Harvard professor calls risk of ISIS attacks ‘exaggerated’ and claims global violence is DECLINING
Psychologist Steven Pinker says rates of crime and violence have been steadily decreasing in the western world for decades
GLOBAL rates of violence are declining and the threat of terrorism is “exaggerated”, according to a leading Harvard scientist.
Acclaimed psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker believes that crime and murder are decreasing and that small isolated pockets or terror should not be allowed to dominate western foreign policy.
His comments come after hundreds of people have lost their lives to ISIS related attacks in France, Germany and the US this year.
While speaking with political think tank the Berggruen Institute, professor Pincher, who teaches in Harvard’s department of psychology, said: “Comparing the two halves of the 20th century, though, shows you that there is a clear trend toward humanism –- why else would we have strived so energetically towards signing a Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
“But we need to remember that when we talk about the decline of international violence, the extent is threefold. We have wars, but there is also ordinary crime and institutional violence.
“If you don’t live in a war zone, it is far more likely that you will be killed by homicide than through any other way. So, all discussion about violence must keep ordinary crime in mind. Here, there has also been a crass decline -– the rate of crimes committed has dropped significantly ever since the Middle Ages, saw a spark again around the 1960s, but since 1990 has been dropping and dropping.
“The third area is institutionalised violence - corporal punishment, capital punishment, the criminalisation of homosexuality, just to name a few examples. In the West, this has declined significantly.”
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And Pincher also discussed the specific threats of Islamic extremist groups which he calls “exaggerated”.
He said: “Threats (from groups) such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State can, and they are, exaggerated.
"The human toll of civil war has increased over the past year, but it is merely taking us back to the casualty count of the year 2000.
"The progress we made in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s has not been wiped out, and although there have been threats to democracy, democratization has not been wiped out as such.
“The civil wars we see are mainly in an area that spans from western Sub-Saharan Africa to Pakistan. Of course the standards we have set are reversible – diseases can come back, religion can, and has already, led back to war.
“What we need to do is figure out how to best deal with them, and have confidence that given the progress we have made, further progress is possible.
“Terrorism being the cause of death is very unlikely in anyone’s life. However, due to the publicity that terrorist attacks generate, it seems completely rational to be afraid of a terrorist attack when in reality we should not be.
“It is a mistake to allow terrorism to dominate foreign policy on a global agenda. In terms of everyday terrorism, the harm is the reaction. Keep in mind that 97% of all terrorist agendas end in failure, so it isn’t even a successful mode of achievement.”
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