Many governments and the United Nations now regard combating transnational organised crime as an important national and international security issue, requiring exceptional policing measures which often override standard criminal justice procedures and human rights norms. Examines how criminological theory can be applied to the complex and often contradictory relationship between crime, human rights and the state by providing an overview of the debates regarding transnational and state crime. Topics include globalisation and crime; the war on drugs; the war on human smuggling/trafficking; the war on terror; the dispossession of indigenous communities; genocide; refugees; arbitrary detention and torture.