The Khmer Rouge held power in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 with a very narrow base of support and no realistic strategy for governing the country. The ensuing deaths of around 1.5 million Cambodians were attributable partly to deliberate genocide of ethnic minorities and others not deemed to be "true Khmer", but predominantly to malnutrition, disease and overwork stemming from the regime's wildly unrealistic policies for the economic transformation of the country. Today, one of the main areas of state criminal activity is the complicity of state officials in forced evictions, allying themselves with rich landowners and corporations to enforce legally dubious land claims.

In August 2006, toxic waste was brought to Abidjan on board a ship chartered by international corporation Trafigura. This waste was dumped in various locations and more than 100,000 people sought medical attention there were 15 reported deaths. Trafigura and the government of Cote d'Ivoire reached a settlement which precludes further legal action against the corporation. There is also a wave of violence across the country, linked to the disputes over the November 2010 elections.

State violence is a persistent part of the national government’s strategic armoury. For much of the nineteen nineties PNG’s North Solomons Province was subjected to a protracted campaign of state terrorism which featured extra-judicial killings, the forced displacement of villagers and a military blockade. PNG’s mineral, gas and forestry projects remain sites of serious humanitarian concern. Efforts to tackle the country’s law and order problem have triggered serious violations of human rights. The PNG government is failing to adequately employ its resources to minimise the harm to communities produced by disease and illness.

In the spring of 1994, the impoverished country of Rwanda, hitherto unknown to wider society, suddenly became international front-page news with the outbreak of state sponsored genocide. Rwanda is a small, rural, landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of central Africa with few natural resources and minimal industry, primary exports being that of coffee and tea. The same is not true of its near neighbour, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is rich in raw materials.

Sierra Leone is a particularly interesting case study for several reasons, predominantly because it suffered a brutal civil war from 1991-2002.  The conflict is important because of the way it developed and was sustained.  Sierra Leone’s civil war is often acknowledged as one of the most violent of the 20th century; highlighted for the use of child soldiers (by rebel and government forces alike), mass murder and the prevalence of bush amputations.  But perhaps the most interesting thing about Sierra Leone’s civil war is that there is no clear distinction between ‘sides’ of the conflict.  While officially the war was between RUF rebels on one side and government forces on the other, on the ground this distinction did not hold true.  Locals coined the term sobel to describe those who were simultaneously rebels and soldiers.

Since the 1970’s the Turkish state has engaged in the active repression and persecution of political and ethnic minority dissidents. Most significant for understanding recent acts of state crime is the 15 year war the Turkish state prosecuted against Kurdish separatists (Kurdish Worker’s Party or PKK) in the country’s south-east. Repression, intimidation and violence, economic deprivation and limitations on a range of freedoms, defined daily life under emergency rule which some provinces experienced from as far back as 1987. Torture is still ongoing despite the government`s `zero tolerance policy`. Detention and ill-treatment of Kurdish children raises great concern as hundreds of children have been arrested, detained and tried for terrorism related offences following their participation in street protests since the beginning of 2008.