Why has violence declined?

I'm not so sure about any decline in violence, maybe a decline in the reporting of violence and it's sure to worsen as people become more displaced from lack of work and this failing economy.

LOL. It hasn't.

I tend to agree with Art. It sure is not because of anything the Democrat progressive liberal socialists have done.

WHAT PLANET DO YOU LIVE ON?

"VIOLENCE DECREASE"?............."VIOLENCE HAS INCREASED"!!!

OWS, IS GROWING VIOLENTY EVERYDAY, NOT TO MENTION THE "VIOLENCE BEING

DONE, 24 HRS A DAY, TO THE INNOCENT PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE STATE OF

CALIFORNIA"..........

AND THE HOLY BIBLE SAYS........."BUT KNOW THIS, THAT IN THE LAST DAYS..................

VIOLENT OR PERILOUS TIMES SHALL COME, FOR MEN SHALL BE LOVERS OF

THEMSELVES, COVETEOUS, BOASTERS, PROUD, BLASPHEMERS, DISOBEDIENT TO

PARENTS, UNTHANKFUL, UNHOLY, UNLOVING, UNFORGIVING, SLANDERERS, WITHOUT

SELF-CONTROL, BRUTAL( CRIMINAL), HATERS OF OF WHAT'S RIGHT, TRAITORS,

HEADSTRONG, HAUGHTY, LOVERS OF MONEY( WILL STEAL AND KILL FOR IT), LOVERS

OF PLEASURES RATHER THAN LOVERS OF GOD"..........2 TIMOTHY 3:1-9

He lives on the planet 'harvard' where nothing is as it is and all things are what the effete intellectual elite want them to be. Things are what they are called, not what they are.

Because less people are committing violent acts

i cant see where violence has declined. certainly not in the bad neighborhoods in some of the large cities which are run by democrats. these cities are going broke because they arent being fiscally responsible.

Crime rate in the US since 1960:

http://www.disastercenter.com...

WOW!

1992 was a bad year for rape but then that was the year Bill Clinton was elected.

Really? About a month ago we had 11 shootings in 9 days.

That's because Obama was elected.

Exactly what violence has dropped?
While our western culture doesn't glorify violence as some mid-eastern culture/faux-religion does there remains plenty to go around.
Under our current madministration lots of what were crimes before 0bummer (B0), "minority" assaults on whites, attacks on Christians and Jews, are ignored or simply not reported as 'crime' but as racial-payoff/restitution and therefore somehow justifiable acts.
Steven Pinker seems to be wild-haired, pointy-headed liberal elitist intellectual apologist.

I believe by the time the Divider and Thief (Obummer) gets done with his Campaign Tour, the country will be in a state of Civil War!

Could be.

I hate to burst people's bubbles but I think his analysis of violence neglects abortions and is thereby overly optimistic.
There are roughly 1 million abortions per year (4000 each day) in the U.S. alone. Abortions are and should be considered forms of violence.

The retention of the 2nd amendment does have a bearing.

Interesting. Seems to be getting worse in the Sacramento area, all the gang bangers are moving up from LA.

It hasn't, more victims aren't reporting crimes.

What used to be considered "violence" is now mostly taken with a-grain-of-salt . . . Thus, violent acts are not reported . . . They still exist, but you just don't hear about it.

I don't like the video, and I disagree with it -STATISTICS LIE. He mentioned his SPONSOR (@half way through) but failed to identify it. A Academic will find the statistics that please their SPONSOR, it's just a mater of $.

It has???

I don't care for the question - it doesn't seem to match the video. I disagree totally with Art. What we have is a system that was based by our forefathers on Christian principles. I believe these principals are part of Judaism based on the commonalities in the Bible. As far as I can see then the system was established in these principles and nothing else can come in and demand change. The system provides room for all but the problem is that Muslims want to control it all - they are trying to take over based on their beliefs in the Koran - don't tell me it isn't so - I worked in the Middle East for a number of years and they are leaving a bigger footprint on our soil with their demands - their way or death to disbelievers. (My South African roommate went to see a stoning)

Excellent post! Thank you for posting. Though I do hope you understand that you are posting from REASON.tv to an audience largely hostile to reason.

Greg P.

Art has thick skin.

1.) Criminals try to 'reason' away their guilt for their crimes as well.

