Though corruption is difficult to define and harder still to quantify, it is undoubtedly one of the most widespread forms of criminal victimization in today’s world; and in its most serious forms it is properly regarded as a form of state crime rather than individual deviance. The International Crisis Group describes "state corruption" as, "a system where the main levels of state power are controlled by individuals or a group whose main intent is to extract personal gain from public finances".

State crime frequently masquerades as counter terrorism. Counter terrorism encompasses laws, police, security, and military powers and measures directed at what states determine are terrorist threats. ‘Terrorism’ is notoriously difficult to define and its definitions selectively applied. The difficulties of defining terrorism, combined with the ease with which states apply the label, means that what we view as terrorism is largely shaped through counter measures. Exploiting popular fears of  ‘terrorism’ provides states with opportunities to engage in military aggression and implement repressive laws that would normally be seen as unacceptable, particularly when done by liberal democracies.

Genocide, the intentional destruction of a specific group, is an important subject for state crimes, yet it remains under explored within the discipline and genocide studies have tended to be the remit of historians and theologians. Social scientists rarely turned their attention to the study of this particular type of criminality until the 1970s and Hirsch suggests that even today sociological attention to this topic has at best grown from almost non-existent to scarcely existent.

Natural Disasters

The consequences of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, drought and floods are increasingly important subjects for scholars of state crimes but they remain underexplored within the discipline, not least because of their problematic characterization as "natural disasters". It is not the climatic or geophysical hazard which kills – rather it is the political, economic and social structures which determine population vulnerability that bear responsibility.

The concept of state-corporate crime refers to crimes that result from the relationship between the policies of the state and the policies and practices of commercially motivated corporations. The term was coined by Kramer and Michalowski in 1990. While the subject of numerous case studies and theoretical debates, state-corporate crime as a criminological focus remains in its infancy.

Torture is a specific form of state violence. In practice, the boundaries of torture are subject to vigorous debate – for instance, does a tortured person have to be detained?  Can rape be a form of torture?  Where does psychological pressure, or degrading treatment, end and torture begin?  These questions illustrate the ongoing contentious nature of how torture is defined, legitimised or challenged.