From: bshatzer@OregonVOS.net   
      
   On Thu, 3 Mar 2005, Bob Tiernan wrote:   
      
   -snip-   
      
   > Not that crimes occurred - they do even here today, yet we don't refer to   
   > the "wild" America in the age of big, protective government, do we? In   
   > five cattle towns (Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City, and Caldwell)   
   > in the period from 1870 to 1885, only *45* homicides were reported.   
      
   Dykstra's numbers I assume?  The numbers seem to be well supported but it   
   is important to note that these numbers include only homicides within the   
   actual city limits of these towns and exclude any homicides which might   
   have occurred outside the city limits.   
      
   And these places -weren't- that big.  Dodge City was, IIRC, only about   
   18 or 20 square blocks.   
      
   > Anderson and Hill did a study on the frontier and concluded that violence   
   > was often deterred, or dealt with, in institutions typifying   
   > anarcho-capitalism such as land clubs, cattlemens' associations, wagon   
   > trains, and mining camps.   
      
   Execept, of course, none of the 'cattle towns' surveyed by Dyksra relied   
   upon these so-called anarcho-capitalist institutions.  Each and every one   
   was incorporated as a municipality either before or immediately after the   
   first cattle drives began to arrive. And they proceded to establish a   
   -real- municipal government and police force.   
      
   And typically, they were spending forty percent or more of their municipal   
   budgets on law enforcement - which together with the ban on firearms and   
   other weapons within the city limits likely went a long way to keeping the   
   total homicide count to the modestly low levels noted.   
      
   Although, while double checking the above, I did stumble across an   
   interesting factoid which relates to the original inquiry.   
      
   During the period in question (1870-85), only three individuals   
   were convicted of homicide in the five cattle towns surveyed. And   
   none of the three were ever actually hanged although two other folks   
   were done in by overly eager lynch mobs.   
      
   With 45 homicides, three convictions, and no legal hangings, it does   
   seem that frontier justice was a bit less draconian than the pulp   
   novels and hollywood movies would have us believe - ignoring the two   
   lynchings of course.   
      
   Cheers and all,   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)