Crime in Contemporary Society - Types of State Crime | A-Level Sociology

welcome to this T to you sociology topic video looking at crime in contemporary Society focusing on types of State Crime as we know crime is a social construct as such what is defined as a crime changes from one nation to another which often makes it difficult to determine whether a state has committed a crime

against its people as the state makes the law they have the power to Define what is and what isn't a crime at the time that it is committed this has led many sociologists to adopt a Zoological approach to State crimes in other words focusing on the harm that is caused rather than the legality of the

actions however this approach has been criticized in some quarters for opposing a consensus of Western norms and values on the behavior of other nations so what is a State Crime well it can be defined as the actions taken by the state or its agents against its own citizens that break National or International law and this can be

extended to include the rights of non-nationals as well particularly in the cases of conflict between nations if we take the approach of zology a crime being defined as harm by the state on an individual then we should use transgressions against the individual's human rights as our measurement of a State Crime regardless of whether or not a nation considers the

ACT to be legal in the case of conflict breaches of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners would need to be considered as state crimes also while some argue that acting against the wishes of a supernational governmental organization such as the United Nations also constitutes a State Crime which opens up the actions of many