This chapter, which examines state crime, which includes genocide, war crimes, torture, police violence, and ‘grand corruption’ (the ruling elite's organised plunder of national resources, first proposes a definition that views state crime as a form of organisational deviance involving the violation of human rights. After analysing the extent of plainly criminal state activity in the world today, it outlines a dialectical approach to explain state crime and evaluate some of the innovative methods currently employed in state crime research. The chapter then considers states as criminal actors and academic work on state crime.