ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the evidence for the perceived gender difference and looks at a number of theoretical approaches to gender differences in aggression and violence. The belief that violent behaviour is underpinned by physiological pathology is, of course, determinist in nature. A similarly determinist perspective on violence is found in what have termed 'essentialist' perspectives. Socio-biologists are concerned with the application of evolutionary theory to social conduct, seeking to explain social conduct by relating it to concepts of genetic advantage and biological fitness. Socio-biological accounts of gender differences have been termed 'essentialist' in that they rest on the belief that females and males are essentially different in nature. Social learning approaches to gender differences in aggression and violence rest on a model of aggression and violent behaviour as originating not in human nature but rather as provoked or induced by environmental contingencies.
