The recent events in Bosnia and Rwanda are simple and direct applications of the model. Absolute violence, again, is a function of civilization, vastly aided by modern tools. Grossman himself, though he doesn't spend much of his book discussing social causes of violence, notes the applicability of his model to gang warfare in America. Here again you have the strong authority figure demanding killing and group absolution for the act. Gangs become strong in environments of poverty, lacking other sympathetic authority figures and where there is a shortage of community bonds and of self-respect.
People turn to illegitimate organizations in the lack of any perceived benefit from legitimate ones.
Gang membership serves the innate human need for social contact, may seem to protect the individual against endemic violence, and offers financial benefits not otherwise to be found in a desperately poor environment. Canada, who today runs the Rheedlen Center, an organization combatting violence and promoting neighborhood bonds in Harlem, relates the story of moving to a new neighborhood. He couldn't leave his house for the first week or so because whenever he looked out the window, the local gang of pre-adolescent boys made threatening gestures. In order even to leave the house, he had to be willing to fight someone. I have several times told the story of the friendly, respectable Texas lawyer I know whose proposed solution to homelessness was to dump all homeless people on a Pacific island and supply them with guns and drugs.