Roger L. B
Thu, Aug-05-04, 18:18
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Men and violence: do you have a problem with that?
Written by Ciaran Mulholland
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/whoisnd.htm>, consultant
psychiatrist/senior lecturer in mental health
A man's world
Violence is a common feature of most societies. Statistically,
we know that it's predominantly a male characteristic,
particularly one of young males. In England and Wales for
example, more than 90 per cent of violent offenders are male,
and half of those are aged between 17 and
24. So why are men, and particularly young men, so prone to
acts of violence?
Natural-born fighters
One theory, known as the instinct hypothesis, proposes that
aggression is a natural instinct, and has the biological
function of ensuring the proper spacing of animals, thereby
helping to maintain the stability of the group. The originator
of this idea, Conrad Lorenz, observed that members of the same
species were aggressive towards each other when they were
subject to specific threats. He believed that violent
instincts in man are normally expressed in a socially approved
way in the modern world, for example through sport, and that
failure to find such expression leads to undesirable
aggressive acts.
Driven mad
Another view is the frustrated-drive theory. Put simply, this
states that aggression arises as a result of the frustration
of not getting one's own way. In other words, when an
individual is prevented from achieving a goal, this leads to
frustration and, possibly, aggression/violence. The degree of
aggression that results from this frustration depends on how
important the person perceives their goal to be, and on the
number of times they have been thwarted in achieving it.
Frustration may not necessarily lead to aggression if other
inhibiting forces are present, such as awareness of the
anticipated consequences of aggression (eg punishment). And
aggression, when it occurs, may be displaced onto objects
other than the frustrating agent (eg kicking a cat when you're
actually angry with the cat's owner).
This view may explain some aspects of aggression but it cannot
account for the whole picture. Frustration leads to different
responses in different people. Some respond with dejection and
resignation, others with a positive, active effort to overcome
whatever barriers are in their way. This theory also fails to
explain some types of violence, including sadistic acts or
those carried out in defence of a reputation.
Chemical reaction
So, if violent acts are not simply the result of frustration
due to external stimuli, perhaps we need to look at the human
body (particularly the male body) itself for clues. There has
been much controversy as to the role of male hormones in
aggression. Some argue that testosterone predisposes men to
aggression. This has been borne out in part by studies that
show that men who abuse steroids while bodybuilding are more
aggressive and explosive than those who do not.
It is beyond argument that men have more testosterone in their
circulation than females and that men are more aggressive.
Typically, males produce about 25 times as much testosterone
per day as females. Male testosterone levels peak in the late
teens and remain high until the mid-20s: precisely the time in
which male aggressiveness and violence is most common.
But it's clear that testosterone does not lead to violence in
itself. The evidence from studies on bodybuilders cannot be
taken entirely at face value. Individuals who abuse anabolic
steroids often abuse other drugs too, including alcohol,
cocaine and amphetamines, and are often highly aggressive and
competitive prior to this abuse. So while it's likely that
increased levels of testosterone aggravate a tendency towards
violence in some men, it does not follow that all men are
naturally violent.
Aggravating the aggression
The theories above seek to explain violence in society in
general and violence from men in particular. But, because
it's such a complex social phenomenon, violence can perhaps
best be understood as the final outcome of an intricate web
of interacting factors. The following are some of the factors
that have an effect on how violently we (and particularly
men) behave.
Personality
Some individuals over-control their emotions while
others under-control them. Both these personality types
are more prone to violence than the norm. Those who
under-control are more likely to be frequently
aggressive, while the over-controllers are more likely
to be infrequently but extremely aggressive. The
under-controlled person learns with practice to contain
their aggression, while the over-controlled person,
being unused to aggressive feelings and reactions, loses
control once the aggressive outburst begins, often with
severe consequences.
Immediate social group
The influence of the immediate social group is very
important. This can be seen in the case of football
hooligans, angry crowds or young men out at night
drinking in groups, where the aggression may merely take
the form of posturing or may turn to actual violence. An
individual's behaviour in the group may owe more to the
effect of the group pressure than to his own experience.
The behaviour of the victim
Victims of violence are often well known to the
aggressor. Statistics show that 25 per cent of
homicides, the victim appears to play a substantial
part in precipitating the violence by provoking the
aggressor. In one study, half of spouse murder victims
were found to be alcoholic or psychotic and had played
a significant part in their own death. Controversial
studies of battered wives have also revealed a
sub-group who were repeatedly provocative to their
explosive husbands.
Alcohol and drugs
Fifty per cent of violent incidents occur in or near
public houses and alcohol is often involved in acts of
violence that occur in the home. There is a clear link
between the abuse of alcohol and aggressive behaviour.
