How do men deal with violence?

Recent studies have shown that men are most likely to commit extremely violent crimes, given that most cases list a male as the culprit. According to the article, “Why is the shooter always male,” currently approximately 98.2 percent of the death row inmates are male. A possible explanation for this occurring is that women are able to handle mental and physical violence better. By better, I mean that women are less likely to react as aggressively as men do. When trying to cope with a stressor, men lean towards reacting with physical violence. But what drives this reaction?

Well, a biological factor that helps understand this phenomenon is the amount of testosterone the human body has. Although the female body also contains this hormone, what draws the line on why men react more violently to violence is the level of testosterone the male body has vs. the female body. The level of testosterone the average male adult body has is 270–1,070 nanograms per deciliter vs. the 15–70 nanograms per deciliter the average female adult body has. As one can see the difference is significant. How does testosterone relate to how violently the male species reacts?

Having a high levels of this hormone, allows males to feel more secure of themselves, boost their ego, and pride. It influences how aggressive and competitive the individual male is. Males seek for the feeling of being control, feeling powerful and dominant over others no matter what. So when a male is experiencing any form of violence, his instinct is more likely to respond with greater violence because his high level of testosterone generates this sense of needing to regain power and dominance. One of the ways males believe they can reestablish or establish their power and control is by perpetuating fear through violence.

The levels of testosterone a male has impacts how he reacts to violence but a different factor that is influential to this reaction is the fact that society has advocated for many years the concept of fulfilling one’s gender roles. Society has repeatedly told males what defines being “a man.” Males were taught that part of being a man means to willingly take part of physical combat, which correlates to why men are more likely to respond to violence aggressively. Often when a male refuses to take part in an physical fight his masculinity is questioned. The male is told that he is not being a man because he is defying the concept of what defines “a real man.”