A serious problem with Grossman's article is its premise. It appears that recently the violent crime rate has decreased. The FBI says, at THIS LOCATION that it decreased, and the FBI is not known for minimizing the crime rate. The Census Bureau likewise says the homicide rate fell consistently in the 1990's. CLICK HERE In that time, television fare did not improve, and the tone of society did not get better, or so anyone would notice.

In the United States, violent crime is consistently higher in the South than elsewhere. White southerners are more violent than white northeners. Black southerners are more violent than black northeners. Rural and urban are likewise not the key. Suggesting tradition is an important factor. Note also, violent crime goes down when the times are good. The times are likely to get bad in the near future, and I betcha crime will go up again.

But the amount of personal, or criminal, violence in Westen nations is much lower today than it was a hundred years ago, and a mere shadow of what it was 500 years ago. Wars are a little harder to calculate, but I doubt the level of savagery today is higher than in some early better time. Read, sometime, an account of the Wars of Religion.