The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why violence has declined. By Steven Pinker. New York: Viking, 2011. 832 pp. $20.In April 2013, the Institute for Economics and Peace found that in the past decade rates of murder and violent crime had fallen more rapidly in the UK than in many other countries in Western Europe (Institute for Economics and Peace, 2013). The release of the contentious report was followed by a period, albeit brief, of debate by academics, criminologists and the media, some questioning the veracity of the report and the evidence base which underpinned it, whilst others suggested cause-and-effect deficiencies and poor methodological research. Yet Sir Ian Blair, the former commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, argued that, giventhe downward trend was across the developing world, the fall was due to the ‘change in the way society views and abhors violence’. We are a more violence-averse society, he claimed (BBC, 2013).His comments chime with the findings of Steven Pinker, inhis important and provocative book. The Better Angels of Our Nature - a courageous attempt to provide the requisite evidence and robust argument to challenge conventional assumptions and flawed perceptions about violence. A nuanced, wide-ranging and rigorous assessment of the nature, predictability and extent of violence, the book has relevance for a broad audience including those who set security, justice and conflict policy as well as those who must daily confront the causes and manifestations of violence. This review, written with conflict specialists in mind, seeks to provide information and new knowledge; demonstrate the primacy of evidence and critical appraisal; provoke debate; encourage multi- disciplinary approaches and responses to violence;and stimulate communities of practice.
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