Political Crime

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Political Crime

• Political Crimes Against the State
• Domestic Political Crimes by the State
• In the News
• Theories

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Political Crimes Against the State

• Are violations of a law for the purpose of
  modifying or changing social conditions

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Political Crimes Against the State

• These crimes are different than other crimes
  because they are crimes for the purpose of
  improving a society on the behalf of a group or
  others not on personal gain.
• Class, race, gender, political party
• Political crimes are usually intended to be overt
  and public to draw media attention
• There is two types of Political Crimes Against
  the State
• Violent
• Non-Violent

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Violent Political Crimes

• Through-out the United States history there has
  been many examples of violent political crimes
• The Revolutionary War (1775-1783)
• Shays Rebellion
• The Farmers Rebellion
• The Haymarket Square in Chicago (1886)
• The struggle for 8 hour work day

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Violent Political Crimes

• When people think about violent political crimes
  they think of terrorism
• Terrorism is the use of force or violence to
  intimidate, coerce, or change a society or
  government.
• There is 3 types of terrorism
• Political Assassination
• Domestic terrorism
• International terrorism

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Political Assassination

• Political Assassination is the murder of a
  political leader
• Examples
• John Wilkes Booth murdered President Lincoln in
  1865 in support of slavery and the confederacy
• The assassination of President Kennedy was the
  most infamous murder of a political leader
  because of the conspiracies

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Domestic Terrorism

• Are violent crimes against the state by the
  citizens
• On April 19, 1995 we witnessed the worst act of
  domestic terrorism
• Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed the
  Alfred P. Murray Federal Building in Oklahoma
  City killing 168 people and injuring over 500
• They were the members of an antigovernment
  paramilitary right-wing militia group

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International Terrorism

• Violent crimes against the state by citizens of a
  different country
• The first bombing of the World Trade Center
• Killed 6 and injured over 1,000
• Was allegedly bombed to punish the United States
  for support of Israel
• 9/11
• To punish the US for its support of corrupt and
  authoritarian leaders in several Arab states and
  our Western values

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Non-Violent Political Crimes Against the State

• Most crimes against the state are non-violent
• There is two main types of non-violent crimes
• Civil Disobedience and Demonstrations
• Anti-globalization

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Civil Disobedience

• Civil disobedience or the refusing to obey
  certain laws because they are seen as unjust
• Using civil disobedience to protest by
  demonstrations or sit-ins
• Example Martin Luther King Jr.s civil rights
  movement of the early 1960s

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Anti-Globalization

• Is a movement of challenging the negative aspects
  of globalization
• Spying is a form of anti-globalization
• There are many different spies and they are
  categorized by their motivation
• Mercenary spies
• Ideology spies
• Alienated/ egocentric spies
• Buccaneer Spy
• Computer Spying

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Anti-globalization

• Mercenary Spies are the most common and provide
  intelligence secrets to a foreign government for
  monetary gain
• Ideological Spies provide secrets to foreign
  governments because of strong political or
  ideological beliefs
• Alienated/ Egocentric Spies provide secrets to a
  foreign government because they want revenge
  against the US or government agency
• Buccaneer Spy provides secrets to a foreign
  government for adventure and for excitement
• Computer Spying is a growing issue which involves
  the ability to spy into anothers computer system
  and hack their information

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Political Crime by the State

• Domestic Political crimes by the state are
  violations of law and unethical conduct by state
  officials or agencies whose victimization occurs
  with in the boundaries of the United States.

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Types of Crime

• State Corruption- is illegal or unethical use of
  state authority for personal or political gain.
• Political Repression- is illegal or unethical
  conduct by state officials or agences for
  purposes of repressing domestic political
  dissent.
• State Corporate Crime- is illegal or socially
  harmful behavior that occurs at the intersection
  of state agencies and private corporations

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State Corruption

• Political Bribery
• Election Fraud-
• The Gore Ballets of 2000 in the state of Florida,
  which Bush ended up winning.
• Corrupt Campaign Practices

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State Political Repression

• FBI and CIA
• CIA opening and photographing mail of private
  citizens.
• Illegally searching and confiscating documents.
• Installing illegal surveillance devices.

