A few weeks ago I got into a debate with someone over irrational and rational phobias. They were trying to make the argument that their fear of clowns was rational because clowns can kill people.
On the other hand, they argued, my fear of heights was irrational, because heights can’t kill me. The same applies to my fear of spiders, because, well, you get the gist. I clearly wasn’t getting anywhere arguing to the contrary, even though (or maybe because) they were clearly insane, so I tried a different tactic. “So, does that mean you’re scared of all women?” I argued. “After all, a clown is just a human wearing make-up, no more than your mother or your sister.”
Needless to say, they didn’t quite grasp the logic and went on believing that a fear of clowns was perfectly rational because, deep inside, all clowns are wannabe serial killers hiding a bitter contempt for the human race. I kinda get that, or at least that’s what I said so I could quickly end the argument and get on with my life.
But it did get me thinking. Are men more likely to kill than women? Clowns are clearly not more likely to commit murder than anyone else, but what about men and women, was my throwaway counter argument in anyway valid?
Men or Women?
There are a few instances where women kill or abuse more than men, but only because there are more women than men in those roles. For instance, there are many more cases of nursing home abuse where women are the proprietors and not men, but only because women dominate those roles. At the same time, football riots are more likely to be perpetrated by men, but there are more men at those grounds than women.
It’s unfair to focus on those areas because of that. But what if we wipe the slate clean and focus on murder on the whole? How do men and women stack up?
Well, we know that while men are more aggressive by nature, women are the more likely of the two to use that aggression in private. They are also more likely to use passive-aggression and indirect aggression, which is perhaps why many females linked to murder have often hired someone else to do the crime or have orchestrated it so that they don’t have to get hands dirty.
Studies have found that men are more likely to be the perpetrators of cyber bullying and that they instill a greater fear and a greater damage in cases of domestic violence, but that on the whole, women are just as bad as men in regards to the number of cases where domestic violence (including verbal, psychological and manipulation) take place.
As far as murder goes, there are greater numbers of serial killers that are made and they have also killed a greater number of people. Males account for 9 out of every 10 perpetrators of homicide. They are also way more likely to commit burglary, arson, and most forms of theft. Embezzlement and theft are more or less split, but even those still lean towards male.
Men are also considerably more likely to abuse animals than women, both directly, and as a result of improper care, poor pet nutrition and a general ignorance of what they should do. The same goes for car crashes and, well, for most other negative things it seems.
No matter how you look at it, males are at the least only slightly more likely than women and on average they are considerably more likely to commit a crime.
The Likely Age
There are some differences between man and women with regards to the age that they commit most crimes. This applies across the board, even with cyberbulling, as males are more likely to commit this crime in their late teenage years, while females are more likely to do it early on. If you look at the ages on the whole, combining both men and women, then youngsters between the ages 15 and 24 account for most crimes committed in most countries.
In fact, in the United States, this age group is responsible for more than 40% of all criminal cases. There are several reasons for this, ranging from lack of maturity to delinquency and the fact that they are less likely to have a full-time job.
