Quote - Several decades ago a man living in a small community could go to a local bar and get into a brawl and beat another man senseless, and sometimes even accidentally to death, and the odds of him being arrested for it were fairly slim.

Overall crime rates were also considerably lower.

Quote - In what has been frequently termed the "Old South," it was not particularly infrequent for grown men to court and/or marry what today we would all consider to be girls (i.e., children, not adults), and it was likewise true in the Old West that grown men sometimes married child brides of 12 or 14 and sometimes killed each other in the street in front of witnesses and walked away free men.

All of those things still happen today......but with certain caveats.  The relationships with younger girls are normally carried out today without any need for complications like marriage.  And as for "killing someone in the street in front of witnesses and walking away": convicted 1st degree murderers in the US spend about 4 years on the average in prison for their crimes, statistically speaking.  That is to say: those few of them who are actually caught and then actually convicted.

IIRC, something on the order of 76% of the murders which occur in New York City go unsolved.  Nobody saw nuthin'.  In most cases, the police don't even have a suspect.

Did you happen to see the recent news report of the old man who was run over, and no one helped -- or even seemed to be particularly interested?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t4wWGH51-A

Typical.

Quote - Some of these matters may have been due to differing economic conditions, responsibilities, etc., but the point of bringing these things up is not to condone (or even to condemn) the behavior of our forefathers, but to argue that, coinciding with the increasing sophistication of our civilization and increasing ubiquity of our institutions have evolved many more laws, more enforcement, and many more generally accepted rules of morality.

As far as marrying young was concerned: depending upon the precise era to which you refer -- people used to have an average life expectancy of 35-40 years of age.  Under such circumstances, getting married at age 14 might have had some legitimate reasons behind it.

Quote - And perhaps all that, too, contributes to there being so many criminals and perverts about, i.e., some of such behavior, while it may always have been deemed to be irresponsible or in bad taste by some, was once considered to be neither crimes nor, by many, as particularly immoral.

True.  In late Rome it wasn't considered to be particularly perverted to sell castrated boys for sexual purposes.  Or to engage in certain other types of activities.

Give us a little time: we'll come around to it.  We've already come around on so much else.  You know: cultural advancement and all of that.

Something To Do At 3:00AM