What do we mean by the term ‘state crimes’? It encompasses all crimes perpetrated by the state itself. The ‘state’ includes all elected and appointed officials, the bureaucracy, and the institutions, bodies and organisations that constitute the whole machinery of the government. Therefore, state crimes actually break the laws of the country in which they take place. States can engage at both national and international levels in these activities. It is also evident that the state can become caught up in situations with the police or large corporations whereby it engages in secrecy and cover-ups. This is referred to as state-corporate crime.
Green and Ward (2004) make reference to the state as one that has monopoly over the legitimate use of force. The criteria for determining whether or not a state is acting in a criminal manner will necessarily be measured by international norms and standards of behaviour. However, this leads to a problem. As states themselves define which acts are ‘criminal’ within their own territories, and as they are sovereign powers, they are not then accountable to the international community. According Green and Ward, in the course of their examination of several examples of state crimes, no state is immune from violating human rights to achieve its goals (Bufkin 2005).
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