IN ASIA there are 100 million more men than women and this excess of men, particularly in China, has led to fears of "macho militarism and imperialism". These concerns portray a violent, socially unstable world, caused by a glut of testosterone-driven, unmarried men. But although it is generally true that men are more violence-prone than women, does it follow that an abundance of men will cause an abundance of violence?
Claims of "more men, more violence" come primarily from two scholarly traditions. From a biological perspective, male violence results from antagonistic competition over mates, which intensifies when partners are rare. Sociologists typically argue that violence increases when the sex ratio is male-biased because of the large pool of unmarried men (the group most prone to violence). But what does the evidence say?
In a 2014 review of the research on violence in different societies, we found that violence ...
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