HH: "Overpopulation ... is something that cannot be ignored. It gets worse with every passing moment, it is destroying our lives and our civilisation - and absolutely nothing is being done about it by the governments of the world. A feeling of rage possesses me whenever I think about it ... I was possessed by rage when I wrote this story. I do not think the laws represented here are real extrapolation; they will not come to pass. But they do represent the extremis that will be reached at some point, the sure knowledge that if laws like these will not be passed then others, equally obnoxious, will take their place. Because we have gone too far and there is no easy way out now." (Best of Harry Harrison).

PUBLICATION HISTORY

  • as: "Gesto da Criminale" in: Galassia #71, 1st November 1966. Piacenza: Casa Editrice la Tribuna. Translated by Ugo Malaguti. [Italian]

  • Analog, January 1967, p.50-61. Illustrated by Kelly Freas.

  • Prime Number, July 1970.

  • as: "Ein Vebrechen" in Primzhal [Prime Number]. June 1972, [German].

  • in: Oorlog met de Robots. Deurne: A.W. Bruna and Zoon, 1974, pbk. Translated by C.A.G. Van den Broek. [Flemish]

  • The Best of Harry Harrison, June 1976.

  • Science Fiction A to Z, edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Charles Waugh. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1982.

  • as: "En Brottslig Handling" in Aschkelons Gator [The Best of Harry Harrison]. 1985. [Swedish].

  • as: "C'est une Crime!" in Le Livre d'Or de la Science Fiction: Harry Harrison, edited by George W. Barlow. Paris: Presses Pocket, 1985, pbk. p.109-125. Translated by George W. Barlow. [French].

  • The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, edited by Tom Shippey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, October 1992. p.350-362.

  • Galactic Dreams, April 1994.

  • 50 in 50, July 2001.