"This history of crime and punishment spans 3,000 years and multiple continents to reveal the larger patterns in how the state has maintained order and enforced law over the centuries"-- "Levels of violent crime have been in a steady decline for centuries--for millennia, even. Over the past five hundred years, homicide rates have decreased a hundred-fold. We live in a time that is more orderly and peaceful than ever before in human history. Why, then, does fear of crime dominate modern politics? Why, when we have been largely socialized into good behavior, are there more laws that govern our behavior than ever before? In Command and Persuade, Peter Baldwin examines the evolution of the state's role in crime and punishment over three thousand years. Baldwin explains that the involvement of the state in law enforcement and crime prevention is relatively recent. In ancient Greece, those struck by lightning were assumed to have been punished by Zeus. In the Hebrew Bible, God was judge, jury, and prosecutor when Cain killed Abel. As the state's power as lawgiver grew, more laws governed behavior than ever before; the sum total of prohibited behavior has grown continuously. At the same time, as family, community, and church exerted their influences, we have become better behaved and more law-abiding. Even as the state stands as the socializer of last resort, it also defines through law the terrain on which we are schooled into acceptable behavior." -- Provided by the publisher. From the book jacket.

Crime and the state through the ages --Crime's ever-expanding universe -- Crime before the state -- Crime as a social problem -- The state as victim : treason -- Parallel justice -- Why punish? -- How to punish? -- Moderating punishment -- Crimes of thought -- Obliged to be good -- From retribution to prevention -- The state as enforcer : from Polizei to police -- Still present after all these years.