The overwhelming maleness of mass homicide

[trumad]

Yeah I know---Popcorn will be a poppin. But facts are facts.

(TIME.com) -- There's a predictable cycle of mourning and finger-pointing that follows a massacre like the shootings last week in Aurora, Colorado. First come the calls for unity and flags flown at half-staff. Then the national fissures appear: The gun lobby stiffens its spine as gun control advocates make their case. Psychologists parse the shooter's background, looking for signs of mental illness or family disarray. Politicians point fingers about "society run amok" and "cultures of despair."

We've been down this path so many times, yet we keep missing the elephant in the room: How many of the worst mass murderers in American history were women? None. This is not to suggest that women are never violent, and there are even the rare cases of female serial killers. But why aren't we talking about the glaring reality that acts of mass murder (and, indeed, every single kind of violence) are overwhelmingly perpetrated by men? Pointing out that fact may seem politically incorrect or irrelevant, but our silence about the huge gender disparity of such violence may be costing lives.

<snip>
The numbers are sobering when we look at young men. In the United States, for example, young white males (between age 14 and 24) represent only 6% of the population, yet commit almost 17% of the murders. For young black males, the numbers are even more alarming (1.2% of the population accounting for 27% of all homicides). Together, these two groups of young men make up just 7% of the population and 45% of the homicides. Overall, 90% of all violent offenders are male, as are nearly 80% of the victims.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/opinion/christakis-males-homicide/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[HooptieWagon]

1. Very true. Ban males?

[LisaL]

12. That seems to be the only solution.

[HooptieWagon]

16. It would certainly eliminate the call to ban guns.

[Scootaloo]

2. Too bad she only touches on the actual problem

That being the gendering of violence. Our culture tells boys (and men) from birth to death that fighting is masculine, that warriors are admirable figures, that you're "not a man" if you're not armed or capable of harming someone. You have to be strong and ferocious and accepting of the need for violence, or else you're "a woman" - which is, we are told, the worst thing you could possibly be.

It's not anyone's fault for having a Y chromosome. It's the greater culture's fault for still presenting masculinity in a 13th-century context. "me big viking, hit you with axe, take stuff to get girl!"

[cthulu2016]

15. Unlike all those other cultures where women do all the fighting

Can you cite a human society anywhere and any time where physical violence was evenly gender distributed?

[Scootaloo]

18. You get my point, I take it.

[4th law of robotics]

42. Could it be there's a genetic component to this as well

since every single culture that experiences war has hit upon this exact same notion, often independently?

[Zalatix]

48. Most intelligent commentary on this issue... ever. n/t

[Politicalboi]

3. This is true

But males are found everywhere. And in some countries their males have never done such evil acts. When is the US going to admit once and for all IT's US.

[ananda]

8. Consider how boys are raised in this country..

.. and you'll have your answer.

[slackmaster]

11. Yes, far too many boys (and girls) are raised without a positive, mature male role model

Too many "men" shirk their parental responsibility.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. I recall one gun mass murder by a female - maybe 10 or 20 years ago, woman shot several people?

anyone else remember that case?

Yes, it is rare

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Jennifer San Marco shot several in a mail processing place in 2006 in California.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. yes, that's it.

[LisaL]

13. That article isn't accurate.

While majority of mass killers are male, there are some female mass killers.
One was quite recent, in fact, several years ago.

[redqueen]

24. Did you read it?

How many of the worst mass murderers in American history were women? None. This is not to suggest that women are never violent, and there are even the rare cases of female serial killers. But why aren't we talking about the glaring reality that acts of mass murder (and, indeed, every single kind of violence) are overwhelmingly perpetrated by men?

She says "none"while referring to the "worst" examples. In every other statement I saw she is careful to state that men aren't the only perpetrators, just the overwhelming majority.

[LisaL]

37. What is her criteria for "worst?"

I noticed she doesn't clarify that.
But there have been female mass killers, even if she doesn't consider them the "worst."

