Are men really more violent than women?

[Uncayimmy]

Edit to add: Oh, and the entire time I was at college, there were at least eight times I remember a woman claiming to have been raped where it turned out it was a lie.

Yeh, but that was over like, what, 14 years?

I will say that in my personal experience, when a woman I was with really wanted it, she was far more aggressive in getting it than I ever have been and used methods I would never be comfortable using myself.

And a word of advice to the younger men out there: Don't ever, EVER deny your steady woman sex. It's just not worth the consequences.

 

[tyr_13]

At that university? Three years.

 

[gumboot]

I have seen pretty decent studies and statistics that establish that, in terms of domestic violence, women are probably equally, if not more violent than men.

There is a rather substantial point to consider, however.

Men are, generally, physically stronger than women, and therefore more likely to cause serious physical damage.

(If you measure violence in terms of physical damage inflicted, I would agree that this makes males more violent)

The above is one of the key arguments for why domestic violence statistics are so heavily skewed against men. Another key one is that when both partners are being violent, usually only one partner is arrested and it is usually the male. Reasons for this include:

-Police generally seek to diffuse the situation by removing one person from the property
-Women are more likely to be the complainants and police tend to side with the person making the complaint
-Most police officers are male, and feel more comfortable arresting a male
-Police are reluctant to remove mothers from their children
-Society has a bias perception of males being more violent

The above is interesting because statistically, research indicates that males are more likely to engage in reciprocal violence (the other partner is also being violent) while females are more likely to engage in non-reciprocal violence. This tends to indicate that domestic violence is often started by women, however the greater physical strength of males leads to them escalating the situation more substantially.

Another factor that can't be ignored in statistics is "over reporting". New Zealand police estimate that well over half of all sexual assault/rape complaints made by women are false, and claims of domestic violence made by women are becoming common tools in custody disputes and other relationship issues.

 

[PhantomWolf]

This is just one study that indicates that when it comes to domestic violence, it's pretty much 50/50. The major difference is that men can inflict greater damage and also take more damage. Women are more likely to use a weapon of some sort. Men generally won't admit to their female partner assulting them.

 

[rjh01]

I wonder who is guilty of violence towards their children more
- Fathers
- Mothers

This includes physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

I like gumboot's post. Most men are stronger than most women, so they can succeed in getting what they want physically. Women must use other methods that leave no physical evidence behind.

 

[JoeyDonuts]

It's a good issue that should be discussed, as it definitely influences the way that laws are written.

I believe that in Nevada whenever there is a complaint of domestic violence called in, the police HAVE to arrest one of the two parties by law. Interesting.

 

[PhantomWolf]

It's a good issue that should be discussed, as it definitely influences the way that laws are written.

I believe that in Nevada whenever there is a complaint of domestic violence called in, the police HAVE to arrest one of the two parties by law. Interesting.

Amd I bet 99 times out of 100 if they can't tell who was at fault they arrest the guy.

 

[JoeyDonuts]

Meh. Pop 'er a good one in the face. That'll learn 'er.

(Hmmm...this doesn't have to be violent. Giggity Giggity!!!)

 

[Ivor the Engineer]

I agree. However, what you are looking at is the immediate changes of testosterone instead of long term baseline levels. Hormones have short term and longer term actions in both physiology and behavior. You arguing that the immediate levels have little correlation with aggression but say nothing about the long baseline levels.

An individual's absolute long-term testosterone level does not correlate well with his/her level of aggressiveness. Studies on prison populations confirm this.

Men and women treated with testosterone are more aggressive while men with a lack of testosterone(via real or chemical castration) are less aggressive.

Yes, but those changes have to be large to significantly affect aggressiveness.

I believe that cultural issues play a more major role in aggression but Testosterone definitely plays a role(major or minor is still being argued) but not the only role in aggression.

I agree. In answer to the OP, men are certainly more more physically violent, but aggression is a lot more than just physical violence.

 

[332nd]

I would say men are more prone to violence but women (once pushed to the point of violence) are more violent.

ETA: granted this is based on personal observation.

 

[Francesca R]

Yes, men really are more violent than women.

 

[JoeyDonuts]

Yes, men really are more violent than women.

Oh yeah? Remember you said that the next time you see some other girl wearing the same dress it took you an hour to pick out.

Just let me know in advance so I can be in another hemisphere.

[/snark]

 

[Tanja]

I have just been reading the Home Office bulletin on crime in England and Wales 2007/2008, and it states the following, based on the British Crime Survey (referred to as BCS in the quoted paragraph):

Risk of victimisation varies by personal characteristics, with men, and in particular young
men, being at greatest risk of victimisation according to the BCS.
• The risk of being a victim of violent crime in the 2007/08 BCS was 3.2 per cent. Men
(4.1%) were almost twice as likely as women (2.3%) to have experienced some sort of
violence in the year prior to interview. The risk for men aged 16 to 24 was highest at
13.4 per cent.
• Not only did men have the highest risk of violent crime victimisation, but 87 per cent of
violent incidents involved male offenders.

