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Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 16, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Saw a tweet floating around linking a paper that talked about how a lot of European countries executed 0.5-1% of their population every year during the middle ages or something like that, does anyone have access to this or something similar? Can't seem to find it

It's 0.5-1% of males per generation.

Western Europe, State Formation, and Genetic Pacification

Harpending

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/147470491501300114

That’s exactly the one, thanks!

That doesn't sound right. Maybe the average person had a 0.5-1% lifetime chance of being executed.

The Old Bailey Online has criminal records dating to 1674, if that helps at all. https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

This looks like a decent analysis of executions during a somewhat later period.