In criminology, state crime is activity or failures to act that break the state's own criminal law or public international law. For these purposes, Ross (2000b) defines a "state" as the elected and appointed officials, the bureaucracy, and the institutions, bodies and organisations comprising the apparatus of the government. Initially, the state was the agency of deterrence, using the threat of punishment as a utilitarian tool to shape the behaviour of its citizens. Then, it became the mediator, interpreting society's wishes for conflict resolution. Theorists then identified the state as the "victim" in victimless crimes. Now, theorists are examining the role of the state as one of the possible perpetrators of crime (Ross, 2000b) whether directly or in the context of state-corporate crime. Green & Ward (2004) adopt Weber's Thesis of a sovereign “state” as possessing a monopoly on the right to use force. Thus, the criteria for determining whether a state is "deviant" will draw on international norms and standards of behaviour for achieving the state’s usual operating goals. One of those standards will be whether the state respects human rights in the exercise of its powers. But, one of the definitional difficulties is that the states themselves define what is criminal within their own territories, and as sovereign powers, they are not accountable to the international community unless they submit to international jurisdiction generally, or criminal jurisdiction in particular. In the United States, a federal crime or federal offense is a crime that is either made illegal by U.S. federal legislation (Title 18 of the United States Code) or a crime that occurs on U.S. federal property. The term "federal offence" has a separate meaning in Canada. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been granted powers to investigate federal offenses. Mail fraud which crosses state lines or involves the (national) United States Postal Service is a federal offense. Other federal crimes include kidnapping, tax evasion, counterfeiting, theft of major artwork from a museum, damaging or destroying mailboxes, immigration offenses, and since 1965, assassinating the President or Vice President, although these were not made federal crimes until after President John F. Kennedy's assassination. In drug-related federal offenses mandatory minimums can be enforced. A mandatory minimum is a federally regulated minimum sentence for offenses of certain drugs. Prosecution guidelines are established by the United States Attorney in each federal judicial district and by laws that congress has already established.

State crimes are crimes against each indiviual state and each other in that state. Federal crimes are crimes that effect all the states and the people in those states. Look at it this way, like a pyramid.......... The Federal Laws come first and are on top of the pyramid. State laws come second and are second on the pyramid. Local laws come third and are third on the pyramid. Federal law supersedes all other laws, whether state or local.