Sex differences in crime
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- Sex differences in crime
Gender is a factor that plays a role in both human and animal aggression. Males are generally more aggressive than females (Coi & Dodge 1997, Maccoby & Jacklin 1974), and men commit the vast majority of murders (Buss 2005). This is one of the most robust and reliable behavioral sex differences, and it has been found across many different age groups and cultures. There is evidence that males are quicker to aggression (Frey et al 2003) and more likely than females to express their aggression physically (Bjorkqvist et al. 1994). However, some researchers have suggested that females are not necessarily less aggressive, but that they tend to show their aggression in less overt, less physical ways (Bjorkqvist et al. 1994, Hines and Saudino 2003). For example, females may display more verbal and relational aggression, such as social rejection.
Attempts in various fields have tried to explore a possible relation between gender and crime. Such studies may belong to criminology, sociobiology (which attempts to demonstrate a causal relationship between biological factors, in this case sex, and human behaviors), etc. Despite the difficulty to interpret them, crime statistics may provide a way to investigate such a relationship, whose possible existence would be interesting from a gender differences perspective. An observable difference might be due to biological factors (as sociobiological theories claim) or to social and cultural factors. Furthermore, the nature of the crime itself must be considered. Gender and crime matters are often viewed through the perspective of violent crimes, in an attempt to justify common stereotypes that men are more "aggressive" than women. However, such a thesis has yet to be proven. It first requires a pre-definition of "aggressivity", usually related to alleged masculine traits. From a sociobiological point of view, or in the equally controversial field of behavioural genetics, it has included research on an alleged "gene of aggressivity." However, the existence of such a gene, and, more widely, of any specific gene governing, by itself, human behaviour, has been challenged by various geneticists . In The Gene Illusion (2002), Jay Joseph strongly opposed such sociobiological thesis, claiming that genetics could not explain human behavior.
See also
- List of women who have murdered their husbands
- Nature versus Nurture
- Race and crime
- Sex and intelligence
- Killer ape theory
