Why Are People Violent?

Laurence Miller, Ph.D., author of 'Criminal Psychology - Nature, Nurture, Culture' explaining the biological, sociological, and psychological reasons for violent behavior.

[Eco-puzs]

I have an older brother who I cut ties with because of his violent behavior. He is easily angered, he threatens people, he has attacked people, he constantly goes off on angry rants, he has an interest in guns that has little to do with self defense, and he is abusive towards animals. But I'm the exact opposite. I'm polite, calm, kind, empathetic, I rarely yell, I don't even curse, I love animals and I hate violence. We are both brothers and we shared the same childhood, so why did I turn out differently?

[job]

This is incredible and I see how my own upbringing shaped my behavior and how I am aggressive but grew up with my mother who is very relaxed and chilled but in my youth I found environments that were aggressive such as boxing, I am very much like father who i didn't grow up with and is a very aggressive person... very interesting.

[lctlonlonscommunityandthea]

I can tell you from experience that violent behavior is a result of being disrespected, discarded or abuse. It's a natural reaction.

[scottsantana]

Violent behavior that statistically "We know run in families", like addictions for example, are incredibly obfuscating notions which impede hard science. Correlation does not imply causation. This needs to be a modern mantra. Things that "run in families"- which are behavior-based alone- should not lead any scientist to conclude there is necessarily some hidden, inherited genetic factor at play. It's this kind of subjective guesswork that keeps Psychology from enjoying genuine mainstream acceptance among the Public at-large.

[anselmoalliegro]

There may be persons whose behaviors are affected by nature or nurtured factors. In general, however, there is a known correlation between overpopulation and violence. Psychological experiments show this. In our lifetime we may expect to see more violence. In the 1960’s the earth population was about 3 billion, today it’s about 8 billion and life in urban areas is rapidly increasing.

[PLOttawa]

Wholly appreciate the "bling" reference. Not joking : ).

[Eidenbites]

I had some experiences in my childhood .. I was 14 years old the first time I got in a fight with a full grown man who had ptsd and just had came from Iraq .. from there the cops also beat me..

From there it was all downhill .. I had like lost the fear of fighting and it was more satisfying than anything.. I remember being in high school and I just had fun fighting. I can’t watch football or soccer because I find it boring.. I’m so intrigued by combat sports.
Something about fighting just calms me. I do it legal now . I do kick boxing and jiu jitsu because it really has helped me calm down.
I also do meditation.

I still think one day I’ll move to Alaska and live in a log cabin off grid away from society until I die of old age .. I enjoy nature, being one in nature .. hiking, camping .. etc I think being exposed to nature elements really humbles me.

[philippegarcia]

Violence is an evil conductor, which conduct people to an early death and It is also a disease, It can be created by others in others, will depend in the immunity of the human which is target of this, there is no shield to avoid abstract violence, It is worse than any physical violence, at least in a physical aggression it will be simple to the target to avoid other kind of violence as this can lead the target to death, while in abstract violence the sequel may be worse which will lead the target to an abstract sequel, which may also create a physical sequel as the real violence. Creating a situation where a man is loving a woman, everything that comes from that woman is love, even bad thing, if the man loses his partnership with the woman he tends to keep the bad things on him until his death, so abstract violence is extremely more aggressive than physical violence, It can ruin the whole life of someone, as this is also a disease and the mind must have immunity to this, then to avoid abstract violence could be simple as giving it a new meaning by assign entertainment values to this, which is also a humiliation and the post effects of assign the violence the value of entertainment may be later worse, as explained by limits in math, it will tend to an infinite loop.

[Saysomething]

Honestly, I don’t like violent people and I want anything to do with them. If someone in my circle resorts do violence, I drop them as a friend immediately.

[helloman]

I hate living things I don't know why I tried to help my self but I can't I just love violent thing just animals or people dying painfully I'm a monster 😢😢😢

[brackc]

I wonder why a lower animal (bonobos) can get along with no violence, yet human beings commit all kinds of atrocities and etc. we humans are insane practically as governments.

