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

welcome to this CH to Sociology topic video looking at crime in contemporary Society looking at some of the causes of State Crime as we've seen in our previous video on types of State Crime one of the biggest issues with defining State Crime is that many of these acts while harmful to individuals are often legitimized by

the state even in the most liberal of democracies while Most states are guilty of some form of State Crime and particularly when you examine world history you will see plenty of examples of this the most notorious forms of State Crime are often committed in countries with authoritarian regimes for example Nazi Germany Cambodia under Paul

Po pinese and Chile and the military JS in Argentina are examples of this but the more important question to ask and the basis of lots of research into State Crime is why do ordinary individuals carry out these acts on behalf of the state and this is an issue that became an important area of study in the social

sciences in the Years following World War I to and the Holocaust one Theory put forward to explain this was put forward by Theodor Dono a member of the Frankfurt School and a German Exile during World War II adoro put forward a theory that ordinary people were were not forced into committing these acts but rather

they were persuaded by the presence of an authoritarian personality in the instance of the Holocaust Hitler adoro suggested that it was a presence of an authoritarian leader that allowed Ordinary People to willingly obey their superiors regardless of the morality of the act one of adon's contempories Hannah arent cited the example of Adolf akikan