About this book:

A History of Crime invites readers on a sweeping journey through humanity’s evolving relationship with wrongdoing and justice, beginning with the earliest written laws of ancient Mesopotamia and ending with the dilemmas of artificial intelligence in modern policing. Each chapter uncovers how societies have defined crime, who has wielded the power to label an act as criminal, and what punishments have been deemed appropriate—from the eye‑for‑an‑eye retribution of Hammurabi’s stele to the public spectacles of Roman arenas, from the secret terrors of the Inquisition to the digital frontiers of cybercrime today.

Readers will explore the cultural and philosophical shifts that transformed justice from divine ordeals and blood feuds into rational systems of deterrence and reform, encountering landmark figures such as Beccaria, Bentham, and Howard who laid the groundwork for modern criminology. The book also brings to life the colorful characters that have captured the public imagination—outlaws like Robin Hood and Dick Turpin, daring highwaymen, notorious gangsters like Al Capone, and elusive monsters such as Jack the Ripper and Ted Bundy—showing how myth and media have shaped our perception of criminality.

Beyond the dramatic narratives, the work delves into the institutional mechanisms that have sought to curb lawlessness, tracing the rise of professional police forces, the birth of detective work, and the revolutionary impact of forensic science from fingerprinting to DNA profiling. It examines the global reach of organized crime, from the American Mafia to international drug cartels, and confronts contemporary plagues such as human trafficking, environmental devastation, and terrorism, illustrating how crime adapts to new technologies and social anxieties.

Finally, the book looks ahead to the future of justice, interrogating the promise and peril of predictive policing, facial recognition, AI‑driven risk assessments, and forensic genetic genealogy. By highlighting both the ingenuity of law‑enforcement tools and the ethical challenges they pose, A History of Crime equips readers with a deep understanding of how societies have struggled to draw the line between order and chaos, and what that struggle means for liberty, safety, and the very idea of justice in an increasingly digital world.