Why are men violent?

• Author: Mitchell, Teresa

A new and controversial book The Beast Within, Why Men are Violent, by Simon Fraser criminologist Neil Boyd, argues that biological rather than environmental factors are at the root of why men are historically ten times more likely to commit violent crimes than women. Boyd also contends that biology and genetics can be as important as environmental factors in assessing why some men are more violent than others. "As a society, we've tended to believe that socialization and exposure to bad experiences are the main reasons why people are violent. It goes against our cultural ideology to give much weight to biological factors."

While admitting that he too once believed the nurture theory of violence, Boyd has, after four years of researching evolutionary theory, the biology of sex differences, testosterone, and...