[philippegarcia]

Violence is the generator of subsequent descendents which may be Racism, Terrorism, Sexual Abuse, Bullying, or It can also be entertainment as represented by martial arts, or comedy movies, but even as an entertainment some will keep considering it as violence. In Brazil, the police use to struggle with drug dealers in favelas, both bandits and police are violents because they have their purposes which are different, so violence is generated by differences, both will be terrorists to these who want to have a good life, the main problem here is that violence has two distinct values which are real and abstract. The sound of a bullet may be terrorism for me, but for someone else this may be common thing. As the violence may also be abstract, whenever bullying is practiced, more violence tends to be created, even If it is created by self, as self underestimating. Violence will only have a value If a value is assigned to this. Creating a situation where a boy is bullied by his friends, he is only being bullied if first he understand the meaning of bullying, secondly he has to interprete the actions of someone as negative actions, otherwise It wont be violence, and as some feel for others, so abstract violence in this case will only exist If the coach, or professor, or family is creating negativity on it, and as in math limits tend to be positive or negative infinites, this may never end, humanly its called sequel, which is created by persistence where persistence may be positive or negative, the boy which is claimed by evil people bullied could persist in the friendship over self claiming bullied and creating on him a nightmare. So abstract violence is easier to avoid, otherwise it will become a sequel. What If he doesn't want to write about this, has his a chance to do this? He doesn't have because most people seems to be naturally evil, they will exclude the claimed bullied boy because He doesn't accept that he was bullied and he is denying the abstract violent generation and always persisting in hugging, handshaking and greeting each society member that he finds in the street, helping them with whatever he can. If he doesn't agree with bullying them, the descendents of the aggressors must not be part of this theme, but as I said before, most humans seems to be evil. There is terrorism in the beach of my town, where families and children are up there to have comfort and entertainment, the question is why are they evil? Why are they murdering? So I also want to be murdered, seems to be good thing in my town. This may also be violence, if interpreted as this. Better chain the only true sentence that must exist to this, violence doesn't exist and everything is product and descendent of love stories.

[oldguyable]

i disagree, i think what triggers it if the agressor thinks someone is judging them, or being dismissive, or they have will attack a weaker person(if the father bullied them)

[alexanderzurba]

Most of this sort of behavior is due to alcohol and drug abuse, environment, such as coming from abusive families, also what they see in the media such as movies and video games.

[philippegarcia]

I will try to give you the best I can do to explain why humans are violent, give me a few minutes, I am a little busy at the moment, but this can also take a hour or two.

[sandyposs]

Does anyone recognise the comic panel on the mug behind him?

[philippegarcia]

Supposing that when I was a children my father a few times while under effect of alcohol, and He doesn't drink, neither smoke, he used to hit me with his hands, supposing that I was instead of react with physical aggression as well as him, I was thinking why, or I was screaming for change, and If I was screaming that is because I have heard my mother screaming and I learned that to not hurt physically others I ll have to defend myself by screaming, then in this supposition I am also being violent, because the initiative is probably created to figure out until when the violence will run, while my father and my mother are the less violent people I met in my life, I have enough empathy to understand others which suffer from this. Yesterday, I read a BBC article in which there is a image where a sentence is written in a sign and It says: Don't hurt people(I can't believe I have to say this!). In this article the author explains sadism and psychopaths, the difference between both. My guess is, have you ever putted yourself in place of mine? And the answer I got is impressive, they never putted themselves in the place of mine, because It seems to be dangerous using empathy and as explained before, It is also violence and tends to be interpretative as presented in any kind of sense which descends of universe. Supposing that a word was created to mean a new hope, which represents the act of forgive, isn't this still violence? There will be remains which cannot be controlled as others wouldn't develop the sense of forgive so they would never forgive or understand it even if they aren't part of the relation as they are just spectators. So I know a little boy that was teached to understand that, there is nothing to forgive, and he accepted this, nothing bad was really done.

[AWayOfLiving]

Why don't I call community housing Bendigo again? Perhaps because I never get anywhere

[Dakuta]

do we have evidence of these "genetic factors"?

[bmoshareholderappleshareho]

There is no excuse for violence. That's what a social worker told me.