Hurricane Katrina Victimization as a State Crime of Omission |
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Authors: | Kelly L Faust David Kauzlarich |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Sociology, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5257, USA;(2) Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL 62026, USA |
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Abstract: | Several popular narratives assign responsibility to a host of political officials on the local, state, and federal levels
for the excess human suffering stemming from Hurricane Katrina. The three main goals of this article are to (1) summarize
these claims and situate them within the burgeoning literature on state crime in criminology, (2) discern what victims of
the hurricane subjectively identify as the source(s) of their victimization, and (3) compare the latter and the former in
order to demonstrate the appropriateness of conceptualizing the excess suffering of Hurricane Katrina victims as a state crime
of omission. We explore these three subjects through documentary analysis and interviews with thirteen victims of Hurricane
Katrina. Major findings are that all of the interviewees express profound dissatisfaction with various state actions and inactions
before, during, and after Katrina in ways consistent with the documentary and polling data. This constellation of similar
claims and evidence along with the obvious social injury caused by multiple state failures provide the basis for conceptualizing
governmental negligence in the context of Katrina as a state crime of omission.
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