Is today really more violent than yesterday?

[morteduzionism]

Over the weekend I heard some arrests were made in the recent New Jersey, USA execution murders...was a little irritated that the perpetrators were arrested in my area...and it got me to thinking.

The suspects ages, 24 and 16, immediately made me think of Total War. Because those are two important ages, on my mod-Imp II, one is Coming-of-Age and the other is frequently the beginning of a characters military career(a career of murder and violence)...

I realized that in todays...societies...violence by youths is looked at as something totally evil. But hasn't it always been like that? A world where the violence is done by youths.

Throughout history hasn't most of the worlds armies been populated by...kids?

But it's not just the ages of the suspects that I'm interested in. I'm curious to know if the rest of you think today is generally more violent than the past?

You can travel, relatively, safely between villages without worrying about bandits...but every once and awhile...

So what do you think?

[Mig el Pig]

Murders have gone down, reporting about murders has gone up.

[ZaPPPa]

Yup, it's perception more than anything. One hundred years ago people only heard about crime in their immediate neighbourhood, now we see crime thousands of miles away on a daily basis.

Overstating crime is a common tactic used by hard-liner politicians to be elected.

[Kiljan Arslan]

Yup, it's perception more than anything. One hundred years ago people only heard about crime in their immediate neighbourhood, now we see crime thousands of miles away on a daily basis.

Overstating crime is a common tactic used by hard-liner politicians to be elected.

And for News Agencies to get ratings.

[chilon]

IMO,
The Earth circa2007 is less violent in general than the Earth circa 1007 or 0007

[boofhead]

I once read an interesting book - it was the diary of an executioner in Europe from the 1400s - in it he detailed every execution he performed, the method (breaking on the wheel or beheading usually), and the crimes of the accused. Although I cannot be certain of the truth of the accusations, many of them were vile - murders for food and money, cannibalism, and I even recall one bloke broken on the wheel as a serial killer who slew pregnant women and tore the foetuses from their bellies and ate them. So no, crime and violence has not really increased - we have 6 billion people now and a communication system which is unparalleled in history, that is all.

[Rush Limbaugh]

Id say man is still pretty much the same beast he has always been. We are now better programmed to behave. Thats why we have have a problem with total war. It takes a lot of re programing. It will be our down fall.

I must say however that kids have never been trained and prepared for war as well as this generation coming up.

[basics]

The strange thing about this thread is that no-one can prove what happened in individual communities throughout time since pretty much what we do know is the larger historical consequence.

And although we have Hi-tech nowadays we still cannot be certain as much is suppressed or at least of no great interest to the media unless of the most horrific nature. Some like to think that crime is down but is it?

To me these things are not as important as the fact that man for all his time on this planet is still able to stoop to the most hideous things that we all like to think were for times past when men were not so educated.

But if truth be accepted we humans are no better and perhaps a little worse in our behaviour than at some stages of the so-called progress of humankind. Many excuses can be found for this but few found to explain why man is still capable of wanting to do these horrors today.

[Ummon]

Today we are more efficiently violent than in the past, but we are restrained by a series of factors. A tribe of primitive men, will easily slaughter another tribe entirely, whereas we limit ourselves to combatants most of the times. On the other hand, only today we risk effectively annihilating humanity once and for all.

[antaeus]

for most people on this board, life now is more peaceful than it has ever been.

for example.. i live in a country where military is voluntary and war is rare. i am protected against violence and corruption by the most comprehensive legal system in history (just like any other western country) my public places are monitored by cctv, my life expectency is 80 odd years, and the chances of me dying violently are lower than 50 in 100,000 (the same as europe, britain etc and even the united states - even with the iraq war).

so for the common person, violence simply isnt something we are exposed to... except for through tv, movies etc.

while we live in an age where we can kill more efficiently than ever before.. we can also prevent violence better than before.

of course there is violent crime.. but thanks to media, and the incitement of fear, the actual problem with violent crime is massively over reported...

[boofhead]

while we live in an age where we can kill more efficiently than ever before.. we can also prevent violence better than before.

Violence is a demonized concept. If some beast is going to rape your daughter, what do you do? Negotiate?

[antaeus]

Violence is a demonized concept. If some beast is going to rape your daughter, what do you do? Negotiate?

no you dont, if you're there you stop it. however most of us live in societies where its increasingly difficult for people to commit crimes like rape and get away with it.