Colin Webster is Emeritus Professor of Criminology at Leeds Beckett University, UK, and a member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Criminology.

• Introduction: Crime, Inequality and the Rule of LawPart I. Taking the Long ViewChapter 1. Capitalism and Crime in Early Modern EnglandChapter 2. Accumulation by Dispossession: Land Grabs, Enclosure and TrespassChapter 3. Property, Poverty and the Rule of LawChapter 4. State Crime: War and Plunder, Slavery, Empire and FaminePart II. Rich and Poor Crime in Modern BritainChapter 5. Rich and Poor BritainChapter 6. Offshoring: Corporate, Financial and Tax CrimeChapter 7. Capturing the State: Corruption, Outsourcing, Privatization and AusterityChapter 8. Poor Crime: Economic, Welfare and Policy CyclesPart III. Connecting Rich and Poor CrimeChapter 9. Coding Capital: Protecting the Rich and Punishing the PoorChapter 10. Conclusion: ‘There’s one law for the rich and another for the poor’

In this brilliant book, Colin Webster shows that today’s billionaire kleptocrats and oligarchs are, in reality, the capitalist ‘children’ of their robber forebears. With a critical eye firmly on the violent and plundering historical role of states, companies and the upper classes Webster provides a passionate, detailed and sweeping review of the myriad abuses of humanity that became enshrined in elite-state formations and law, alongside the power they came to wield with colonial expansion. As the winners of the economic system strode and plundered the globe’s resources, new forms and extremes of damage to populations were unleashed, sanctified in law. A work of scholarship, insight and relevant example, Rich Crime, Poor Crime reinvigorates debate about the complex roots of harm in the societies and economies we all inhabit. This is a history of harm absolutely for our time today.