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Here's the talk referenced by WalterSear - The Surprising Decline in Violence:

http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violen...

Seems pretty persuasive.

Seems like a problem of measurement. Do we care about how many suffer or what percentage of the world population they represent?

I think the point made in that TED talk was that the numbers don't add up to that, though.

The figures I've seen put us as killing more than all previous generations combined. Granted, this is largely due to there being so many people, but the notion that the people so tormented are a smaller fraction of all people alive is scant comfort. Similar figures note that there are more slaves around (yes, in this day and age) than previously.

Better weapons and systems, wielded by a few.