ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the specific state crime of torture and was an investigation of a politically 'sensitive topic'. Torture was for centuries a legal, normal, and commonplace institution throughout the world. It is important to note that rationalist critiques of the ineffectiveness of torture as a truth-finding device long predated the abolition of torture, but only became effective because of a change in sensibilities. Criminology's traditional and persistent bias' is related to the more general problematic that it has never regarded state crime 'as an integral part of its subject-matter'. Long-standing debate within criminology about the scope and subject matter of state crime is reflected in the 'polarity of definitions of the concept, which locate breaches of the law by states at one end of the spectrum, and definitions based on non-statutory breaches of human rights at the other'. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