The reason for this is that in some cases alcohol
reduces the inhibitions that might normally prevent
someone from acting aggressively.
The link between drugs and aggression, meanwhile,
seems to be connected with the need to obtain drugs
(or to obtain money for drugs), which can lead to
violent crime.
Personal surroundings
Overcrowding, temperature, noise and social pressures
all affect the level of violence in a society. Social
customs are important, but to what extent is difficult
to quantify. Recently, there has been much debate about
the role of violence in film, but how much (if at all)
violent films affect individual attitudes towards
violence is unclear.
Physiological changes
A disturbance in the body's chemistry or physiology -
perhaps brought on by fatigue, hunger or lack of sleep
- may alter a person's self-control. Medical conditions
can sometimes play a role, eg a person taking
medication for diabetes may develop low blood sugar
(hypoglycaemia) if they miss a meal and can become
aggressive as a result.
Also, people who've had a head injury (eg in a road
traffic accident) can be irritable and aggressive as a
result, even if the injury was relatively mild. The
situation is complicated by the fact that those who are
more irritable and aggressive in the first place are
more likely to receive a head injury in a road traffic
accident or through an assault. Very rarely, a serious
condition such as a brain tumour may be the reason for
aggression.
Mental abnormality
Violence is sometimes associated with various forms of
mental illness and mental handicap. This is not the case
with most violent incidents and is not an issue for the
vast majority of men who are prone to violence. A more
common example would be a man with depression who cannot
or will not admit this to himself, and who responds to
his difficulties by being irritable or violent towards
his family. In these situations, a family will often
describe a clear change in the aggressor's personality.
Treatment should lead to a resolution of the problem.
Social circumstances
Much of the violence in present-day society is
associated with social deprivation. Many offenders are
either unemployed or employed in low-status, low-income
jobs. Many come from areas of poverty and deprivation.
Additionally, studies on young, violent men demonstrate
a number of common background features. Violent youths
tend to lack at least one loving, reliable, supportive
adult figure. Many will have suffered physical or sexual
abuse or some other trauma, and lack any philosophical
or religious belief system to provide meaning and
purpose. A child who suffers repeated trauma might grow
up to be an adult who is impulsively angry and
aggressive. It may be that the body produces stress
hormones at an excessive rate in these circumstances,
and so the individual is constantly in a state of
'hair-trigger' alert. There is evidence that crime,
including violent crime, decreases in times of economic
prosperity and increases in times of recession.
There is also evidence that violent crime becomes less
common when society is more cohesive and nurturing. It
is probable that the intensely competitive nature of
Western societies leads to increased aggression and
violence, especially among those who do not prosper.
What can be done about male aggression?
For the individual who is prone to temper tantrums,
irritability or aggression, there are a number of factors that
can be addressed.
* A person who is excessively aggressive should avoid
alcohol and stimulating drugs.
* A person who is prone to aggression should try to
identify particular situations that prompt such
aggression and avoid them.
* Aggression is often associated with increased arousal.
An aggressive person can learn to relax in a number of
different ways, eg through physical exercise, relaxation
tapes or taking up yoga. In this way, their general
level of arousal is decreased and they are less likely
to become involved in violent incidents.
* Aggression can be dealt with through specific
anger-management courses. These are provided by the NHS
and by voluntary groups. Through these courses
individuals can come to understand the particular
factors that lead to aggression or violence and can
learn to cope with their aggressive impulses.
Some individuals may be aggressive as a result of a
physical or a
psychiatric illness. This is relatively uncommon but it does
occur. Two examples of such illnesses are diabetes and
depression. Individuals with such complaints should make an
arrangement to see their doctor, as treatment may well help
their situation. Others may be more prone to aggression
because of a long-standing medical problem, such as an old
head injury. This condition is more difficult to treat but
sometimes medication helps. More often, the general measures
already outlined above will be more helpful.
Clearly, the issue of male violence in society is an extremely
complex one. It is no longer appropriate for us to explain
violent behaviour as purely a result of some kind of
'intrinsic evil' - that an aggressive person is merely a 'bad
seed'. Violent behaviour may be seen as a combination of
physical, psychological and, particularly, social factors.
Instead of kneejerk condemnation of people with violent
tendencies, perhaps we should bear in mind that aggressive
people are likely to have been the victims of violence
themselves.
References Anthony Clare. On Men: Masculinity in Crisis.
Chatto & Windus, London, 2000.
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/menshealth/feature/men_and_vi-
olence.htm
--
Respectfully, Roger L. Bagula tftn@earthlink.net,
11759Waterhill Road, Lakeside,Ca 92040-2905,tel: 619-5610814 :
URL : http://home.earthlink.net/~tftn URL :
http://victorian.fortunecity.com/carmelita/435/
--------------060203000301000606000703--
text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Men and violence: do you have a problem with that?
