Critical Criminology 18(2)

The Brazilian Landless Movement, Resistance, and Violence
Erin C. Heil

Throughout Brazil, landless resisters are being violently victimized at the discretion of large landowners. The main goals of this article are to (1) Explain the historical and current conditions that have facilitated the violent oppression experienced by the landless movement, (2) illustrate the mass violence experienced by the landless population, (3) provide a review of the existing research regarding the relationship between land reform, violence, and state strength, (4) introduce a new explanation of decentralized state power in relationship to the persistence of violence against the landless movement. I explore the Brazilian landless movement through content analyses, fieldwork, and a review of existing data. The approach used to study and understand the powers associated with the landless movement is unique to the existing literature of the Brazilian landless movement in that it moves beyond advocacy towards a criminological and political analysis.

Mad Men, Meth Moms, Moral Panic: Gendering Meth Crimes in the Midwest
Travis Linnemann

This research examines the content of a sample of newspaper articles from the Midwestern states. The analyses find highly gendered accounts of methamphetamine related crimes. Media depictions suggest women use meth for reasons drawn from conventional notions of motherhood, sexuality, and subordination. Alternately, motives of men appear constructed around dominant notions of male criminal virility and the viability of the drug trade. The findings offer a contextual framework to consider how this sort of mediated dichotomy emerges from and reinforces popular notions of gendered crime and drug users in non-urban spaces.

Injustice for All: A State Crime of Omission Beneath the Steps of the United States Capitol
Patrick M. Gerkin, Lauren A. Teal and Linda H. Reinstein

This research examines a state crime of omission by members of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol. These crimes were perpetrated against a group of employees charged with maintaining the underground utility tunnels beneath the United States Capitol. Through a secondary analysis of congressional testimony; citations and documents issued by the Office of Compliance; medical records; and various media accounts of the events, this research seeks to examine the perpetrators’ actions as a state crime of omission and offer a theoretical explanation. Our findings suggest the actions and inactions of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, over a period of years, embody the definition of a state crime. Our theoretical explanation examines the conditions that combined to foster an environment in which occupational exposure to asbestos continued for years, placing the life and health of the tunnel crew in serious jeopardy.

Exporting Gender Injustice: The Impact of the U.S. War on Drugs on Ecuadorian Women
Maureen Norton-Hawk

Numerous researchers have documented the gendered impact of the United States’ domestic war against drugs. Women incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses are the fastest growing segment of America’s prison population because of the harsh penalties for using, selling and transporting illegal substances. The impact of U.S. drug policy on women in other countries, in contrast, has been overlooked. This paper argues that the greatly increased imprisonment of women in Ecuador for drug-related offenses is collateral damage of the U.S. war on drugs. The impact of the expansion of women’s imprisonment in Ecuador appears to be particularly damaging to the inmate’s children who frequently join their mother in prison. U.S. policy should not be exported to other countries before having a clear picture of the unintended negative consequences.

Critical Criminology, June 2010: Volume 18, Issue 2