Ironies of controlling state crime

Control mechanisms and their effects are seldom analyzed in the subject matter of state crime. When what might be viewed as legitimate attempts to rectify a given situation occur, it happens all too often that well-intended individuals (i.e., advocates) and/or organizations can become additional victims of state crime. This truism has rarely been systematically reviewed. We aim to fill this gap by first identifying the government's most typical reactions to attempts of control, including the process of legitimatizing the state's efforts to frustrate the establishment of constraints on government agencies and actions. This paper examines the unintended consequences (i.e., things that they did not reasonably expect) that individuals and/or organizations may incur if and when they confront states that engage in criminal activity. The authors outline eight core reactions and then apply categories to recent actions by the US government in response to attempts of control against state criminality.