[LisaL]

40. By the way, trutv has a whole chapter on female mass killers.

So you can decide if they were the worst or not.
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/female_mass_murderer/1.html

[treestar]

19. And the school shooter who asked why, said, "I don't like Mondays"

that was a female, too.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. I've often wondered if we'd have less international violence and wars if

the majority of heads of state were women.

[treestar]

20. I honestly think not

They'd bond over their clothes, husbands, kids, health issues and have too good a personal relationship to be able to start wars against each other.

[sinkingfeeling]

25. Then why did you say 'I think not' when I proposed it?

[treestar]

51. I think we'd have less international violence

We'd have none. The female heads of state would all be trading make up tips and complaining about the sloppiness of their husbands. They'd transfer resources to the countries that needed them with total generosity. They'd just see everyone as needing what they need and should have it.

[KamaAina]

31. Like Margaret Thatcher?

[Nye Bevan]

47. To be fair, didn't she only have one war? And Argentina started it (nt)

[4th law of robotics]

44. Unlikely

States go to war for selfish or practical reasons.

None of which would disappear if the leader had ovaries instead of testicles.

[Zalatix]

49. True. Catherine the Great and Margaret Thatcher come to mind as examples

of peace-loving heads of state.


OMG, I just suggested men and women aren't all that different.

[Prophet 451]

53. Margaret Thatcher n/t

[slackmaster]

7. Culture of Misandry

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. I've noticed that the television drama "criminal minds" - almost always has a woman serial killer

that is working in cahoots with a man. Rarely do they feature a lone female serial killer.

[slackmaster]

14. Hollywood is unfair to female and minority serial killers

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. it sure is! The black serial killer on criminal minds, was paired with a white serial killer.

they killed together. It's as if the producers can conceive of female or non-white serial killers.

[sinkingfeeling]

27. Difference between a serial killer and a mass killer.

[redqueen]

17. We need less association of 'manly' with violence.

And less association of 'non violent' with 'girly' (and of 'girly' with 'bad').

[HooptieWagon]

21. Bonnie Parker was misunderstood.

She was really quite peaceful and law-abiding.
<sarcasm>

[hifiguy]

39. Bonnie Parker wasn't a mass killer.

She was a stick-up artist.

[HooptieWagon]

45. I guess so, if you dont count 9 cops and several civilians killed.

[ismnotwasm]

23. Perhaps if we would pay attention

To the epidemic of violence against women with the same outrage used in gun debates we might see a way clear of this gendered dilemma.

Some violence is glorified; some is abhorred, some is ignored. I'm not trying to divert the topic of violence and young males, but bring up violence against women as a part of it.

The is a 3 pail popcorn thread, yes, but I think the who's and the why's of homicide and violence can be discussed in a civil manner.

Most men aren't murderers of course; the men I have in my life are awesome fellows, but too often the aggressive tendencies in especially young men is both overtly and subtly encouraged to violence, rather than channeling it to productivity. We do our young men a profound disservice with this societal tendency.

[redqueen]

26. " We do our young men a profound disservice with this societal tendency."

Yet many seemed concerned mostly with pointing out the exceptions which prove the rule.

Madness.

[Aerows]

30. Then there is the woman

that drowned her 5 children. Crazy isn't restricted by sex or race. To pretend otherwise is to attempt to categorize our fellow humans as to race, creed or sex.

Nutty fucking people do nutty fucking things. It isn't rational - that's why they are nutty.

[Zalatix]

50. She didn't drown her kids, her husband did.

[hifiguy]

35. I am not sure these issues are quite as coextensive as you suggest

given this quote from the article: "these two groups of young men make up just 7% of the population and 45% of the homicides. Overall, 90% of all violent offenders are male, as are nearly 80% of the victims." (emphasis added)

Given those numbers it seems pretty difficult to argue that male-on-male violence is not at the heart of the issue, at least for that particular age group.

