This book has mainly been written and/or researched by Level-3 students studying on the module ‘State Crime and the Immorality of the Powerful’ at the University of Leeds, a number of whom have undertaken all the research and writing themselves. Other contributors have embarked upon meticulous research and allowed the editors to either co-author their findings or name them as the main researcher. On the other side of the coin, both the editors of this book have taught on this module and, naturally, facilitated many of their own understandings of the issues at hand.

Book Outline

Accordingly, the book will deal with 14 different case studies of State crime and/or the immorality of the powerful. It will act as a supplementary study to the book State Crime and Immorality: The Corrupting Influence of the Powerful (Monaghan and Prideaux 2016). Case studies will range from disasters caused through neglect, State-sponsored/instigated crime, corporate crime, organisational crime and State terrorism (which relates to a State or a terrorist group condoned by the State terrorising and harming its own or another State). On the other hand, medico crimes in this book primarily address pharmaceutical fraud. In addition, the selling of illegal drugs, and how widespread such activities are, is also viewed from a UK perspective.

Nevertheless, this collection is set out in thematic order and contains two studies per chapter. As a consequence, the first chapter examines the tragedy of a mining village at Aberfan South Wales and, in the second half, the disastrous fire in the multistorey flats (apartments) of Grenfell Tower, London. Indeed, both studies duly expose the danger of official authorities subjugating health and safety concerns while regarding communities as dispensable to either increased profit margins or the minimisation of loss before and after these catastrophic events. Chapter Two is also concerned about the devastating potential of profit and neoliberalism. The chapter focuses on the pharmaceutical industry and the fraud and corruption of big US firms, whereas the second part of the chapter looks at the ill-health issues arising out of the Flint water crisis in the United States.