From Our Editors
Men are more violent creatures than women. In
fact, men commit 90 per cent of all violent crimes. What is it that
makes man commit everything from rape and torture to murder? In
The Beast Within: Why Men are
Violent, Neil Boyd examines
the roots of male violence and the keys to reducing aggression.
Boyd compares
man to animals, who survive as a result of their aggression. Man's
violence stretches beyond culture boundaries and generations to be
commonplace always. Boyd, a professor of
criminology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, attempts to
understand why.
From the Publisher
What causes male violence...and how can we stop it? A
sure-to-be-controversial, challenging, and provocative study
suggests that biology plays a definitive role in engendering
murder, rape, torture, and other vicious acts. To understand
brutality, start with the animal world, where males use aggression
to ensure the survival of the species and their primacy within the
group. Uncover testosterone's powerful effects, and the connection
between the number of teenage boys in the population and patterns
of violence. Environmental factor do have an effect too,
influencing a person's ability to handle anger. Most important of
all, because biology is not destiny, here is the key to reducing
lethal aggression, as well as ways to manage the root of this evil.
About the Author
Neil Boyd is a professor of criminology at Simon
Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. Educated in
psychology at the University of Western Ontario and in law at
Osgoode Hall Law School, he is the author of five previous books,
including The Last Dance.