preview

Political, Crime, And Three Types Of Political Crime

Good Essays

Stage 1 paper Political crime is very different from other types of criminal activity, such as street or financial crime. It is hard to give a specific definition of political crime, and it is even more difficult to explain why it occurs. Many have tried to apply various criminological theories to the issue, but none have been able to fully explain why political crime occurs. There are also many different subsets of political crime that exist within two typologies, state and oppositional crimes. Overall, political crime is a complex issue that encompasses many different types of criminal activity, but only when they are committed by or against the state, with an ideological motivation. This paper will describe and analyze the existing definitions of political crime, explain the typologies of political crime that exist, and finally, it will describe the three types of political crime that I find most interesting. There are two definitions of political crime that are widely accepted today. The first is by Jeffery Ross, who defines it as “Crimes against the state (violations of law for the purpose of modifying or change social conditions) . . . [and] crimes by the state, both domestic (violations of law and unethical acts by state officials and agencies whose victimization occurs inside [a particular country]) and international (violations of domestic and international law by state officials and agencies whose victimization occurs outside the US).” (Ross 2012, p. 4) This

Get Access