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State Corporate Crime

• 2 Types of state corporate crime
• When a state agency utilizes a private
  corporation to achieve a state goal in an illegal
  or socially harmful way.
• When omissions by a state agency allow a private
  corporation to pursue illegal or socially harmul
  acuts.

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State Corporate Crime

• 1986 Space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds
  after take off.
• Used Morton Thiokol to launch the shuttle despite
  evidence it was unsafe to do so.
• 1991 a fire in Imperial Food Products. Killed 25
  employees and injured another 56.
• Caused by many policies being side stepped by
  OSHA.

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In The News

• Violent political crimes against the state
• September 11, 2001
• 4 US commercial planes hijacked
• 2 flew into the World Trade Center Buildings
• 1 into the Pentagon Building
• 1 crashed into a field which was believed to be
  heading towards the White House Mass murder
  killing
• 3000 as well as mass suicide of 19 hijackers
• Osama Bin Laden mastermind
• Motive?

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In the News Continued

• Nonviolent political crimes against the state
• Animal Liberation Front
• People who fight to protect the rights of animals
• They release animals used for testing or being
  abused
• Puppy mills, cosmetic companiesetc

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Lastly

• Domestic political crimes against the state
• Election fraud
• Mark D. Tate
• Virginia State Senate Candidate
• Allegedly made misstatements on campaign finance
  reports

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Theories

• Conflict theory
• The political process of law making, law breaking
  and law enforcement becomes a direct reflection
  of deep-seated and fundamental conflicts between
  interest groups and their more general struggle
  for the control of the police power of the state.
• Vold says crime is a behavior committed by
  minority groups whose regular actions and goals
  have not been secured by legislative process.
• Those who reject the majority view tend to be
  criminalized

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Richard Quinneys Conflict Theory of Crime

• Society is divided along political lines. Persons
  become criminal when others define their behavior
  as such.
• Criminal definitions exist because the interests
  of some groups of society are in conflict with
  the interests of other groups. According to
  Quinney, the greater the degree of social
  conflict, the more likely it is that those in
  power will criminalize the behavior of the
  powerless groups that conflict with their
  interests.(p389)
• The content of laws and their application tend to
  reflect the interests of the powerful because the
  powerful typically control or manipulate members
  of law enforcement and judicial machinery.

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Tittles Theory of Control Balance

• The amount of control to which an individual is
  subject, relative to the amount of control he or
  she can exercise, determines the probability of
  deviance occurring and also what type.
• Control balance will result in conformity
• Control surplus and control deficit are likely to
  result in criminal behavior.(p421)

• Predation- acts of direct physical violence,
  manipulation of property extraction
• Exploitation acts of indirect predation ie.
  price-fixing, unsafe work places, contract
  killings
• Defiance acts of hostility or contempt for
  social norms including vandalism, political
  protests, bring the actor no obvious benefit.
• Plunder acts of autocratic behavior, rarely
  committed with an awareness of their harmfulness
  ie. ethnic cleansing, destruction of the
  environment
• Decadence acts of undisciplined excess
• Submission- acts in which one allows oneself to
  be physically abused (p420)

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References

• Beirne, Piers. Messerschmidt, James. (2007,
  February 8). Criminology 4th Edition. Oxford
• University Press, USA.
• Burbaker, B. (2008, January 25). Fraud Charges
  Filed Against Ex-Candidate Circuit Court Judge
  Dropped Similar Actions in October. The
  Washington Post, pp. B5.
• CPJ Freedom Press Online. 2008. CPJ Calls for
  Release of Imprisoned Journalists. New York, NY
  Committee to Protect Journalists, Retrieved
• April 28, 2008.
• (http//www.cpj.org/news/2008/asia/china31ja
  n08na.html)