CRIMES OF THE STATE - VICTIMIZATION OF SOUTH-AFRICAN POLITICAL EXILESIN THE UNITED-KINGDOM

Victimology and criminology have been spectacularly unsuccessful in co nfronting the way that governments victimise their opponents. This pap er is concerned with state violence against opponents who are based ou side the national territory, political exiles. Throughout their time i n 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, adminis trative and paramilitary measures. In this paper, I use the example of counter-exile activity in London to argue that researchers must conte mplate research agendas that challenge state policy when the causes of violence have been the direct result of state policy even if that pol icy has been fundamental to the continuing existence of the regime.