State Crime: Current Perspectives (Critical Issues in Crime and Society Series)

There is no limit to the number of crimes--including acts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, piracy, drug smuggling, governmental corruption and illegal intelligence gathering--committed by various national governments. In STATE CRIME, the volume editors gather together some of the best new research on state transgressions, in addition to asking senior scholars to reflect on their past research and bring it up to date.The first section of the book features a well-rounded set of cases exemplifying state criminality, including an examination of the Holocaust through a criminological framework, and a look at the illegal aggressions committed by the US army in Iraq. The second section of the book focuses on various methods for controlling these governmental transgressions, including domestic legal sanctions and also international enforcers such as the International Court of Human Rights. Contributors to this section of the book examine worldwide policies, such as the international rule against the assassination of regime elites regardless of the acts of aggression and criminality committed by them. The book taps into a previously overloked area that is most relevant for understanding what policies or responses to governmental crime would be most effective in constraining the worst acts. Contributors include leading scholars in criminology such as Ray Michalowski, David Friedrichs, and Peter Iadicola.