(bolding mine)

 

[Tanja]

Some further information from the same report:

• Domestic violence was the only category of violence for which the risk for women
(0.6%) was significantly higher than for men (0.2%). Risk of stranger and acquaintance
violence was substantially greater for men than for women; 2.1 per cent of men were
victims of stranger violence, compared with 0.6 per cent of women based on 2007/08
interviews (Table 3.01).
• Violence against men is much more likely to be stranger violence: 45 per cent of violent
incidents against men were stranger violence, compared with 19 per cent of incidents
against women. Conversely, 33 per cent of violent incidents against women were
domestic violence, compared with four per cent of incidents against men.
• In the majority of incidents of domestic violence the victims were women (85%) while
for incidents of stranger violence most victims were men (78%, Table 3.03).

The full report (all 238 pages of it) can be found here.

 

[KingMerv00]

I have seen pretty decent studies and statistics that establish that, in terms of domestic violence, women are probably equally, if not more violent than men...snip

This is just one study that indicates that when it comes to domestic violence, it's pretty much 50/50. The major difference is that men can inflict greater damage and also take more damage. Women are more likely to use a weapon of some sort. Men generally won't admit to their female partner assulting them.

I mentioned in the OP that this might be true. However, even if domestic violence is 50/50, it fails to explain the gap in other violent crime.

 

[Cainkane1]

I had a manager one time and that lady caused every assistant to resign. I knew of four human resource workers who quit because of her. She was vile tempered, profane and bAsically difficult to work with. When I became old enough to retire from there it was the best day of my life. In her case I'm quite certain that under a correct set of circumstances she was capable of murder.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Offshoot of a chat session...

Well here's a good reason to don critical thinking hats.

Statistics show that men are much more likely to be accused and convicted of violent crimes. Does this mean men are more prone to violence than women?

Thta's not the same thing as what you asked in the title of the thread, King.

(Note: Even if men are more prone, this doesn't necessarily suggest a genetic cause. It is possible men are pressured by society to be more violent.)

I will illustrate:

Watch NFL football game. See men in team colors smashing into one another and knocking each other down. See women in team colors. Smiling and dancing and having a great time. QED, of course.

It's a fair cop, but society is to blame. (And so it Pete Roselle, so we'll charge him too. )

DR

 

[Beerina]

I can't help wondering if you actually live in the world.

The answer is yes.

The reason, mainly, testosterone.

I'm all for critical thinking and even philosophy, but there's no reason to ignore the things you know.

Women are also more likely (presumably) to be able to successfully use the "he was beating me on a regular basis" defense, or "I was scared for my life". Unless the study corrected for that and only compared, say, people robbing stores who killed someone.

 

[Cuddles]

A lot of this discussion seems to be ignoring the real question in the thread. It's certainly possible that some areas of violent crime are more evenly distributed between the genders, domestic violence being one, but there can be little doubt that violent crime as a whole is dominated by men. How many muggings are by women? How many murders? How much gang violence? How many militias and suicide bombings? Women are certainly represented in all these, but there's really no question that men are involved far more.

There are some obvious reasons for some of this. To start with, culture and tradition is clearly a big influence. For example, I deliberately included only informal militas and not armed forces because until recently women simply didn't have the option of joining, and even now they face significant restrictions. This means that you can't really compare women and men for legal violence, because they haven't been given equal opportunities to be violent. However, this also means that men are often raised to see some violence as a good thing, and are even encouraged with things like play fighting while growing up. Women generally have no such encouragement or pressure.

Without addressing whether men are more inclined to violence, there are some obvious reasons why men have more opportunity to be violent. Plain size and strength are clearly important. If a 7 foot, 20 stone man stops me in an alley and demands my wallet, I'll think rather more than twice before arguing even if he doesn't have a weapon. If a 5 foot, 8 stone woman does the same, I could probably beat her even if she has a (non-gun) weapon. The same applies to most violence, criminal or otherwise. Regardless of their inclinations, women, on average, just aren't as physically capable of being violent. This also addresses the issue of severity - even if a woman is violent she will, on average, be able to cause less severe damage.

Rape has been mentioned, and is again an area that is easier for men for one simple reason - errections. It is generally far easier for a man to rape a woman than for a woman to rape a man. This is also true for cases where claims of rape are questionable due to drunkeness. If a woman is drunk enough to be considered unable to consent, she can still have sex. If a man is that drunk, it's quite likely he couldn't have sex even if he really wanted to. This means that, whether you consider such cases spurious or not, men just don't have the same chance of being on the receiving end. Sure there are various different circumstances involving who does what to who, but in general, men are far more capable of rape than women, even discounting the physical strength issues noted above. On the inclination side, a man does not risk becoming pregnant from raping someone, whereas a woman would, so even with all other things being equal I would expect less rape by women.

Put all this together and it seems clear that women don't have the same social pressure towards violence, have less opportunity to be violent, are less capable of carrying out violence and can't do as much should they choose to be violent. All on average of course. Are there areas where women are as violent as men? Sure, incidence-wise at least if not in severity. Does this mean women are as violent as men? Obviously not. And that's all before you start considering hormones and possible genetic predisposition.

 

[ConspiRaider]

Yes, men really are more violent than women.

Pretty much says it all right there, FR. Of course we are. Do people live life with their eyes shut and ears stoppered?