Written by Ciaran Mulholland
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/whoisnd.htm>, consultant
psychiatrist/senior lecturer in mental health
A man's world
Violence is a common feature of most societies. Statistically,
we know that it's predominantly a male characteristic,
particularly one of young males. In England and Wales for
example, more than 90 per cent of violent offenders are male,
and half of those are aged between 17 and
24. So why are men, and particularly young men, so prone to
acts of violence?
Natural-born fighters
One theory, known as the instinct hypothesis, proposes that
aggression is a natural instinct, and has the biological
function of ensuring the proper spacing of animals, thereby
helping to maintain the stability of the group. The originator
of this idea, Conrad Lorenz, observed that members of the same
species were aggressive towards each other when they were
subject to specific threats. He believed that violent
instincts in man are normally expressed in a socially approved
way in the modern world, for example through sport, and that
failure to find such expression leads to undesirable
aggressive acts.
Driven mad
Another view is the frustrated-drive theory. Put simply, this
states that aggression arises as a result of the frustration
of not getting one's own way. In other words, when an
individual is prevented from achieving a goal, this leads to
frustration and, possibly, aggression/violence. The degree of
aggression that results from this frustration depends on how
important the person perceives their goal to be, and on the
number of times they have been thwarted in achieving it.
Frustration may not necessarily lead to aggression if other
inhibiting forces are present, such as awareness of the
anticipated consequences of aggression (eg punishment). And
aggression, when it occurs, may be displaced onto objects
other than the frustrating agent (eg kicking a cat when you're
actually angry with the cat's owner).
This view may explain some aspects of aggression but it cannot
account for the whole picture. Frustration leads to different
responses in different people. Some respond with dejection and
resignation, others with a positive, active effort to overcome
whatever barriers are in their way. This theory also fails to
explain some types of violence, including sadistic acts or
those carried out in defence of a reputation.
Chemical reaction
So, if violent acts are not simply the result of frustration
due to external stimuli, perhaps we need to look at the human
body (particularly the male body) itself for clues. There has
been much controversy as to the role of male hormones in
aggression. Some argue that testosterone predisposes men to
aggression. This has been borne out in part by studies that
show that men who abuse steroids while bodybuilding are more
aggressive and explosive than those who do not.
It is beyond argument that men have more testosterone in their
circulation than females and that men are more aggressive.
Typically, males produce about 25 times as much testosterone
per day as females. Male testosterone levels peak in the late
teens and remain high until the mid-20s: precisely the time in
which male aggressiveness and violence is most common.
But it's clear that testosterone does not lead to violence in
itself. The evidence from studies on bodybuilders cannot be
taken entirely at face value. Individuals who abuse anabolic
steroids often abuse other drugs too, including alcohol,
cocaine and amphetamines, and are often highly aggressive and
competitive prior to this abuse. So while it's likely that
increased levels of testosterone aggravate a tendency towards
violence in some men, it does not follow that all men are
naturally violent.
Aggravating the aggression
The theories above seek to explain violence in society in
general and violence from men in particular. But, because
it's such a complex social phenomenon, violence can perhaps
best be understood as the final outcome of an intricate web
of interacting factors. The following are some of the factors
that have an effect on how violently we (and particularly
men) behave.
Personality
Some individuals over-control their emotions while
others under-control them. Both these personality types
are more prone to violence than the norm. Those who
under-control are more likely to be frequently
aggressive, while the over-controllers are more likely
to be infrequently but extremely aggressive. The
under-controlled person learns with practice to contain
their aggression, while the over-controlled person,
being unused to aggressive feelings and reactions, loses
control once the aggressive outburst begins, often with
severe consequences.
Immediate social group
The influence of the immediate social group is very
important. This can be seen in the case of football
hooligans, angry crowds or young men out at night
drinking in groups, where the aggression may merely take
the form of posturing or may turn to actual violence. An
individual's behaviour in the group may owe more to the
effect of the group pressure than to his own experience.
The behaviour of the victim
Victims of violence are often well known to the
aggressor. Statistics show that 25 per cent of
homicides, the victim appears to play a substantial
part in precipitating the violence by provoking the
aggressor. In one study, half of spouse murder victims
were found to be alcoholic or psychotic and had played
a significant part in their own death. Controversial
studies of battered wives have also revealed a
sub-group who were repeatedly provocative to their
explosive husbands.
Alcohol and drugs
Fifty per cent of violent incidents occur in or near
public houses and alcohol is often involved in acts of
violence that occur in the home. There is a clear link
between the abuse of alcohol and aggressive behaviour.
The reason for this is that in some cases alcohol
reduces the inhibitions that might normally prevent
someone from acting aggressively.
