* Chapter 1. What is violence?* Is violence innate?* Violence and manliness* Semen and blood: a history of honour* Chapter 2. Violence: seven centuries of spectacular decline* The reliability of the crime figures* Seven centuries of decline* The 'making' of young men* Chapter 3. The youth festivals of violence (thirteenth to seventeenth centuries)* A culture of violence* Violent festivities and brutal games* Youth violence* Chapter 4. The urban peace at the end of the Middle Ages* The pacificatory towns* Controlling the young* Violence costs dear* Chapter 5. Cain and Medea. Homicide and the construction of sexed genders (1500-1650)* A judicial revolution* In pursuit of the ungrateful son: the spread of the blood taboo* Medea, the guilty mother* Chapter 6. The noble duel and popular revolt. The metamorphoses of violence* The duel, a French exception* Noble youths sharpen their swords* Popular violence and the frustrations of youth* Chapter 7. Violence tamed (1650-1960)* Murder forbidden* The civilizing town* Violence and changing concepts of honour in the countryside* Chapter 8. Mortal thrills and crime fiction (sixteenth to twentieth centuries)* The devil, assuredly &-- The birth of the crime fiction* From blood-thirsty murderer to well-loved bandit* Blood and ink* Chapter 9. The return of the gangs. Contemporary adolescence and violence* Death in paradise* Juvenile delinquency*'Rebel without a cause', or 'eternal recurrence'* Is the end of violence possible?