The government's campaign against crime and low level corruption resulted in 229 police killed and 2,826 wounded during the first six months of the year. Last year there were 350 prosecutions (involving 1,953 defendants) for "organized crime." There were a total of 845,306 prosecutions last year, and an estimated 4,015 death sentences. For three decades (1950-80), crime was very low in China because of the Maoist police state. But two decades of economic liberalization has let the criminals and corrupt officials loose as well.