Film Review

Piracy is far from a new phenomenon (with records of piracy dating back to the 1600s), yet over the course of the past decade, it has become a focus of the international political community. Drawing from Foucault and Gramsci, we suggest that the ‘problem’ of piracy today, in particular off the coast of Somalia, is framed in a discourse to reify and support a broader ‘regime of truth’ embedded in global state-corporate economic interests. We further suggest that equating the Somalia piracy to terrorism and as a global threat to peace and maritime security serves as the political discourse designed to legitimate militarized policy responses rather than addressing the underlying conditions in Somalia that are facilitating the instances of piracy. While piracy was once a state-organized crime committed for the purposes of capital accumulation, the current framing and overly militarized responses are based on protecting states’ capital interests rather than addressing the root of the problem at hand, inadvertently providing a venue under which the conditions and ongoing deterioration of the Somalia state not only continue but remain marginalized and unaddressed.     

The case of Bradley Manning: state victimization,realpolitik and WikiLeaks

While the case of WikiLeaks release of classified documents and its founder, Julian Assange, has garnered much popular attention, the formal social control reactions to the alleged involvement of Private First Class Bradley Manning has remained, relatively glaringly absent from the media, public and political discussions. Moreover, while scant criminological attention has been given to the extradition of Assange on sexual charges and the situation of WikiLeaks, there has been no analysis of the control mechanisms that were placed on Manning in an effort to cease the release of US documents and his activity as a whistle-blower. This examination fills this void by adding to the literature on states’ responses to whistle-blowers by highlighting states’ mechanisms including retaliation and redirection to obscure its criminality as well the theoretical framework of realpolitik. While realpolitik has been used previously to explain motivations for state crime, it has not been applied as an explanation for the implementation of controls. Not only is the preservation of state legitimacy and practices of realpolitik central to the reactions of the government to this case of whistle-blowing, but that the responses denied a presumption of innocence and have violated basic human rights tenants, the Uniform Code of Justice, the US Constitution, thus making this a case of state victimization.     

Books in review

He is author of over sixty articles for various journals. Among his books are Conservative Millenariansand The Search for Historical Meaning.     

That Was Then, This Is Now, What About Tomorrow? Future Directions in State Crime Studies

Research and theorizing on state crime has come to play an important role in the fields of criminology and criminal justice for understanding the worst of crimes: those of powerful state agencies and agents. Since William Chambliss’ (1989) ASC presidential address, scholars of state crime have made advances in theoretical modeling and analyzing core enactment and etiological factors of crimes of the state (e.g., Barak 1991; Friedrichs 1998; Grabosky 1989; Kauzlarich and Kramer 1998; Kramer and Michalowski 2005; Kramer et al. 2005; Michalowski and Kramer 2006; Mullins and Rothe 2008a, b; Pearce 1976; Ross 1995, 2000; Rothe 2009; Rothe and Mullins 2006, 2008). Nonetheless, the study of state crime still has a long way to go before it ever reaches the magnitude or legitimacy afforded to the study of traditional street crime. It is with this in mind that several leading scholars of state criminality have come together and reevaluated the state of state crime and the ways in which the field must move forward. This kind of inventory, where scholars examine the past, present and future of the field, is not without precedent. For example, almost a decade ago (Ross et al. 1999) explored the difficulty of conducting state crime research and made a series of recommendations on how it could be improved. Nearly 7 years later (Rothe and Friedrichs 2006) re-evaluated the state of state crime and called for more attention to those beyond US crimes of the state and include crimes of globalization and also international controls such as the International Criminal Court (Friedrichs and Friedrichs 2007; Rothe and Mullins 2006; Rothe et al. 2006, 2008). Since that time, there has been substantial movement by scholars of state crime in these other areas, yet, as we note, there still remains key issues that need to be addressed and overcome: it is with this that we again revisit the field of state crime. We wish to thank all of those that contributed to our discussions and thoughts during the American Society of Criminology Roundtable on State Crime I and II, November 2007.

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Facilitating corruption and human rights violations: the role of international financial institutions

The connection between corruption and the suppression of human rights has been recognized by scholars of human rights, state and state-corporate crime, non-governmental organizations, the United Nations as well as various governments. Scrutiny of governmental and/or regime corruption has been a primary focus, in relation to barriers and/or violations of human rights. Additionally, multinational companies’ complicity in corruptive policies and practices has raised concerns, in particular in the arms and natural resources sector. Glaringly absent, however, within the criminological literature are discussions of, and research on, the role of international financial institutions (IFIs) in relation to high levels of state corruption, save for the relatively little criminological research that has explored how cooperative endeavors between international financial institutions, transnational corporations, and states often result in demonstrably harmful activities as a result of structural adjustment policies. As such, it seems appropriate to consider how certain components and/or policies of IFIs facilitate rather than constrain corruptive practices by regimes, militias, paramilitaries, and transnational corporations. Such an exercise is not only important for its etiological contributions, but also to draw criminological attention to this phenomenon and because these organizations have stated a commitment to reducing state level corruption. I hope to extend the focus and insights of criminological analysis of crimes of globalization herein.     

Educating for safety

He has lectured widely on traffic safety. Among his books are The of Elderly Driversand Rethinking Young Drivers. He is editor of Challenging the Old Order: Towards New Directions in Traffic Safety Theory;all published by Transaction.