Personal security since 1820

Abstract

Personal security reflects a crucial component of well-being. This chapter relies on homicide rates (the number of intentional deaths per 100 000 inhabitants) to trace changes of violence in time and space. It finds that Western Europe was already quite peaceful from the 19th century onwards, but homicide rates in the United States have been high by comparison. Large parts of Latin America and Africa are also violent crime "hotspots", and so is the former Soviet Union (especially since the fall of communism), while large parts of Asia show low homicide rates. Homicide rates are in general negatively correlated with GDP per capita-the richer a country, the lower the level, but there are important exceptions. In addition, the chapter describes changes in the probability that a random individual lives in a country experiencing an armed internal or external conflict.

Interpersonal Violence in Chile, c. 1880s–2010s: A Tale of Delayed but Successful Convergence

“…In this article we analyze the evolution of interpersonal violence in Chile from the 1880s to the 2010s, taking as a proxy the rate of homicides. 1 Interpersonal violence is an important indicator of a society's well-being (Baten et al 2014;OECD 2011), and it is typically developing countries that lack data on welfare before the 1950s. Interpersonal violence is an important variable to assess economic development because in highly violent societies, social capital is typically lower, while higher rates of violence are often associated with lower human capital 2 (Gust and Baten 2019).…”

“…More importantly, personal security reflects another crucial component of well-being: well-being is higher if people do not fear becoming victims of crime, in particular of a serious crime such as homicide. Feeling insecure limits daily activities and functioning: fear of violent crime is as important as crime itself (Baten et al 2014;OECD 2011).…”

“…One negative consequence of higher interpersonal violence is that gender inequality increases, leading to less female autonomy (Gust and Baten 2019). Homicide rates are also important because they are usually negatively correlated with GDP per capita-the richer a country, the lower the level of homicides, although there are important exceptions, such as the United States (a rich country with high homicide rates) or Nigeria (the opposite to the United States), which means that in some cases personal security has a limited influence on economic growth (Baten et al 2014). 3 Thus, our aim in this article is to analyze how the rate of intentional homicide has varied over time in Chile and to identify the main reasons for these changes.…”

“…We also wanted to compare the Chilean experience to that of the countries enjoying the lowest homicide rates in the world, as well as analyzing Chile's position within Latin America. Although there is an important body of literature on violent crime in developed Western societies from the medieval period onward (e.g., Baten et al 2014;Eisner 2003aEisner , 2008Eisner , 2011Eisner , 2013Gurr 1981Gurr , 1989Mares 2009;Roth 2001Roth , 2011Thome 2001), and despite the advances made by social science historians in our understanding of patterns in the history of homicide rates, some countries, such as Chile, have been largely ignored. Chile in turn has many peculiarities that deserve a study on its own.…”

“…All in all, the evolution of homicides rates in Chile does not add meaningful evidence to the timing of the Great Divergence. It would be, therefore, useful to fill in these blank spaces (Baten et al 2014;Eisner 2003a).…”