Identifying Cross-National Predictors of State-Sponsored Violence

• In Event: State and Political Crime

Abstract

Cross-national analyses of state-sponsored violence have focused primarily on terrorism or political repression, with much less attention paid to the breadth of activities that constitute state violence. Using quantitative data from a number of sources, including the World Health Organization, CIRIGHTS, Global Assassination Monitor, Varieties of Democracy, and the United Nations, our research contributes to cross-national comparisons of state violence in three ways. First, we aim to describe the geographic distributions of under-researched state crimes, including assassination, extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, police violence against civilians, and political imprisonment. Next, we test the extent to which established predictors of interpersonal violence derived from criminological theories can explain cross-national variations in state violence. Finally, we demonstrate how economic and political factors that are largely overlooked by criminologists, such as state capitalism, praetorianism, corporate-state relationships, and elite governance, are necessary to understand the prevalence and manifestations of state-sponsored violence.

Author

• Janet Stamatel, University of Kentucky