Vehicular Homicide in France in the Equine Era

Abstract

Contrary to what would be expected from Norbert Elias, whose theory of the civilizing process links criminal violence to impulsivity, data from the Comptes généraux de l’administration de la justice criminelle en France show that rates of homicide due to imprudence in controlling a horse or cart increased with modernization across départements early in the nineteenth century. Drawing on work by Elias and others, we suggest an interpretation based on traffic congestion and changes in the social construction of time as Western societies became more modernized and urbanized.