Introduction

Why are some events, activities or actions which cause harm, of various kinds, formally labelled and treated as crimes when others are not? How and why do categorizations of crime and harm vary by region and over time? And how do global power relationships, particularly those between states of the Global North and Global South and their citizens, shape the identification and experience of harm? These are key questions with which this book engages. The focus of this collection is on constructions of ‘harm’ or ‘social harm’, and how these are intimately linked to the state, given it provides the primary source for definitions of crime through the role it plays in constructing and enforcing law. Through a variety of case studies, the chapters of this book explore the processes of criminalization and definitions of crime, harm and justice, as well as relationships within and between the Global North and Global South. Meanwhile, as the title indicates, exploring crime, harm and the state is the focus of this volume.

Crime

The concept of crime has long been contested. Most simply, crime can be defined objectively – usually in terms of a breach of an existing criminal law. However, there are disagreements between criminologists about how to define crime. For example, some criminologists take as their object of study only those crimes that have been proven and punished in a criminal court and therefore make up official crime statistics. In other definitions, crime is expanded to include violations of other types of law, such as civil or human rights law. From this perspective, more significant than whether or not an act or behaviour is formally defined as ‘criminal’, is whether or not it is illegal (that is, violating a formal law).