ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop an economic perspective on group punishment that explains the prevalence of the practice in primitive society, the aversion with which modern people generally view it, and the lessons from its surprising persistence in modern times. The greatest source of examples of group punishment comes from the Old Testament. The Old Testament also includes a story of "random" punishment, which is closely related to group punishment. The pervasiveness in ancient societies of group punishment and its close cousins, random punishment and vicarious responsibility, is usually attributed to two features of primitive law enforcement: the importance of vengeance, and the absence of an effective centralized enforcement authority. Having provided the foregoing ancient and modern examples of group punishment, the chapter discusses a systematic examination of the factors involved in choosing an optimal law enforcement strategy.
