Women’s Violence on the Rise?
If so, why?
Here's a piece, by one Jessica Halloran, from down under about the reputed rise in female violence (The Sydney Morning Herald, 1/16/09). It's mostly anecdotal, but does site a forensic psychologist who believes that women are more prone to violence than before.
In the United States, crime by women is certainly on the rise and that includes violent crime, so maybe it's true elsewhere.
So what explains the phenomenon? Some, as in the article, suggest women's greater equality has made them "more like men." But if women's behavior is that mutable, perhaps violence is not such an exclusively masculine trait after all. Certainly men outdo women in the testosterone department, which can result in greater aggression. But hormone levels can respond to external stimuli, so possibly testosterone levels in women are also on the rise. I wonder if there are any studies on that.
What gets me is Jessica Halloran's last sentence. "I, and my friends, always thought empowerment was about the freedom to be ourselves." It is. But it may have been that past societal strictures on women included tamping down, or redirecting, women's aggressive responses. Now that those strictures are being loosened, that aggression is becoming more apparent.
I don't know that this is true, but it seems to be a logical possibility. So why didn't the author and her friends consider it? It seems as if they believed that women, once freed, would continue their sugar-and-spice routine.
Some do, but, as we're coming to find out, many don't.
Thanks to Sonja for the heads-up.
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