Physical Aggression Among College Students: Disentangling the Effects of Sex and Gender on the Perpetration of Violence

• In Event: Gendered Violence Among Students

Abstract

One of the most consistent findings in criminology is that males are overrepresented as perpetrators of violence (Walker and Maddan, 2013). Scholars have presented many explanations for sex disparities in offending ranging from innate biological sex differences between men and women to social origins of aggression which include gender socialization. The current study, based on a survey sample of college students, proposes that performative aspects of ‘doing gender’ contribute to sex based disparities in the perpetration of violence. We find a positive association between masculine orientation and involvement with violence for both male and female sexes. In contrast, feminine orientation appears to be a protective factor against aggress, leading to less violent offending for either sex. Logistic regression results revealed that gender orientation is a stronger predictor of violence than sex category alone. Thus, studies examining violence should consider both sex and gender in their explanations and intervention and prevention specialists should take into account gender identity as well as sex in the implementation of policy.

Authors

• Marcella Mulhollem, University of Akron

• Robert Peralta, University of Akron

• Stacey Nofziger, University of Akron

• Jeannette Wade, University of Akron