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Author: m |
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Date Posted: 17:28:29 04/03/07 Tue IS VIOLENCE A GENDER TRAIT? Remember the movie Monster, for which Charlize Theron won an Oscar for her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos? It's one of those movies that you know about even if you didn't see it. That's partially because of Theron's transformation from beauty queen to monstrous serial killer for the role. But it's also partially because the subject was a real-life female serial killer. The rash of serial killer novels, TV plots, and movies since The Silence of the Lambs has given plenty of exploration to the topic of serial killers, but the killer is almost always male. This is true to the facts. Fewer than ten percent of serial killers are female. I'd promised you a newsletter that addressed that disparity, but I'll go further: According to the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, only about 14% of all violent offenders are female, with about 8% of convicted violent offenders being female. If only 14% of violent offenders are female, it's no surprise that a smaller percentage applies to serial killers. The real question seems to be: Why do men commit violent crimes so much more than women? There are two things to take into account before considering the questions. One: Rape is a violent crime, and women can't commit rape. Two: Social evolution since the middle of the Twentieth Century means that men's and women's roles are changing in every area, even crime. So it's useful to keep in mind that in the same way women are catching up to men in terms of representation in Congress, they are catching up in terms of representation in prison. Not to be too glib about it, but opportunity and access have their dark sides. Are Men Monsters? That was just to get your attention. But why do men commit such a great proportion of violent crime? This can get to be a controversial subject, because any time you talk about a difference between the genders you run the risk of stereotyping and implying superiority. But I think we can all acknowledge that there are differences between the sexes, and those differences can give meaning to the statistics that tell us how our behaviors break down along gender lines. First, there is the question of hormones. It has long been believed that increased testosterone levels can be linked to aggressive behavior. Testosterone is a hormone present in both men and women, though it is produced in much greater amounts in men. I just heard about an interesting university study that found that when men handle a gun their testosterone levels rise significantly, even though in the study the subjects were handling - but not aiming or shooting or pretending to shoot - the guns. There are many differing opinions on the hormone issue. The main thing to keep in mind is that even if the hormone does have an influence on behavior, it isn't something that any man couldn't overcome by choice. Second, there are society's expectations. Men are expected to be physically aggressive. Consider the jobs for which men are paid to be (or to prepare to be) physically aggressive: Professional football and other contact sports, the military, law enforcement, etc. Even as women enter some of those professions, they are traditionally male and certainly male-dominated, if not exclusively male. And men are expected to provide protection. You can argue this, but the traditional male role, and one that most men find themselves expected to fill, is that of the protector. Women nurture, men protect. Nothing is ever that black and white, but we're talking about societal expectations, not actualities. Third, like leads to like. Abuse is often passed on from generation to generation, and most abusers are male. Violent male role models pass on their behavior. Images in the media reinforce the idea. Reducing the incidence of violent acts committed by men will be a slow taper, not a sudden event. Fourth, the X-factor. This is probably the biggest element, the missing piece of the puzzle. If we really knew why men are more likely to be violent than women, we could work to prevent that violence specifically in response to the X-factor that influences it. As it is, we have the hormonal and societal and environmental factors to work with. Looking Closer What about the victims of violent crime? Are they mostly women? Actually, no. By far, men are the most common victims of violent crime. What's interesting is to look more closely at violent crime and examine both the genders of the perpetrators and their victims in more detail. Take homicide for example. Men make up nearly 75% of all murder victims. They are the victims in 82% of murders where the weapon is a gun. But if you look at poisonings, you'll find that the numbers for male and female victims approach 50/50. And the victims of murders by intimates, where the killer and victim are or were intimately involved, are about 63% female. Men are more likely to be killed by someone they barely know or don't know at all. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to be killed by someone they know well or a family member. Family Murders I know we're talking about offenders, not victims. But looking at the victim rates sheds some light on the offenders. As a profiler, I can't help but look at the whole picture. Women don't commit murder as commonly as men, and there's no type of murder or weapon of choice for which women outnumber men. But there are a few for which the percentages for women killers increase significantly from the overall average. Women commit 38% of infanticides. (Of note, when it comes to the murder of children under 5, men are still the majority of the killers, but victims are about equally likely to have been killed by their mothers as by their fathers.) There are several sociological factors that come into play here. With infanticide, you're dealing with women having more access to small children, with mothers and (typically female) caregivers playing the dominant roles in those early years, because of biology, tradition, and the fact that in many cases there is no father present. You're also looking at a crime where post-partum depression and psychosis can be factors. The widely reported case of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children in her bathtub in 2001, is believed to be an example of untreated post-partum psychosis, though it may have worsened existing psychosis rather than originated on its own. Her case put the spotlight on post-partum depression and psychosis, both of which go untreated most of the time because of the confusion and shame experienced by mothers who may be struggling with the conditions. (As usual with such horrible crimes, the only upside to the media coverage is increasing the public's knowledge.) Women commit 35% of murders of intimates. Crimes of passion are committed by both men and women, and murders motivated by jealousy, profit, or rage over a break-up are among these murders. But there is also the element of self-defense, often in response to prolonged abuse. The recent case of Mary Winkler, the young Tennessee preacher's wife who killed her husband with a shotgun, looks like a classic example of this kind of crime. She reportedly lived with years of physical and perhaps even sexual abuse at the hands of her husband, with whom she had three daughters, before shooting him last March. In many cases of prolonged domestic abuse, a woman has lived with the fear of and reality of violence against her and/or her children on a regular basis, and her abusive husband or boyfriend has all but cut her off from contact with family, friends, and other resources that would give her an outlet for escape. This is just part of the cycle of domination and control that abusers inflict on their victims, who are sometimes backed into what they see as a choice between dying (or allowing their children to die) and killing. The Female Serial Killer You should hardly take any of this to mean that women only kill in such instances. There are female murderers of all types, they are just much less common than men. And, as mentioned, there are female serial killers. Often operating more quietly than their male counterparts, they can be more difficult to apprehend. Their killings are often difficult to spot, as in the cases of the caregiver killers who quietly poison or suffocate or over-medicate their elderly patients, or the wives who slowly poison one husband after another in a manner that doesn't raise suspicion until the number of graves starts people talking. And there is the old legend of Madame Popova, the turn-of-the century serial killer who hired herself out as an assassin to women who were caught in oppressive or cruel relationships with husbands from whom they could only escape by death. By hiring Madame Popova, they chose the husband's immediate death, usually by poison, over their own eventual demise. (Interestingly, of all turn-of-this-century poisonings, women are 37% of the killers.) Perception is Reality Violent crime comes up in my writing and speeches all the time. But I think it's important to point out that the violent crime rate is at its lowest level since the BJS started keeping statistics. The rate has been declining since 1994. And the murder rate is at its lowest since the late 1960s. But you would never guess that from watching the news or listening to talk radio or watching any of the many forensic science shows on television. The media loves to keep us in fear. And we seem to like to be afraid, or at least we've gotten so used to it that it seems normal. Believe me, I know all the reasons we should be vigilant. I have three grown kids, two of them girls, and all my fears for them were informed by the terrible crimes and criminals I had investigated. But I also believe that if we arm ourselves with information and try to be aware of what's going on around us, most of us will do alright. If, on the other hand, we start thinking every adult male at the public library is a child molester or every kid wearing an oversized jacket is a gang-banger, we lose the ability to discern real threats from imagined ones. And that not only doesn't help, it actually hurts us. Just a thought. I hope the information I'm presenting will help you stay safe from the real bad guys (and girls). They're out there, but they're not most people. Subscribe to our Newsletter: Enter your email address above. Purchase from Amazon.com View other books by John Douglas [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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