Dangerous Deals: A Theoretical Approach to Criminogenic Policies

• In Event: State Crime and Beyond

Abstract

State criminologists have recently turned much of their attention to international crimes. Internationally, states may be the perpetrator of a crime while citizens of another state bear the socially harmful consequences. Often times two or more states are involved in the commission of these crimes, including the state(s) where citizens are subjected to social harm, through the bilateral or multilateral deals that are made. This paper provides an integrated theoretical framework – borrowing from the state-corporate crime literature, world-systems analysis, social structure of accumulation theory, theories of legitimacy, and theories of violence - for studying multi-state policy (e.g. treaties, declarations, conventions, charters) creation and their criminogenic outcomes, particularly bilateral state agreements between developed and developing countries. Due to the imbalance in power among the agreement negotiations, the most disadvantaged populations in the developing country are expected to face the most negative consequences of the policy implementation. For example, the U.S. and Colombia agreement, Plan Colombia, is a well-known example of a bilateral agreement that has had negative human right outcomes. Since Colombia has received U.S. aid to combat drug cartels, a host of human rights violations have occurred including aerial fumigation of legal crops, death squad activity, torture, forced disappearances, etc.

Author

• Daniel Patten, Western Michigan University