Crimes of the State: The Persecution and Protection of Refugees

Author: Pickering Sharon  

Publisher: Springer Publishing Company

ISSN: 1205-8629

Source: Critical Criminology, Vol.13, Iss.2, 2005-01, pp. : 141-163

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Abstract

When refugees arrive at the borders and on the shores of the Global North they are increasingly criminalised and subject to a range of law and order type rhetoric and practices. This paper outlines an alternative criminological engagement with the condition of refugeehood that shifts the focus from the refugee to the practices of the state. First, it splices definitions of state crime with the highly legalistic refugee definition to offer alternative conceptualisations of persecution in the determination of who is accorded the legal status of refugee. Second, it applies state crime frameworks to the increasingly restrictive and punitive refugee policies of countries in the Global North. It concludes by locating theorisations of state crime within the broader project of reconceptualising notions of sovereignty.