[Aerows]

28. Unfortunately

Crazy strikes just as many women as it does men. There have been plenty of women that went off the deep end. Crazy isn't a gender or a racial issue - it's just an issue of society.

[LadyHawkAZ]

32. How and where the crazy gets directed

can be a gender or racial issue though. Culture and social conditions are going to affect state of mind, even for people who are not mentally ill.

[Lizzie Poppet]

29. Same thing for run-of-the-mill violent crime, actually.

As you citation shows, actually... It not that women don't commit violent crimes, but the proportions are radically skewed. 10-to-1...

[stuntcat]

33. k

I give males full credit for wars and Earth-rape too. The desperate mess the world will be in by 2050 will be because of all humanity but it was the wars and religions, mostly males' stuff, that are keeping us from doing anything about it IMHO

[hifiguy]

34. The facts are what they are and these stats

do not lie.

Men in these age groups are also vastly more likely to show symptoms of schizophrenia or other severe mental pathologies. Why is anybody's guess, but some of the better eggheads in psychology, psychiatry and neurology should start looking into it.

[Prophet 451]

54. They have been, for years

If you do a Google search, you'll find that research was and is being conducted in that area but so far, we still don't know.

[Warpy]

36. Female mass murderers have been very different

and harder on relatives and children than on strangers. Our hands are cleaner than those of men but they're not pristine.

But yes, it's the young male who wants to use a weapon of mass destruction to mow down strangers, especially the young male with a major screw loose that either no one has noticed or no one is concerned with tightening.

[1-Old-Man]

38. Just another example of women being held back.

is there no equality anywhere?

[redqueen]

41. Anyone surprised with the lack of seriousness in many of these responses?

This is a serious issue but the reaction is often 'but women' or some kind of an attempt at making a joke.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

55. I was wondering when we were going to talk about --

the "elephant in the room" of gender -- I am glad someone had the courage to do so.

And, yes, the responses show the unwillingness to look at a very real, very serious issue.

After Columbine, Dr. William S. Pollack had some very interesting work in relation to gender and gun violence -- he used a phrase that I thought was interesting: If boys aren't allowed to cry, they will cry bullets. Here's a bit about his "Boy Code":

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/columncc/cc061113.html

[redqueen]

56. Thanks for sharing that link.

In a culture that celebrates men like Charlie Sheen, I suppose it's no wonder this is laughed off.

I always thought it was only the right wingers who claimed such efforts to stop conditioning boys amounted to "feminizing" men. Now, I'm starting to wonder.

[4th law of robotics]

43. Women try, they do

but they always get stymied by a door.

Who will hold a door for a woman wielding a bunch of guns?

[Clames]

46. Ban the scrotum!

Testosterone usage must be better controlled...

[rrneck]

52. Well, I guess there's just something wrong with men.

What could it be?

[Zorra]

57. Men must continue to be encouraged to be violent.

Someone needs to fight in contrived wars for the profit of the 1%.

I really feel sorry for men. It appears to me that. in our society, the culture of maleness encourages and pressures men to be violent.

It's up to men to take control of their gender culture. Women can't do this for them.

From my POV, Men's Groups would be more effective at helping solve problems like this culture of violence and other problems inherent to being male in this society if they primarily addressed these problems rather than primarily functioning as reactionary groups defending themselves from perceived attacks by feminists.

Call To Men is seems to me to be a good example of a Men's Group that addresses essential issues critical to men rather than simply reacting defensively to Women's Groups expressed perceptions of cultural problems, injustices, and inequalities.

[warrprayer]

58. unrecc

[gollygee]

59. Our society encourages violence in men, and discourages emotions other than anger and contempt

And maybe a few other negative emotions.

Anyway, this is what you get.

[AngryAmish]

60. It is as if the author is some implying that men and women are different somehow

weird

[trumad]

61. kick