The link between drugs and aggression, meanwhile,
seems to be connected with the need to obtain drugs
(or to obtain money for drugs), which can lead to
violent crime.
Personal surroundings
Overcrowding, temperature, noise and social pressures
all affect the level of violence in a society. Social
customs are important, but to what extent is difficult
to quantify. Recently, there has been much debate about
the role of violence in film, but how much (if at all)
violent films affect individual attitudes towards
violence is unclear.
Physiological changes
A disturbance in the body's chemistry or physiology -
perhaps brought on by fatigue, hunger or lack of sleep
- may alter a person's self-control. Medical conditions
can sometimes play a role, eg a person taking
medication for diabetes may develop low blood sugar
(hypoglycaemia) if they miss a meal and can become
aggressive as a result.
Also, people who've had a head injury (eg in a road
traffic accident) can be irritable and aggressive as a
result, even if the injury was relatively mild. The
situation is complicated by the fact that those who are
more irritable and aggressive in the first place are
more likely to receive a head injury in a road traffic
accident or through an assault. Very rarely, a serious
condition such as a brain tumour may be the reason for
aggression.
Mental abnormality
Violence is sometimes associated with various forms of
mental illness and mental handicap. This is not the case
with most violent incidents and is not an issue for the
vast majority of men who are prone to violence. A more
common example would be a man with depression who cannot
or will not admit this to himself, and who responds to
his difficulties by being irritable or violent towards
his family. In these situations, a family will often
describe a clear change in the aggressor's personality.
Treatment should lead to a resolution of the problem.
Social circumstances
Much of the violence in present-day society is
associated with social deprivation. Many offenders are
either unemployed or employed in low-status, low-income
jobs. Many come from areas of poverty and deprivation.
Additionally, studies on young, violent men demonstrate
a number of common background features. Violent youths
tend to lack at least one loving, reliable, supportive
adult figure. Many will have suffered physical or sexual
abuse or some other trauma, and lack any philosophical
or religious belief system to provide meaning and
purpose. A child who suffers repeated trauma might grow
up to be an adult who is impulsively angry and
aggressive. It may be that the body produces stress
hormones at an excessive rate in these circumstances,
and so the individual is constantly in a state of
'hair-trigger' alert. There is evidence that crime,
including violent crime, decreases in times of economic
prosperity and increases in times of recession.
There is also evidence that violent crime becomes less
common when society is more cohesive and nurturing. It
is probable that the intensely competitive nature of
Western societies leads to increased aggression and
violence, especially among those who do not prosper.
What can be done about male aggression?
For the individual who is prone to temper tantrums,
irritability or aggression, there are a number of factors that
can be addressed.
* A person who is excessively aggressive should avoid
alcohol and stimulating drugs.
* A person who is prone to aggression should try to
identify particular situations that prompt such
aggression and avoid them.
* Aggression is often associated with increased arousal.
An aggressive person can learn to relax in a number of
different ways, eg through physical exercise, relaxation
tapes or taking up yoga. In this way, their general
level of arousal is decreased and they are less likely
to become involved in violent incidents.
* Aggression can be dealt with through specific
anger-management courses. These are provided by the NHS
and by voluntary groups. Through these courses
individuals can come to understand the particular
factors that lead to aggression or violence and can
learn to cope with their aggressive impulses.
Some individuals may be aggressive as a result of a
physical or a
psychiatric illness. This is relatively uncommon but it does
occur. Two examples of such illnesses are diabetes and
depression. Individuals with such complaints should make an
arrangement to see their doctor, as treatment may well help
their situation. Others may be more prone to aggression
because of a long-standing medical problem, such as an old
head injury. This condition is more difficult to treat but
sometimes medication helps. More often, the general measures
already outlined above will be more helpful.
Clearly, the issue of male violence in society is an extremely
complex one. It is no longer appropriate for us to explain
violent behaviour as purely a result of some kind of
'intrinsic evil' - that an aggressive person is merely a 'bad
seed'. Violent behaviour may be seen as a combination of
physical, psychological and, particularly, social factors.
Instead of kneejerk condemnation of people with violent
tendencies, perhaps we should bear in mind that aggressive
people are likely to have been the victims of violence
themselves.
References Anthony Clare. On Men: Masculinity in Crisis.
Chatto & Windus, London, 2000.
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/menshealth/feature/men_and_vi-
olence.htm
--
Respectfully, Roger L. Bagula tftn@earthlink.net,
11759Waterhill Road, Lakeside,Ca 92040-2905,tel: 619-5610814 :
URL : http://home.earthlink.net/~tftn URL :
http://victorian.fortunecity.com/carmelita/435/
--------------060203000301000606000703--