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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The goal of this article by Burbank was to introduce papers on cross-cultural studies of female aggression that appeared in the February 1994 special issue of "Sex Roles." This article discussed the range and variety of the subject of female aggression.
METHODOLOGY:
A non-experimental review of the literature was employed for this study.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The author began by stating that our beliefs and folk models of gender relations has led us to ignore women's aggression in society and academia specifically. It was argued that to ignore women's aggression was to ignore research that could have major social implications. A large array of acts could be, and were in the papers, described as aggression. These included homicide, sports, criticizing, public ridicule, beatings and fights, witchcraft, bullying, and gossip. It was said by the author that we must recognize the broadness of the subject of aggression and the need for a variety of perspectives. Relativist and universalist perspective, it was said, can both be used. It was found in Buenos Aires that respondents believed that women and men have an equal propensity for murder even though men kill much more frequently there than do women. Other researchers, in Israel, found that gossip helped to facilitate one act of honor killing in which gossip served as a male means of demonstrating power around family honor. Cross-cultural studies of aggression, the author warned, have difficulties coming to cross-culturally valid measures of aggression. Aggressive behavior, she said, is difficult for which to determine intention to harm because of the variety of motivating forces behind aggression and the variety of perspectives that different participants have of the behavior. It was suggested by some researchers that "acts may be described as 'violent' with 'the permission of participants'" (p. 171). Such a perspective has been found in studies which discuss "fair fighting rules" and acceptance of violence in gang settings. Sex or gender arguments have surfaced in the debate over women and aggression. Much of the experimental literature shows only small differences in aggression between girls and boys. The differences did become greater as researchers investigated nonlethal interpersonal aggression in which boys and men were found to be more aggressive. A framework of difference was advocated, and there is a need to refine the ways in which we think about difference. Some angles to this were the examination of different styles of aggressive behavior and consideration of intra-gender differences. Gender relations were said to be currently viewed as culturally constructed power relations, and sex differences could be viewed as power differences. The author said that power and sex may not be entirely mutually exclusive. She said that aggression has the potential to define, perpetrate, or undermine our experiences of "gender" and "hierarchy" in multiple ways. In conclusion, a multiperspectival approach in methodology and theory was embraced.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Adult Violence
Juvenile Violence
Gender Differences
Female Aggression
Female Violence
Female Offender
Adult Aggression
Adult Female
Adult Offender
Juvenile Female
Juvenile Aggression
Juvenile Offender
Sociocultural Factors
Cross Cultural Analysis
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Cross Cultural Differences
Cross Cultural Studies
Countries Other Than USA
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