The Crimes of the Powerful: Between Force and Consensus

Vincenzo Ruggiero
Additional contact information
Vincenzo Ruggiero: Department of Criminology & Sociology, School of Law, Middlesex University, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BT, UK

Social Sciences, 2021, vol. 10, issue 2, 1-9

Abstract: Power entails the ability to act and overcome the obstacles erected by those who are subject to it. It also entails the capacity to make one’s crimes acceptable, while formulating criminal imputations against others. The crimes of the powerful, in this contribution, are examined through the lenses of a number of intertwined variables: coercion, legitimacy, violence, secrecy, consensus, and hegemony. Ostentation, imitation, and admiration are also considered as components of these types of crimes and the feelings they elicit. While the controversies surrounding legal responses to the crimes of the powerful are discussed, the efficacy of concerted action against them is optimistically invoked.

Keywords: coercion; legitimacy; secrecy; consensus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/2/51/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/2/51/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:2:p:51-:d:490966

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().