STATE CRIME
Journal of the International State Crime Initiative
Volume 12 • Number 1 • 2023
“I think there’s no challenge in our world quite as daunting as finding effective ways to address state crime. I believe that the future of democracy, world peace, and global justice each crucially depend on the capacity of peoples throughout the world to hold the state accountable for its failures to comply with law and its refusals to promote justice.”
Richard Falk
Produced and distributed by
ISSN 2046–6056 (Print)
ISSN 2046–6064 (Online)
© INTERNATIONAL STATE CRIME INITIATIVE 2023
STATE CRIME
Journal of the International State Crime Initiative
EDITORS IN CHIEF
Prof Penny Green (Queen Mary University of London)
Prof Tony Ward (Northumbria University)
Prof Kristian Lasslett (University of Ulster)
Dr Thomas MacManus (Queen Mary University of London)
BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR
Dr Dawid Stańczak (Ulster University)
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Sophie Knowles-Mofford
EDITORIAL BOARD
Dr Michael Grewcock (University New South Wales)
Prof Neve Gordon (Queen Mary University of London)
Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Dr Vincenzo Bollettino (Harvard University)
Prof Scott Poynting (Queensland University of Technology)
Prof Jude McCulloch (Monash University)
Prof Sharon Pickering (Monash University)
Dr Elizabeth Stanley (Victoria University)
Prof Bill Rolston (University of Ulster)
Prof Frank Pearce (Queen’s University)
Prof Ron Kramer (Western Michigan University)
Prof Ray Michalowski (Northern Arizona University)
Prof Martha K. Huggins (Tulane University)
Prof Hilal Elver (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Dr José Atiles-Osoria (University of Illinois)
Dr Victoria Mason (Australian National University)
Prof Jeremy Keenan (SOAS, University of London)
Shaazka Beyerle (John Hopkins University)
Dr Rachel Seoighe (University of Kent)
Prof Elisabeth Saatjian Weber (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Dr Hazel Cameron (Pearl International Insights)
Prof Jennifer Leaning (Harvard University)
Prof David Whyte (University of Liverpool)
Prof Steve Tombs (The Open University)
Prof Jennifer Schirmer (Harvard University/ London School of Economics)
Prof David Kauzlarich (Southern Illinois University)
Dr Cathy Gormley Heenan (University of Ulster)
Dr Sam Raphael (University of Westminster)
AIMS AND SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL
State Crime is the first peer-reviewed, international journal that seeks to disseminate leading research on the illicit practices of states. The concept of state crime is not confined to legally recognized states but can include any entity that exerts political and military control over a substantial territory. The journal’s focus is a reflection of the growing awareness within criminology that state criminality is endemic and acts as a significant barrier to security and development. Contributions from a variety of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives are welcomed. Topics covered by the journal include: torture; genocide and other forms of government and politically organized mass killing; war crimes; state–corporate crime; state-organized crime; natural disasters exacerbated by government (in)action; asylum and refugee policy and practice; state terror; political and economic corruption; and resistance to state violence and corruption. See here for a guide for contributors: http://statecrime.org/journal/notes-for-contributors/
ABOUT ISCI
State Crime is administered by the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI). ISCI is a multi-disciplinary, cross-institutional and international initiative designed to collate, analyse and disseminate research-based knowledge about criminal state practices and resistance to them. Launched in 2010 with an inaugural lecture by Robert Fisk, ISCI actively develops and administers diverse spaces which enable state crime researchers to engage in meaningful dialogue with civil society in order to both understand and prevent illicit state practices. ISCI is institutionally supported by Queen Mary University of London and partnered with Northumbria University and the University of Ulster. Further information on ISCI and its members can be found at the initiative’s website: www.statecrime.org.
CONTENTS
Articles
Ransomware through the lens of state crime: Conceptualizing ransomware groups as cyber proxies, pirates, and privateers 4
James Martin and Chad Whelan
The politics of fear and the suppression of Indigenous language activism in Asia: Prospects for the United Nations’ Decade of Indigenous Languages 29
Gerald Roche, Madoka Hammine, Jesus Federico C. Hernandez, and Jess Kruk
It was the anarchists: The quest for the truth about Italy’s bombs 51
Vincenzo Scalia
“We will give our blood, but not our land!”—Repertoires of resistance and state-organized land-grabbing at a Bangladeshi tea plantation 68
Ashrafuzzaman Khan and Kristian Lasslett
Book reviews
Monish Bhatia and Victoria Canning eds. Stealing Time: Migration, Temporalities and State Violence, reviewed by Scott Poynting 96
Vasja Badalič, The War Against Civilians: Victims of the “War on Terror” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, reviewed by Victoria Canning 100
Rebecca Adelman and David Kieran eds. Remote Warfare: New Cultures of Violence, reviewed by Rimona Afana 104
Josephine Beoku-Betts and Fredline A. M’Cormack-Hale eds. War, Women, and Post-Conflict Empowerment: Lessons from Sierra Leone, reviewed by Jillian LaBranche 108
Nan Sloane, Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries, reviewed by Jade Moran 111
Obituary
David O. Friedrichs Obituary by Martin D. Schwartz and Valeria Vegh Weis 113
Notes on contributors 115