Introduction

In his classic essay on politics as a vocation, Max Weber argued that the state cannot be defined in terms of its ends; it can only be distinguished from other associations on the basis of the unique means used to achieve them. ‘A state’, he concluded,

For a long period of time this state-centred paradigm constituted the only school of thought in criminology. Theoreticians and field researchers alike restricted their attention to the political and conventional violence of non-state actors. The state use of force was considered legitimate and therefore irrelevant. Only with the advent of critical criminology in the 1970s did it become an issue of concern, and a topic considered worthy of academic research.