"Death squads have become an increasingly common feature of the modern world. In nearly all instances, their establishment is tolerated, encouraged, or undertaken by the state itself. The state thereby risks its monopoly on the use of force, one of its defining characteristics. Why do such a variety of regimes, under very different circumstances, condone this activity? Using ten case studies from around the world, Death Squads in Global Perspective hopes to answer that question and to explain not only their development, but also why they can be expected to proliferate in the early twenty-first century. "--BOOK JACKET.