Modernization, Self-Control and Lethal Violence: The Long-term Dynamics of European Homicide Rates in Theoretical Perspective

• NCJ Number: 191907
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology Volume: 41 Issue: 4 Dated: Autumn 2001 Pages: 618-638
• Author(s): Manuel Eisner
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 21 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research); Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This study examined secular trends in homicide rates by means of a systematic re-analysis of all available quantitative studies of pre-modern homicide.

Abstract

The primary aim of the study was to tentatively develop a more detailed description of the long-term trends in lethal violence across parts of Europe. Particular issues examined were the universality of the secular decline in homicide, the historical period in which the decline began and possibly ended, and whether geographic regions showed differences in the timing of the decline. Data collection relied primarily on the counts of victims of murder and manslaughter according to national vital statistics. For most European countries such data were first collected in the second half of the 19th century. Regarding the pre-statistical period, the data used in the study derived from a re-analysis of all available historical research that presented quantitative data on homicide frequencies prior to the beginning of national statistics. This involved a patchwork of local historical studies of limited periods of time. The results of this study first confirmed that homicide rates had declined in Europe over several centuries. Second, the empirical evidence showed that unequivocal decline began in the early 17th century. Third, the data indicated that the secular decline began with the pioneers of the modernization process, England and Holland, and slowly encompassed additional regions. These findings corroborated much of the civilizing-process framework proposed by Norbert Elias. Yet, the diffusion of self-control was sustained not only by compliance with the state monopoly of power, but by a variety of disciplining institutional arrangements. This included, for example, the early expansion of schools, particularly in northern Europe; the rise of religious reform movements; and the organization of work in manufacturing. Although social disciplining was the central feature of the early modern period, it also served to push forward the rise of the specifically modern individualism that Durkheim viewed as the cause of the decline of individual-level violence. 1 table, 5 figures, and 80 references