states will define as political crimes any behaviour perceived as a threat, real or imagined, to the state's survival, including both violent and non-violent oppositional crimes. a consequence of such criminalisation may be that a range of human rights, civil rights, and freedoms are curtailed, and conduct which would not normally be considered criminal "per se" (in other words, that is not antisocial according to those who engage in it) is criminalised at the convenience of the group holding power.