NCJ Number
230915
Date Published
2010
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This chapter analyzes "war as crime," focusing on the illegality perpetrated by invading states and the criminality of the private enterprises these states use in their military ventures.
Abstract
After an introductory discussion of corporate crime, the chapter documents the direct involvement of private companies in wars as private "security" services, armies, and the ambiguous enterprise called "conflict consultancy." The traits that war and corporate crime have in common are identified. In the concluding section, the definition of "war as corporate crime" is placed within the analytical framework of the more general topic of the crimes of the powerful. The chapter considers how torture, military invasion, secret flights, kidnappings by secret services, and the use of prohibited weapons indicate that the crimes committed by powerful actors rewrite international law and revise the principles of justice. The union of powerful corporate and political interests in conducting war provides the context for the threat that new norms and legislation will be established to legalize the violence and harms that are currently crimes.