Abstract
Criminological scholarship has long recognized that small arms are trafficked through large and complex international networks that involve a multitude of different actors. These actors include different buyers, sellers, brokers, intermediaries, corporations, and most importantly states. Despite this recognition, there has been little research on the duality of the role of states that are both perpetrators and controllers of this crime. Here we analyze the court transcripts and media accounts of the prosecution of notorious arms trafficker Viktor Bout. In doing so, we show that arms trafficking prosecutions fit within the realm of neo-liberal crime control policies where the focus is hyper-individualism and the protection of state legitimacy, which allows for the maintenance of a flourishing arms market.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the School of Justice Studies Research Program at Eastern Kentucky University. We would like to thank both Dr. Dawn Rothe and Dr. Gary Potter for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this paper.
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Collins, V.E., Pujol, M. Secrets Exposed?: Selective State Concern and the Prosecution of Notorious Arms Trafficker Viktor Bout. Crit Crim 24, 93–109 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-015-9281-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-015-9281-8