this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2024
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Violence has been going down for centuries. We’re hearing about it more, but it’s declining. It peaked around 1993, and it’s been trending downward ever since.
If you zoom out and look at super long term trends, it’s been declining for centuries.
that sure doesn't look like it's been going down for centuries. What about per capita?
Here’s homicides per capita in Western Europe. I highly recommend reading The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker. It goes into this in depth.
Per capita, IIRC it peaks in the 70's. I've heard it proposed that it was down to leaded gasoline causing brain damage, and it's such a weird blip I have to consider that. Obviously, from WWII backwards through depression and prohibition it was plenty nasty.