Book Reviews : GREGG BARAK (ED.), Crimes by the Capitalist State. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991,291 pp., $17.95 paperback
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| Author | Robert C. Hauhart |
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| DOI | 10.1177/096466399300200107 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
108
music
today
now
that
technology
in
the
age
of
digital
reproduction
has
become
more
accessible
and
relatively
cheap.
The
subject
of
the
creative
process
is
more
and
more
difficult
to
identify.
Law
courts
have
resounded
to
the
clash
of
litigants’
arguments
over
who
authored
what
for
years;
for
instance,
Milli Vanilli
were
sued
for
not
being
’real’
musicians,
that
is,
because
they
did
not
play
on
their
own
records.
Musicians
like
George
Clinton
and
James
Brown
could,
potentially,
be
involved
in
thousands
of
court
cases
against
people
who
have
sampled
them
over
and
above
the
cases
which
have
already
occurred.
In
Gaines’s
book
’high’
film
theory
dominates
rather
than
the
’low’
theory
of
popular
music
and
cultural
criticism.
This
break
between
’elite’
and
’mass’ -
and
its
reconstitution
in
an
age
of
’postmodern’
flattening
of
such
a
divide - itself
constitutes
part
of
the
problem
of
ownership
of
the
image
which
Gaines
seeks
to
study.
Consequently,
her
work
is
perhaps
more
useful
in
application
to
some
aspects
of
the
media
and
cultural
industries
than
others.
Nevertheless,
it
stands
as
a
gallant,
if
flawed,
enterprise
to
broaden
and
theoretically
deepen
the
study
of
law
and
culture.
STEVE
REDHEAD
Manchester
Institute
for
Popular
Culture,
Manchester
Metropolitan
University,
UK
GREGG
BARAK
(ED.),
Crimes
by
the
Capitalist
State.
Albany,
NY:
State
University
of
New
York
Press, 1991,291
pp.,
$17.95
paperback.
Crimes
by
the
Capitalist
State
is
an
edited
volume
of
ten
articles
arising
from
the
40th
Annual
Meeting
of
the
American
Society
of
Criminology
held
in
Chicago,
9-12
November
1988.
Although
each of
the
contributions
to
this
volume
addresses
state
criminality
in
the
context
of
a
capitalist
state
economy,
Barak
makes
clear
that
this
emphasis
should
not
suggest
that
’only
capitalist
states
and
Western
democracies
have
some
kind
of
monopoly
over
or
inside
track
on
state
criminality’.
On
the
contrary,
Barak
suggests
that
state
criminality,
or
its
pre-state
equivalent,
knows
no
economic,
ideological
or
geographical
boundaries.
Further,
Barak
speculates
that
while
’the
nature,
patterns,
or
seriousness’
of
state
crime
will
vary
by
type
of
state
formation,
only
detailed
studies
of
particular
circumstances
will
yield
this
information,
along
with
the
effects
produced
by
the
changing
interactions
between
existing
states
and
the
developing
world
political
economy.
Thus,
while
Barak
encourages
the
development
of
a
body
of
literature
devoted
to
state
criminality,
he
recognizes
the
nascent
state
of
this
emerging
sub-field,
and
identifies
the
articles
in
the
present
volume
as
an
introduction
to
this
arena,
and
not
a
comprehensive
theoretical
or
empirical
statement.
The
articles
address
topics
as
diverse
as
aboriginal
deaths
arising
in
custodial
detention
in
Australia
during
the
1980s,
’multi-tiered’
state
and
opposition
terrorism
in
Peru,
and
a
history
of
the
Oakdale
and
Atlanta
prison
riots
in
the
United
States.
In
short,
the
articles
address
topics
of
international
interest
arising
from
North
America,
Latin
America,
Europe
and
Australia.
As
in
many
edited
volumes,
the
density
and
quality
of
treatment
is
diverse
and,
to
some
extent,
uneven.
In
this
regard,
the
most
effective
way
to
convey
the
range
and
approach
of
various
articles
judiciously
is
to
summarize
several
selections.
In
her
article
’Passion
and
Policy’,
Hazlehurst
reports
the
results
of
an
inquiry
into
aboriginal
deaths
occurring
while
in
custodial
detention
in
Australia.
She
begins
with
a
succinct
summary
of
the
history
of
English,
and
later
Australian,
occupation
and
annexation
of
aboriginal
land,
and
a
synopsis
of
the
current
state
of
aboriginal
culture
vis-a-vis
the
Australian
state,
including
observations
on
the
nature
of
’aboriginal
crimes’.
Thus,
she
notes
that
aboriginals
are
commonly
detained
for
highly
visible,
low
level
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