https://mises.org/wire/why-governments-love-political-crimes-treason-and-sedition
The only real crimes are those that constitute violence against actual, specific persons and property. These are crimes such as theft, assault, rape, homicide, and fraud. States and civil governments of all types have long justified their existence on the grounds that they punish perpetrators of these crimes and thus provide “public safety.” (The fact that states themselves often commit these crimes—i.e., through torture, police brutality, taxation, and conscription—is carefully ignored.)
Throughout history, however, states have also created a distinct category of “crimes” known as political crimes. These are described as not just mere attacks on specific persons and property. Rather, these acts are attacks on “society” or “the social order” or “the nation.” These offenses are given names such as “treason” or “seditious libel.” In communist societies, they are often labeled “antirevolutionary activities.” State propaganda always attempts to portray political crimes as assaults against all of society, but in reality, the state prosecutes political crimes because they are activities that regimes consider to be threats to the regime's interests and legitimacy. As such, these activities are often punished more severely than violent crime committed against private individuals. Political crimes need not even be physical actions taken against a regime or its agents. Political crimes are often also acts that are believed to undermine the state through the spread of anti-regime opinions. For this reason, some researchers and state authorities have suggested the term “ideological crime” to denote many political crimes.1