Abstract
In these two articles, Manuel Eisner is interested in the analysis of the evolution of the violence within the societies and especially within the Western European one. He decides to take the stand of describing the "real changes in behavior rather that methodological artefacts". For that, in his 2003's article, he tries to show that both micro and macro-level interpretations can be useful to understand the trends of violence. In the 2008's article, he looks at the evolution of the violence in the Western European societies in the 20th century.
The work of Norbert Elias is really important to explain the decline of homicide rates in the history. His main theory is the one about the "civilizing process", whom originality is to provide a double frame of analysis. Indeed, he developed a theory which gives an interpretation of this fact at a macro-level (general trends), as well at a micro-level (psychological issues).
At a micro-level: "Higher levels of self-control imply, in turn, the gradual pacification of everyday inter-actions, which becomes manifest in lower levels of violent behavior." It means that the individuals have interiorized social constraints, and became less likely to be violent, because of a collective psychological shift, which led to individual psychological changes.
