ABSTRACT
Critical criminology made clear in the 1980s that the harms of the powerful far outweighed the harms of the powerless, and that the criminal label was often employed by the state as a weapon against those sections of society which challenged it or its corporate allies. State crime scholarship has been influenced to a considerable extent by Marxist theory and this is reflected in representations of the state. The International State Crime Initiative (ISCI), based in the School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) has played a pivotal role in providing a structural and intellectual hub for global state crime scholarship. Contributing to the expansion of interest in the study of state crime has been what one might best describe as a sense of political mission, commitment to justice, and intellectual adventure. The criminal label is a powerful discursive and transformative force in the hands of victims and those who resist state crime.
