In the standard sense of the phrase, a political crime is an action deemed illegal by a government in order to control real or imagined threats to its survival, at the expense of a range of human rights and freedoms. Thus actions which are not criminal per se, meaning that they are not anti-social but pro-social, are criminalized at the convenience of the group holding power.

Examples

In countries with totalitarian governments, such as the People's Republic of China or the countries of the communist block before the fall of communism, political speech is one of the most likely activities to be criminalized. It is followed by the criminalization of religious expression and of association, such as gathering for the purpose of expressing political views, or public demonstrations.

In countries with a strong religious tradition, the edicts of the church become codified as law and are enforced by the secular judicial authorities. Moslem countries under the sway of the sharia thus punish women who do not wear the veil or who trespass in other ways. In the west, the battle of the Christian church against paganism, witchcraft, and heresy has translated into a drug war, drugs being instruments of "devil worship" in the eyes of the church, as well as avenues of access to religious experience un-mediated by organized religion.

Likewise, laws prohibiting same-sex love can also be traced to church injunction. Their origin lies in biblical proscriptions as well as in the territoral battle between paganism and the early church.