Abstract
One of the striking variations across humanity is the degree to which people kill, or do not kill, one another. The homicide rate in Japan, at 0.44 per 100,000 populations, is less than one-twelfth the U.S. homicide rate (approximately 5.4 killings per 100,000 people). The U.S. rate is itself almost ten times less than the current homicide rate in Honduras, at 58 per 100,000 per annum. Overall, homicide rates across the world currently vary by a factor of approximately 133. Human diversity in lethal violence is also amply evident over time. The rate of killing from all sources in Europe during World War II—the bloodiest conflict known to date—claimed between 50 and 60 million lives, resulting in a homicide rate that can be estimated to be between approximately 455 and 600 persons per 100,000 per annum. Against this, the homicide rate has in recent decades been between 0 and 3 persons per 100,000 persons annually in Western Europe. (Liechtenstein has registered a killing rate of zero out of a population of more than 35,000 in most recent years.) The rate is somewhat higher in Eastern Europe, between 5 and 10 per 100,000.
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Knauft, B.M. (2011). Violence Reduction Among the Gebusi of Papua New Guinea – And Across Humanity. In: Sussman, R., Cloninger, C. (eds) Origins of Altruism and Cooperation. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects, vol 36. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9520-9_12
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