How do your counts go up and down?

It looks like if you disable an NPC they go up?
Is that correct?

I had counts of 2,1,1 and killed 4 NPC's..
I ended up with a count of 3,8,8
Don't much understand that...
Is that correct?
I had no other player interactions

What causes them to go back down again?
Other than being smacked silly?

They eventually go back to the original settings, 3/5/5 I think. NPCs do not affect it. As I've heard it, what happens is the effect of an action wears off after 24 hours, so disabling someone will increase your counter by one, and then it will drop down by one 24 hours later. Not positive that's correct, but I've heard that.

i think it drops by half every 24 hours. ive had my counter go from 49 to 24 after 1 day then to 3 by the second day.