9 - Homicide in a Global Perspective: Between Marginalisation and Resurgence

Summary

This chapter deals with homicide and serious interpersonal violence in modern Europe, comparing this with the rest of the world for as much as the evidence allows. It focuses, but not exclusively, on male-on-male violence. This is discussed for three subperiods: 1800-1914, 1920-1970, 1970-present. More is known about the global context as we approach the present. In Europe homicide ceased to be a day-to-day affair in urban and rural communities, so that the remaining acts of murder assumed the character of sinister or sensational exceptions. In this connection, the phenomena of serial murder and the underworld are discussed. For the non-Western world, the evidence remains patchy and fragmented up to 1970. Traditional male honor remained important and affected interpersonal violence in independent Latin America as well as Colonial India and Indonesia. Dueling was rather prevalent among European men in colonial societies. The chapter concludes with a tentative thesis that we can speak of a world history of violence since about 1970, under the influence of globalization. International organized crime was a major factor in this.