The article first reviews the various normative means used by states to address threats to their laws, security, safety, stability, order, and traditional way of life. One of these normative means is the formal criminal justice system, under which law violators are identified and processed under rules developed in constitutions, legislative actions, and case law, and then applied by criminal justice institutions under the scrutiny of the courts and the general public. Another normative means of addressing threats to a state is the "clean war," under which combatants wear uniforms and engage in controlled violence against an opponent under international rules of engagement that prohibit certain behaviors and practices, such as torture, the targeting of noncombatants and nonmilitary targets, and the use of weapons of mass destruction. The authors then propose their definition of a "dirty war." It is defined as "a systematic campaign of violence directed against a portion of the civil populace where the perpetrators aim to conceal both the extent of the violence and the true extent of their involvement for the primary purpose of creating fear for political purposes." In "dirty war" the state (or other actor) identifies its core ("innocent") citizen and then persecutes those who do not conform to this "ideal" citizen. Activities against targeted persons and groups are concealed and conducted in a context where both morality and legality are blurred and irrelevant, and the models of criminal justice and the "clean war" are discarded and supplanted with methods deemed quick, efficient, and effective by the architects of the "dirty war." 91 notes