Chapter 8. Reinventing Controlling State Crime and Varieties of State Crime and Its Control: What I Would Have Done Differently

Abstract

In 1995 my edited book "Controlling State Crime" was published (Ross 1995a). Five years later, not only was my follow-up edited book, "Varieties of State Crime and Its Control," released (hereafter "Varieties"), but so too was the second edition of "Controlling State Crime" (Ross 2000a, 2000b). In between the time that the two books were published, and since the release of Varieties, the once nascent field of state crime, interchangeably labeled governmental crime, illegality, lawlessness, official deviance, or misconduct, has evolved. Old and rudimentary ideas have either been abandoned or modified, and numerous subject-relevant essays and case studies have accumulated. Some scholars of the subject of state crime have produced a steady flow of research, while others have moved on to different criminological/criminal justice subjects. Then again, new and emerging young scholars have entered the field carrying the banner of this cross-disciplinary field.Personal history aside, the following sections attempt to give the reader a sense of the major arguments from the original "Controlling State Crime," followed by a review of Varieties, and then a review of what scholarly research has been produced since then to answer the proverbial question of what I would have done differently had I had to do it again. This is not an easy question to answer. As a relatively introspective scholar, I frequently question my agency and actions, and no ox is too sacred to gore, particularly if it is an edited book.