Considering this fact, it might be worth- while to take a familiar question-why is there so much crime in modern society?-and stand it on its head: why isnt there a lot more crime? After all, every one of us regularly passes up opportunities to maim, steal, and defraud. The chance of going to jail-thereby losing your job, your house, and your freedom, all of which are essentially economic penalties-is certainly a strong incentive. But when it comes to crime, people also respond to moral incentives (they dont want to do something they consider wrong) and social incentives   (they dont want to be seen by others as doing something wrong). For certain types of misbehavior, social incentives are terribly powerful. In an echo of Hester Prynnes scarlet letter, many American cities now fight prostitution with a "shaming" offensive, posting pictures of con- victed johns (and prostitutes) on websites or on local-access televi- sion. Which is a more horrifying deterrent: a $500 fine for soliciting a prostitute or the thought of your friends and family ogling you on www.HookersAndJohns.com. So through a complicated, haphazard, and constantly readjusted web of economic, social, and moral incentives, modern society does its best to militate against crime. Some people would argue that we dont do a very good job. But taking the long view, that is clearly not true. Consider the historical trend in homicide (not including wars), which is both the most reliably measured crime and the best barome- ter of a societys overall crime rate. These statistics, compiled by the criminologist Manuel Eisner, track the historical homicide levels in five European regions.       HOMICIDES   (per 100,000 People)