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Critical Criminology as a Guardian of Human Rights: An Action-Based Model

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Abstract

Too often, human rights are treated as an unconditional good and thus beyond politics. Yet human rights have always existed within an identified political context. Today, this context is neoliberalism. However, while criminologists often allude to various shortcomings of international human rights and humanitarian law, little consideration has been given to the neoliberal undercurrents of contemporary human rights discourse and practice. This article argues that neoliberalism and the human rights movement exist in a symbiotic, co-constitutive relationship. Against the neoliberal hold on human rights, the article points to an alternative political foundation, Action-Based Human Rights. The action-based model aims to be a platform for resistance and to root human rights in action and opportunities for agency and self-representation. The article suggests a preliminary path to how criminologists can begin to advance this alternative.

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Notes

  1. Cohen has noted that during the 1980s he gradually moved “from ‘doing’ criminology to ‘doing’ human rights” (1993: 97). See also Garland’s remark that “an engagement with human rights is essential for twenty first century criminology that aspires to depth and relevance” (Murphy and Whitty 2013 [abstract]).

  2. For a review of these studies, see Ross (2015a: 495).

  3. The book focuses of victims and victimology of state crime.

  4. The book provides a comprehensive review of state crime literature and in addition addresses the connection between neoliberalism and state crimes: 3–17; 65–74.

  5. Some scholars have proposed a new field of study dedicated to social harm, zemiology, derived from the Greek word zemia (harm or damage).

  6. Kauzlarich et al. suggest that international law should serve as the epistemological framework for the study of state crimes (1998: 51).

  7. For a good review of human rights in criminology, see Murphy and Whitty (2013).

  8. As Bassiouni writes, international human rights law and humanitarian law, in their current form, are incomplete, meaning that they do not guarantee all necessary protections for human rights (2011: 1).

  9. Public apathy also plays a role in this process. See Cohen (1993, 2001).

  10. Jameson, in his analysis of the cultural logic of late capitalism (what he sees as the essence of postmodernism), asserts that this era is ruled by the superficial, the image and the symptom (1991: 9).

  11. For a good review see Zachary (2017): 164.

  12. This argument builds on human capital theory.

  13. For a good review see Alston (2013).

  14. I use the term “late modernity” because it is a well-known idiom, particularly in the field of criminology (Garland 2001). Bauman originally spoke of “postmodernity” (Bauman 1987) and of “fluid modernity” (Bauman 2000: 23), which ultimately became “liquid modernity” (ibid.).

  15. Ronald Reagan v. Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (Patco).

  16. Moyn takes this position too in his later article “Torture and Taboo: On Elaine Scarry” (2013). Moreover, Amnesty International was unwilling to adopt Nelson Mandela as a political prisoner because he refused to renounce the use of violence (Perugini and Gordon 2015: 3).

  17. The junta’s regime, Klein reminds us, and not just in Argentina, was supported by leading Chicago School economists (Klein 2007: 118; Marks 2011b: 58).

  18. See also Rancière (2004: 297–298).

  19. In fact, defining human rights as an unconditional good is something of a tautology: the reason they are valid and just is that they are valid and just (De Sousa 2015).

  20. Of course the balance of power in the world has had great impact on the establishment and framing of international law.

  21. “Sovereignty is, at the same time, the authority to decide at any given moment what is the governing law” (Ophir 2003: 360).

  22. Ross offers a heuristic model for controlling crimes of the powerful and not just state crimes.

  23. For a list of studies, see Friedrichs (2009: 8). For a good review see Rothe (2009–2010).

  24. I thank the anonymous reviewer for this observation.

  25. I.e., actions that restrict access to social benefits: food, shelter, health, education, etc.

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Acknowledgements

The author wish to thank Itamar Mann for all his helpful comments.

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  1. School of Criminology, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel

    Yoav Mehozay

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Mehozay, Y. Critical Criminology as a Guardian of Human Rights: An Action-Based Model. Crit Crim 26, 149–168 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-018-9392-0

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