1st Edition
Towards a Victimology of State Crime
Millions of people have been victimized by the actions and omissions of states and governments. This collection provides expert analyses of such victimizations across the world, from Europe, the United States, and Africa to New Zealand and South America. Leading scholars in the area of state crime describe the nature, extent, and distribution of state crime victimization, as well as theoretical and practical paths for understanding, explaining, and aiding victims of massive harms by governments.
Cases of state crime and state victimization are presented on Brazilian, Native American, and New Zealand children, Somalian Pirates, Columbian, South African, and Bosnian civilians, United States immigrants, and war crime victimization in World War II. Other chapters delve into formal and informal ways to address victimization through the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court, and provide analyses of justice processes around the world.
This anthology bridges the latest thinking, theory and research in the fields of state crime and victimology and provides a general resource concerning basic issues related to victimization - particularly victims of state crime. As such, it fills a major gap in the literature by providing the first text and scholarly book focused solely on a victimology of state crime. This book is essential reading for undergraduates, postgraduates, socio-legal jurists and academics with an interest in state crime and victimology.
Part I. State Crimes, Harms, and Victimizations, 1. A Victimology of State Crime, Dawn L. Rothe and David Kauzlarich 2. The Victimization of Street Children in Brazil, Fernanda Fonseca Rosenblatt, 3. Accumulating Atrocities: Capital, State Killing and the Cultural Life of the Dead, Tyler Wall and Travis Linneman, 4. The Victimization of Children in State-Run Homes in New Zealand, Elizabeth Stanley, 5. Somali Pirates: Victims or Perpetrators or Both?, Victoria Ellen Collins, 6. Victimizing the Undocumented: Immigration Policy and Border Enforcement as State Crime, Raymond Michalowski and Lisa Hardy, 7. "Death Flies Down": The Bombing of Civilians and the Paradox of International Law, Ronald C. Kramer and Amanda Marie Smith, 8 State Crime and the Re-Victimization of Displaced Populations: The Case of Haiti, Victoria Ellen Collins, 9. Victimisation during and after war: empirical findings from Bosnia, Stephan Parmentier and Elmar Weitekamp, Part II: Responses to State Crime Victimization, 10. European Court of Human Rights – accountability to whom?, Isabel Schoultz, 11. The victims of the Colombian conflict and restorative justice, Isabella Bueno and Andrea Diaz Rozas, 12. Institutional and Structural Victimisation: Apartheid South Africa, Robert Peacock, 13. Controlling State Crime and the Possibility of Creating More Victims, Jeffrey Ian Ross and Peter Grabosky, 14. Can an International Criminal Justice System Address Victims’ Needs?, Dawn L. Rothe.
Biography
Dawn L. Rothe is an Associate Professor at Old Dominion University and the director of the International State Crime Research Consortium. She is the author or co-author of four other books and over four dozen peer reviewed articles and book chapters dealing with the topics of state crime, corporate crime, and international institutions of control.
David Kauzlarich is Professor of Sociology at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. He is the author of several books and articles on state crime, criminology, and sociological theory. He has been given several honours for both his teaching and research.
This book is long overdue. Rothe and Kauzlarich expose the most pervasive forms of victimization, and have given voice to the millions of people that have been victimized by states. States, since their inception, have had a monopoly on violence and oppression. This book demands our attention.
Rick Matthews, Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Carthage College, USA.
Towards a Victimology of State Crime is a book long overdue in the evolving field of state crime. Dawn Rothe and David Kauzlarich have assembled an outstanding team of experts to advance our understanding of state violence and highlight the victimization that is all too often glossed over or ignored in the state crime literature. By placing a spotlight on the experiences of victims of state crime and further illuminating the causes and consequences of state-sanctioned violence, Rothe and Kauzlarich have laid the foundation for significant progress in the empirical and theoretical realms of explaining state criminality and victimization.
Dr. Emily Lenning, Assistant Professor, Fayetteville State University, USA.
State crime exacts a significant human toll; it destroys communities and burdens entire generations. Yet criminologists have devoted very little attention to the experience and struggle of state crime’s victims. Consequently, Towards a Victimology of State Crime is a timely and important intervention. Its rigorous and stimulating range of international case studies – composed by leading scholars in the field – will help push victimology debates in the right direction.
Dr Kristian Lasslett, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Ulster and member of the International State Crime Initiative’s Executive Board, Ireland, UK.
In pulling together this excellent collection of essays on state crimes and victimization from around the globe, Rothe and Kauzlarich have not only helped to fill a gap in the existing literature, by connecting these two areas of criminological theory and practice, but they have also provided a launching pad for navigating the complexities of state crime victimization.
Gregg Barak, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Eastern Michigan University, USA.
