Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant Professor. Department of Law. Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economics. University of Isfahan. Isfahan. Iran
10.22059/jqclcs.2026.412983.2078
Abstract
In the late 1980s, criminology became so entrenched in extreme truth-seeking, theoretical crisis, and the endless competition of theories that it required a dramatic transformation to survive. To solve this problem, criminologists, distancing themselves from modern paradigms, have opened their arms to perspectives that seek the future of criminology in the reconciliation of theories without theoretical competition and extreme simplification. Thus, integrative criminology was born. One of the strategies through which integrative criminology seeks to make criminological theories more profitable is the combination of criminological theories, which is referred to as an integrated theory approach. Despite some criticism, this approach was gradually adopted, and integrated theories were born one after another. However, like other criminological theories, most of the integrated theories in the field of street crime were made, and the integrated analysis of different types of white-collar crimes was ignored. One of the white-collar crimes that suffers from the lack of integrated theory is the violation of fundamental human rights by the governmental organization, which is called state crimes. The characteristics of these crimes, such as being organizational, complex, and related to the power structure, are such that they cannot be explained in just one dimension. Thus, there is no choice but to integrate different theories to explain the state crimes. To achieve this goal, we can use some mainstream criminology theories, such as opportunity, labeling, control theories, neutralization and anomie techniques, as well as critical theories, like Marxist and Structural criminology. Accordingly, by integrating the main propositions of these theories, one can explain state crimes in the form of an opportunistic process. The proposed theory focuses primarily on structural factors affecting the state crime. These factors include the political structure (with totalitarian and authoritarian rule), the ideology of the ruling class (supremacy arising from nationality, religion, class) and the economic structure (command or Free Market Economy) that provide the basis for state crimes by creating the necessary incentives to commit them, such as community control, ideological control, economic interests and control. In the next stage, in the absence of barriers and control, the government will be in an Institutional anomie and will not refrain from taking any action to achieve its goals. If there are control mechanisms, the government uses neutralization and labeling techniques to overcome them. Ultimately, conditions such as ignorance, civic indifference, non-participation, fear of government, and obedience will contribute to the state crimes. When the government achieves its goals by committing state crimes, and there is no reaction against it, it will commit these crimes again through behavioral reinforcement. Repeating state crimes over and over again means that the government has learned to commit crimes against citizens and has made it as a behavioral trait for itself.
In the late 1980s, criminology became so entrenched in extreme truth-seeking, theoretical crisis, and the endless competition of theories that it required a dramatic transformation to survive. To solve this problem, criminologists, distancing themselves from modern paradigms, have opened their arms to perspectives that seek the future of criminology in the reconciliation of theories without theoretical competition and extreme simplification. Thus, integrative criminology was born. One of the strategies through which integrative criminology seeks to make criminological theories more profitable is the combination of criminological theories, which is referred to as an integrated theory approach. Despite some criticism, this approach was gradually adopted, and integrated theories were born one after another. However, like other criminological theories, most of the integrated theories in the field of street crime were made, and the integrated analysis of different types of white-collar crimes was ignored. One of the white-collar crimes that suffers from the lack of integrated theory is the violation of fundamental human rights by the governmental organization, which is called state crimes. The characteristics of these crimes, such as being organizational, complex, and related to the power structure, are such that they cannot be explained in just one dimension. Thus, there is no choice but to integrate different theories to explain the state crimes. To achieve this goal, we can use some mainstream criminology theories, such as opportunity, labeling, control theories, neutralization and anomie techniques, as well as critical theories, like Marxist and Structural criminology. Accordingly, by integrating the main propositions of these theories, one can explain state crimes in the form of an opportunistic process. The proposed theory focuses primarily on structural factors affecting the state crime. These factors include the political structure (with totalitarian and authoritarian rule), the ideology of the ruling class (supremacy arising from nationality, religion, class) and the economic structure (command or Free Market Economy) that provide the basis for state crimes by creating the necessary incentives to commit them, such as community control, ideological control, economic interests and control. In the next stage, in the absence of barriers and control, the government will be in an Institutional anomie and will not refrain from taking any action to achieve its goals. If there are control mechanisms, the government uses neutralization and labeling techniques to overcome them. Ultimately, conditions such as ignorance, civic indifference, non-participation, fear of government, and obedience will contribute to the state crimes. When the government achieves its goals by committing state crimes, and there is no reaction against it, it will commit these crimes again through behavioral reinforcement. Repeating state crimes over and over again means that the government has learned to commit crimes against citizens and has made it as a behavioral trait for itself.
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