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Are men more aggressive than women?

Are men more aggressive than women?

March 28, 2024

Psychology and Criminology have been concerned to investigate what psychological variables are related to crime.

In this way we know, among other data, that young people are more delinquent than adults and men more than women. Does this mean that men are more aggressive than women?

  • Related article: "The neurological bases of aggressive behavior"

Is aggression greater in men?

Female crime has been a forgotten field of study. Likewise, for quite some time, it has been maintained that women, in the commission of crimes, adopt a passive role: accomplice or covert.


However, social progress and the advancement of women in society have made this point of view altered, and today we find that in prisons there is a growing number of women, although it is true that to the increase, nine out of ten inmates are male .

  • Related article: "The 11 types of violence (and the different kinds of aggression)"

Crime and gender differences

We now know that crime is much greater in men than in women, but the crimes of women have not stopped growing. A) Yes, We know that crimes committed by women are less violent , but which are increasingly frequent and committed by younger women (data concluded by the Fontanesi Report of the Council of Europe).


With all these data, we wonder if it is true that man is more aggressive and, consequently, commits more acts of delinquency, or if the woman has been socialized in a different way, has had less opportunities to openly commit crimes and is more influenced by gender expectations that have made it more difficult for them to commit criminal acts and, therefore, by changing this panorama of differences between the sexes, women equate men with aggression and delinquency.

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Innate differences or education?

It is not an easy question to solve, but the investigations point to the fact that a conjunction of biological and psychosocial aspects They explain why men tend to develop more violent behaviors.

Psychosocial aspects of the difference in aggressiveness

On the one hand, we can observe and it has been found that boys present behavior and aggression problems more frequently in childhood, more exploratory behavior, and they play more abrupt activities .


However, in cultures where differences in the way of educating boys and girls are shortened, there are smaller differences in the rate of delinquency by sex. In addition, as we have said, in Western countries, the female crime rate has increased.

On the other hand, children in childhood tend to relate to larger groups in number of people, which leads to more leadership problems than in the groups of girls, which tend to be smaller.

In addition, we must not forget that women have been more socialized to value different qualities of social life, such as honesty and prudence, inhibiting factor of criminal behavior. This perspective it indicates the importance of socialization at the time of developing aggressive behaviors males and to inhibit them in the case of women.

Biological and genetic factors

From the biological point of view, we must take care that males present higher levels of testosterone , which precipitates aggressiveness, and lower levels of estrogen, which promote less aggressiveness. Early hormonal influences in the gestation period, masculinize or feminize the brain, conditioning brain structures, hormone concentration and receptors.

In part because of this the intensity of responses to certain stimuli is different in girls than in boys, generally, responding to boys more aggressively on more occasions. This process of masculinization or feminization is activated again during puberty , presenting the males greater receptivity for testosterone, to which, if certain difficulties or stress are added, it can have a result of violence.

Therefore, despite the existence of different theories and different aspects to explain this reality, it seems to be clarified the fact that there is a biological influence that makes man more vulnerable to the development of violence , and a conjunction of psychosocial influences that foment or inhibit the development of this.


Why are Males often More Physically Aggressive? (March 2024).


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