Crimes of the state: Victimisation of South African political exiles in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Victimology and criminology have been spectacularly unsuccessful in confronting the way that governments victimise their opponents. This paper is concerned with state violence against opponents who are based ouside the national territory, political exiles. Throughout their time in exile in the United Kingdom, South Africans connected to the African National Congress were subject to physical and symbolic violence from the South African government through a series of ideological, administrative and paramilitary measures. In this paper, I use the example of counter-exile activity in London to argue that researchers must contemplate research agendas that challenge state policy when the causes of violence have been the direct result of state policy even if that policy has been fundamental to the continuing existence of the regime.