Female Aggression among the Great Apes: A Psychoanalytic Perspective

Female officers and the ethic of care: Does officer gender impact police behaviors?

“…Female officers' utilization of what Muir (1977) calls the "gift of gab" and other communication strategies may minimize the need for escalating the continuum of aggressive police behaviors. This pattern of aggression also confirms past literature that females engaged in indirect aggression, rather than physical aggression (Holmstrom, 1992). For female officers, alternative forms of verbal and psychological aggression rather than physical aggression may not pose the same possibility of harm to self or others, or fear of reproof of societal expectations for female behaviors (Balkan, Berger, & Schmidt, 1980;Campbell, 1993;Eagley & Steffen, 1986;Frodi, Macaulay, & Thorne, 1977) or may be related to a fear of reproof or physical harm for deviating "from the book" or the department's "status quo" in their encounters with citizens.…”

“…Females have also reliably shown less physical aggression than males (Bjorkqvist, 1992;Eagley & Steffen, 1986), but as much or more indirect aggression (Fletcher, 1999;Holmstrom, 1992). 1 Only research on marital or intimate aggression has found comparable rates of physical aggression for men and women (Strauss & Gelles, 1990) with a slightly higher frequency of aggression by women, but a higher rate of injury, violent crime, and homicide by men toward their spouses (see meta-analysis by Archer, 2000).…”

Sex differences in covert aggression among adults

“…The present study indicates that human aggression, especially among adults, can assume a variety of forms, not easily conceivable in subhuman species. There are exceptions: Female chimpanzees and gorillas have been observed using indirect means of aggression to get even with physically stronger individuals [Holmstrom, 1992;No6 et al, 19801. While animals mostly fight physically, and young children include verbal means in their aggressive repertoire.…”

Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight.

“…Males are more likely to use physical aggression in struggles for power within a hierarchy or to defend territory against external enemies. Females reliably show less physical aggression than males but they display as much or more indirect aggression (Holmstrom, 1992), that is, aggression in the form of gossip, rumor-spreading, and enlisting the cooperation of a third party in undermining an acquaintance. However, human females still show lower levels of verbal aggression than males, although this sex difference is smaller than that for physical aggression (Eagly & Steffen, 1986).…”