Manuel Eisner
is Wolfson Professor of Criminology, researching the history of interpersonal violence. The current Deputy Director of the University of Cambridge's Institute of Criminology, he founded the in 2014. Prof Eisner conducted a study on levels of homicide throughout Europe over a period of 800 years. He found out that violence and homicide are declining in Europe. His research has highlighted the ways in which cultural models of conduct of life, embedded in social institutions, have shaped patterns of daily behaviour among adolescent and young adult men, which in turn have influenced the likelihood of frictions leading to aggressive behaviour. He is also recognised for his studies on the developmental causes of crime and delinquency and advocates the effectiveness of early prevention during childhood. Recent projects include the and the , a global birth-cohort study in eight cities across the world. The most recent projects are on the Covid-19 page at .
Study of homicide in Europe over 800 years
Eisner's work on the very long-term trends in violence are often cited. He has summarised the patterns from some 350 historical studies. At the local level, across Europe, levels of violence were extremely high by modern standards. Typically, small groups would battle their neighbours, using the farm tools at hand such as knives, sickles, hammers and axes. Mayhem and death were deliberate. The vast majority of people lived in rural areas. Cities were few and small in size, but their concentration of population was conducive to violence. Long-term studies of places such as Amsterdam, Stockholm, Venice and Zurich show the same pattern of decline. Between around 1200 and 1800, death rates from violent episodes - not including warfare - declined by a factor of 10, from 32 deaths per 100 000 people to 3.2 per 100 000. In the 20th century. the rate was only 1.4 per 100 000 to 50. Police and prisons did not exist before the mid-19th century, so the decline is usually attributed to a steady increase in self-control, necessitated by schools and factories.| Homicide rates in Europe | Deaths per year per 100 000 population |
| 13-14th centuries | 32 |
| 15th century | 41 |
| 16th century | 19 |
| 17th century | 11 |
| 18th century | 3.2 |
| 19th century | 2.6 |
| 20th century | 1.4 |
Awards
- 2001 Elected Chair of the National Research Program “Right-wing Extremism: Causes and Countermeasures” by the Swiss National Science Foundation
- 2007 Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology
- 2011 Recipient of Sellin-Glueck Award, American Society of Criminology
- 2017 Recipient of the European Criminology Award ESC for Lifetime Achievement