Command and Persuade
Crime, Law, and the State across History
Published on 5. October 2021
480 pages
978-0-262-36149-1 (ISBN)
Description
Why, when we have been largely socialized into good behavior, are there more laws that govern our behavior than ever before?
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.
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.
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Person
Peter Baldwin is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Global Distinguished Professor in the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at NYU. He is the author of The Copyright Wars: Three Centuries of Trans-Atlantic Battle, The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How America and Europe Are Alike, Contagion and the State in Europe, 1830-1930, and Disease and Democracy: The Industrialized World Faces AIDS.
Content
Introduction: Crime and the State through the Ages 1
1. Crime's Ever-Expanding Universe 13
2. Crime before the State 39
3. Crime as a Social Problem 57
4. The State as Victim: Treason 73
5. Parallel Justice 99
6. Why Punish? 107
7. How to Punish? 117
8. Moderating Punishment 139
9. Crimes of Thought 149
10. Obliged to Be Good 173
11. From Retribution to Prevention 197
12. The State as Enforcer: From Polizei to Police 247
Conclusion: Still Present after All These Years 311
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index
1. Crime's Ever-Expanding Universe 13
2. Crime before the State 39
3. Crime as a Social Problem 57
4. The State as Victim: Treason 73
5. Parallel Justice 99
6. Why Punish? 107
7. How to Punish? 117
8. Moderating Punishment 139
9. Crimes of Thought 149
10. Obliged to Be Good 173
11. From Retribution to Prevention 197
12. The State as Enforcer: From Polizei to Police 247
Conclusion: Still Present after All These Years 311
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index
