10.2.5

Types of Crimes

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Green Crime

South claims there are two types of green crime: primary and secondary green crime.

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Primary green crimes

  • Air pollution:
    • Walters claims that twice as many people die from air pollution induced illnesses compared to 20 years ago. 
  • Deforestation:
    • Between 1960 and 1990, 1/5 of the Amazon Rainforest was destroyed.  
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Primary green crimes cont.

  • Water pollution:
    • Half a billion people lack access to clean drinking water.
    • 25 million people die annually from drinking contaminated water.
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Secondary green crimes

  • State violence against oppositional groups:
    • In 1985, the French government attacked a Greenpeace ship named the ‘Rainbow Warrior’ in New Zealand because it was blocking the testing of nuclear weapons in the region.  
  • Disposal of toxic waste:
    • To safely dispose of toxic waste, organisations and governments.
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Anthropocentric views

  • White suggests that the law protects the offenders more than the environment because humans have an ‘anthropocentric' world view.
  • This means that humans tend to believe that they have the right to dominate the planet and therefore are more important than all other species. 
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Ecocentric views

  • The opposite approach would be to take an ‘ecocentric’ world view.
  • This approach suggests that individuals should see humans as being part of a larger ecosystem and therefore equally important to other species and the environment.

Human Rights and State Crimes 

Green and Ward define state crimes as ‘illegal or deviant activities perpetuated by, or with the complicity of, state agencies’.

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State crimes

  • Green and Ward define state crimes as ‘illegal or deviant activities perpetuated by, or with the complicity of, state agencies’.
  • McLaughlin argues that the scale of state crime is huge and this is due to the power that governments hold.
  • The state makes the law and as a result they can conceal their own actions.
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Adorno

  • Adorno discuss the authoritarian personality theory, and claims that individuals follow the orders of their superiors, without question.
  • This commonly occurs during war, according to Adorno, which may explain why usually law-abiding citizens can become capable of committing awful acts.
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Nazi Germany

  • Adorno uses the example of Nazi Germany and argues that the authoritarian personality of Hitler led to the horrific war crimes committed by the Nazis.

Jump to other topics

1Theory & Methods

2Education with Methods in Context

3Option 1: Culture & Identity

4Option 1: Families & Households

5Option 1: Health

6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare

7Option 2: Beliefs in Society

8Option 2: Global Development

9Option 2: The Media

10Crime & Deviance

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