2.) Bleeding heart liberals regularly make excuses for the violent criminals by saying that the perpetrator had a good 'reason' for committing his crime because he was abused as a child--we should be lenient.

I find my audience is quite reasonable.

Insulting them is not reasonable.

If you respect reason, you will offer analysis not insults.

Though I've read several posts that back my claim, in respect for your wishes, in your thread I will comply

Analysis: The world is much smaller than it used to be... this has served to both reduce violence in the world overall BUT it has also given more access such that all the visibility of world events AND the "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality of the media can easily lead people who are narrow in their scope to believe the opposite is true.

The fact of the matter is this.. if we are talking TRENDS, there hasn't been, in recorded history, a time when the entire world population as a whole was this "civil". Certainly there is a ways to go. I'm basing this on the level of violence in the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, the Dark Ages, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution, The Atlantic Slave Trade, the Colonial Wars w/ the British and Native Americans, The Civil War, Jim Crow and two World Wars - and that's only Western civilizations. Certainly, the last 50 years have seen much less violence with a few spikes here and here (especially considering those civil wars in Rawanda and Uganda).

I do caution though that 50 years may not be a very significant amount of time in which to declare a "trend" but, if there is a small one, it's definitely for the better.

Greg P.

While I agree with most of what you wrote except of course the crusades, Jim Crow and British empire you must acknowledge that the HUGE exception of the 20th century were the world wars. You must throw out these ENORMOUS outliers to achieve the trend Pinker discusses.

Civility expanded dramatically post WW2 when the USA was the dominant nation in the world.

This is no coincidence.

"You must throw out these ENORMOUS outliers to achieve the trend Pinker discusses." No you don't have to throw these wars out because he's specifically talking about the last 50 years (which doesn't include any World Wars).

And while the USA was the dominant nation in the world post WWII, I think the direct cause of the decrease in violence had to do with the advances in communication (which the USA led the world in for most of the last half century). In otherwords, who ever was the dominant power, having a "smaller" world I think would have had the same effect.

Greg P.

Interesting...please tell me what you mean by 'communication'.

Do you mean the internet or phone/radio/tv?

I mean all of those mediums! In the last half century, the "world stage" has progressively become larger and larger. The effect has been to humanize people who were otherwise just an "idea" on the other side of the world. I think you can look to the struggles between India and Pakistan or Tibet and China and all of the Arab Spring revolutions as proof. This isn't to say these events were non-violent, but not nearly as bad as they WOULD have been were the world not looking.

Greg P.

I don't know what fairy tail land Mr Pinker lives in but the crimes where I live have increased exponentially since the Barry "King Con" took the thrown.

[...]

Greg - zip it - I'm a retired college teacher and Pinker presents some interesting possibilities but it is "pie-in-the-sky: thinking - the moderator said that the other researchers (sociologists or whatever) totally disagreed with Pinker. His thoughts are interesting but it doesn't make it true - I agree with tff - I'm shocked at the increases in crime in many places here and in the world.

One last thought - currently, we are experiencing a huge increase in violence from the Wall Street protesters - jails are full in many cities - I don't see a decrease plus many crimes aren't being reported because of a lack of police and over-crowded courts

You wrote this "The system provides room for all but the problem is that Muslims want to control it all".

You also used the Occupy Movement as an example of increasing violence. Please understand when you are that simple minded, anecdotal qualifiers like "I was a teacher!" or "my South African friend once saw..." or " This one time at band camp..." hold no weight. It is literally as compelling as a 5th grader trying to prove something to me with the evidence that "his daddy told him so".

Greg P.

Again,

Insulting others is not reasonable. If you could offer more analysis and less personal attacks perhaps we could make progress.

Notice I did not insult you.

Because ultimately nonviolence is more successful...as explained in "The Search for a Nonviolent Future" by Nagler.

i am sorry but i disagree. the middle east is about to explode. in the near future we could very well be at war with iran and islam is once again on it own crusade to kill anyone who does not convert to islam. riots all through europe an now here at home. i believe violence is going to rise and a lot of it is caused by obama's incredibly bad foreign policy. just south of our border over 20,000 people have been killed in the war with the drug cartels who obama helped arm i might add. i cannot think of a more dangerous time. yeaterday our intellegence said they think iran has enough enriched uranium for 4 nukes. iran is the no. 1 terrorist backing country in the world and they want israel and us evaporated. our judeo-christian morality is under full attack by socialist,communist and isalm.