Homo Criminalis

Crime doesn`t just pay, it tells. What we choose to ban, penalise or prosecute says something about us; and how far the mobsters and mafias are still able to ply their trades says something about us, too. Homo Criminalis tells a thrilling tale of the world`s changing values, the rise of the state and the emergence of modern society, through the evolution of the underworld and its crimes. From Chinese banditry and eighteenth-century English tea smuggling to today`s cocaine submarines and the high-tech crimes of tomorrow, this book aims to shows just how far society has changed - and how crime has changed with us. Often considered marginal or an aberration, we`ll see how the power structures and power struggles of the criminal world have actually worked to drive progress, forming the necessary dark underbelly of humanity`s evolution.