ABSTRACT
This collection captures only a small sample of the continuing history of resistance to state crime. The chapters reflect on the nature of resistance, its diversity, effectiveness, limitations and ubiquitousness across place and through time. In the past, state crime scholars have made great advances in defining, cataloguing and speaking against state crime. Such endeavours expose, defy or undermine the ‘denial’ that typically goes hand in hand with such crimes (see Cohen 2001). As we argue in Chapter 1, however, highlighting state crimes runs the danger of representing state power as invincible. Although contrary to intention, state crime scholarship may impact on audiences in ways that erode rather than support people's capacity to resist.
