ABSTRACT
This book has sought to explore six key themes: what is state crime according to the literature, what is the state, what is a crime, what are the drivers for the state to commit a crime, what are the roles of the various institutions of the state in being involved in state crime, and what, in terms of monitoring or investigating state crime or unethical conduct, are the roles of those institutions, from the police through to Parliament, responsible for holding governments and state institutions to account? While it argues for the development of a perspective on state agency crime to address those breaches of law or harms caused by public officials acting in an official capacity, this argument has emerged from using the literature on state crime within which to study a developed democratic state. As such the book has noted a number of issues relating to those themes.
