In Western Europe, Peter Frost notes, a consensus emerged on the need to execute violent males so that law-abiding people could live in peace:
By the Late Middle Ages, courts were condemning to death between 0.5 and 1% of all men in each generation, with perhaps just as many dying at the scene of the crime or in prison while awaiting trial. The pool of violent men dried up until most murders occurred under conditions of jealousy, intoxication or extreme stress. As a result, the homicide rate fell from 20–40 homicides per 100,000 in the Late Middle Ages to 0.5–1 per 100,000 in the mid-20th century.
People could now get ahead through trade and work, rather than through theft and plunder. This new, pacified environment favored the growth of the market economy and the success of those who possessed the necessary skills, especially literacy, numeracy and budgeting. They would become the middle class.
I would be more likely to believe Frost’s theory if he could show that the same thing happened in China and Japan. And how did the murderous, cannibalistic Aztecs become the more moderate Mexicans? Were the Catholic missionaries that good?
Nevertheless, it is clear that violent crime rates are genetic and that the current differences between especially Africans and everyone else are genetically determined.
And now, let’s take a look at the edges of this phenomenon. That is, Protestant Wars, follow-up Protestant Wars, French Revolution…