Introduction to the Special Issue on State Crime

Abstract

This special issue is dedicated to crimes of the state. Although the study of state crime remains marginalized within the criminological literature (Rothe and Ross 2008), there is by no means a lack of past or current examples. Consider that since the twenty-first century the world has witnessed case after case of crimes by governments including the ongoing genocide in Darfur by Sudanese governmental officials and state-supported Janjaweed (see Mullins and Rothe 2007; Rothe and Mullins 2007); the United States illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq (see Kramer and Michalowski 2005, 2006); the conditions and torture at Abu Ghraib (Hamm 2007); the ongoing conflict and crimes against humanity in Uganda (see Mullins and Rothe 2008); the increased use of transnational corporations and/or private military companies as proxies of state crimes (see Whyte 2003). As state crime research continues to grow and become more visible within criminology, incorporated as courses in academic institutions and the occasional introduction to criminology texts (see Rothe and Ross 2008), it is both refreshing and promising to see and help produce this special issue focusing solely on state crime. The volume begins with what started as a two-part workshop on state crime at the American Society of Criminology, November 2007. Out of these sessions, the first article developed as several leading scholars of state criminality came together and reevaluated the state of state crime and the ways in which they perceived the field should move forward to advance the study. Their goal was to not only revisit past definitional issues and/or standards in an effort to find some consistency in the field, but to advance the methods and theoretical testing and development of state crime research. Their ideas about how the field should proceed are elaborated on in this article. Examples of both theoretical and methodological development can be read in the following articles as each author provides reviews of the literature, theoretical analysis, varying methodological approaches. Contributions include Mullins’ article which provides