Of the state’s many tasks, none is more crucial than security. To protect us against foreign enemies, we have the military. Against domestic unrest, violence, and crime, the police and judicial system are the first line of defense. Despite declining rates of offending, fear of crime dominates modern politics—egged on by sensationalist media and politicians of all stripes hoping to appear tough-minded. Under President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair, even the center-Left parties in the United States and Britain joined the hard-on- crime bandwagon.1 The last two US presidential campaigns have rung out with dog-whistle appeals to law and order. Public surveys routinely identify crime as among citizens’ most pressing concerns.