Summary

The 20th century has been characterized by extraordinarily high levels of war, violence and crimes of all types, and states - or those acting in some fashion on behalf of states - have been complicit in a disproportionate share of such destructive activity. These two volumes explore state crime as the most significant form of crime and an inevitable result of power being concentrated in the hands of the few. The volumes aim to bring together contributions to the understanding of state crime and its control, exploring the varieties of state crime and its paradoxical nature, since the state is also the primary source of both laws that define crime and the institutions of enforcement and adjudication.