State crime is any action that violates international public law and/or a state's own domestic law when committed by individual actors acting on behalf of, or in the name of, the state, even when such acts are motivated by their personal economical, political, and ideological interests. Crimes of the state have been one of the foremost social problems of the past 100 years, with wide-reaching costs and little in the way of potential controls. [Source: Encyclopedia of Social Problems; State Crimes]
truth commissions
crime and deviance
state crimes
concepts