengths, weaknesses, values and limitations in current approaches to criminology
  • appreciate the importance of social and cultural contexts for understanding crimes.