Crimes by the Capitalist State systematically examines a broad spectrum of state criminality including state terrorism, torture and murder, drug smuggling and arms trafficking, espionage and surveillance, and violations of internationally established human rights. While exploring crimes by the state from both a national and international perspective, this book also reflects the latest scholarship in comparative political and social science, especially as these relate to current developments in the political economy, the study of crimes by the powerful, and theories on state and social control.

This book stresses the importance of studying crimes by the state as a prerequisite for peacemaking worldwide. For example, state crimes such as the Iran-Contra Affair or the apartheid policies of South Africa should become the subject matter of criminologists and lay persons alike. The collective evidence gathered here demonstrates that state criminality is primarily an organizational and structural phenomenon, and only secondarily an individual phenomenon, whether committed for ideological reasons or for personal profit.