Firearms and the Decline of Violence in Europe: 1200-2010


  •  Carlisle E. Moody    

Abstract

Personal violence, has declined substantially in Europe from 1200-2010. The conventional wisdom is that the state’s monopoly on violence is the cause of this happy result. I find some evidence that does not support this hypothesis. I suggest an alternative hypothesis that could explain at least some of the reduction in violence, namely that the invention and proliferation of compact, concealable, ready-to-use firearms caused potential assailants to recalculate the probability of a successful assault and seek alternatives to violence. I use structural change models to test this hypothesis and find breakpoints consistent with the invention of certain firearms.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
  • ISSN(Print): 1918-7173
  • ISSN(Online): 1918-7181
  • Started: 2009
  • Frequency: quarterly

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  • Google-based Impact Factor (2021): 0.85
  • h-index (December 2021): 35
  • i10-index (December 2021): 262
  • h5-index (December 2021): 18  
  • h5-median(December 2021): 24

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