Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
4.6.2014
Printable versionNews by topic
Video
News and MediaRelations resources
StrategicCommunications
Male-dominated societies are not more violent, studysays
March 31, 2014
Conventional wisdom and scientificarguments have claimed thatsocieties with more men thanwomen, such as China, will becomemore violent, but a University ofCalifornia, Davis, study has foundthat a male-biased sex ratio doesnot lead to more crime.
Rates of rape, sexual assault andhomicide are actually lower insocieties with more men thanwomen, the study found. And,evolutionary theories predictingthat when males outnumberfemales, males will competevigorously for the limited numberof mates don’t bear out. The study, “Too many men: the violence problem?” isin the April issue of Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
“Here, we untangle the logic behind the widely held notion that in humansocieties where men outnumber women, there will be more violence,” saidMonique Borgerhoff Mulder, a UC Davis professor of anthropology and co-author of the study.
The anthropologists who conducted this study took their lead from recentdevelopments in evolutionary theory. These new ideas challenge the claim thatwhen in abundance males will necessarily resort to violent competition.
It is true that most perpetrators and victims of violence are men. “It isn’tsurprising that arguments of more men leading to more violence dominatediscussions, this could create such an effect,” said Ryan Schacht, a co-author
Events Experts Facts & Figures For News Media Advanced Search
News home page
Agriculture
Business
Campus News
Engineering
Government/Law
Health
Science News
Social Sciences, Arts,Humanities
Veterinary Medicine
Publications
UC Davis Magazine
Dateline UC Davis
Dateline electronicnewsletter
Egghead blog
Futurity.org
California Aggie
iTunes U
YouTube
Related news
Chancellor Katehi
UC Davis Athletics
UC Davis Health System
UC Newsroom
UCTV
For the news media
ShareShareShareShareMore
Explaining the researchVideo (57 sec)Videography by Karen Nikos-Rose/UC Davis
Use our professional PDF creation service at http://www.htm2pdf.co.uk!
Third floor Mrak HallUniversity of California,DavisOne Shields AvenueDavis, CA 95616
(530) 752-1930
of the paper and doctoral researcher at UC Davis. “But the evidence does notsupport a relationship between violence and a short supply of women,” he said.
The reason for this unexpected outcome, the authors said, has something todo with supply and demand.
“You may actually adjust your behavior according to the circumstances,” saidKristin Liv Rauch, a postdoctoral researcher and co-author of the paper. “Whenmen are abundant, rather than rare, they often switch their strategy tocompete in nonviolent rather than violent ways. They tend to pursue females inmore of a courtship manner that would lead to long-term relationships andmarriage, in an attempt to secure a partner in a depleted market.”
Schacht, Rauch and Borgerhoff Mulder’s study has important policyimplications. For example, “tough on crime” policies that incarcerate increasingnumbers of men might be contributing to higher rates of violence, rather thanalleviating them, the authors said. Future studies might investigate theparticular forms of violence that are associated with imbalanced sex ratios, andwhether interventions are available that do not further exaggerate asymmetriesin the availability of opposite sex mates, the authors said.
About UC Davis
For more than 100 years, UC Davis has been one place where people arebettering humanity and our natural world while seeking solutions to some ofour most pressing challenges. Located near the state capital, UC Davis hasmore than 33,000 students, over 2,500 faculty and more than 21,000 staff, anannual research budget of over $750 million, a comprehensive health systemand 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinarygraduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges —Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, andLetters and Science. It also houses six professional schools — Education, Law,Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School ofNursing.
Additional information:
Read the paper online
Media contact(s):
Karen Nikos-Rose, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-6101,[email protected]
ShareShareShareShareMoreUse our professional PDF creation service at http://www.htm2pdf.co.uk!
Return to the previous page
Copyright © The Regents of the University of California, Davis campus. All Rights Reserved.
Use our professional PDF creation service at http://www.htm2pdf.co.uk!
