Some Maddening Facts About Aggression

Lincoln Garfield McKinley Kennedy

Some Maddening Facts About Aggression

Jackson T. Roosevelt F. Roosevelt

Truman Ford Reagan

Eye For An Eye: New Application For An Old Rule?

African Embassies Afghan Camps WTC

08-07-98 08-20-98 09-11-01

?

Eye For An Eye: New Application For An Old Rule?

Khadafi Lockerbie

1986 1988

Eye For An Eye: New Application For An Old Rule?

?

Domestic Violence

How often does it occur ?

Nuclear War

How many times must you be able to destroy all life on Earth?

The Most Destructive War

World War II-55 or 130 Million Deaths

Nanking Stalingrad Normandy

Somme Offensive 1916

British and French Gain 12 Kilometers

Casualties: British (420,000), French (200,000), Germans (500,000)

The Cost of War

Iraqi Tank Predator UAV Stinger Missile

Holocaust

• Six million Jews (67% of Europe’s population) were exterminated

• Others: Roma, mentally retarded, mentally disturbed, 3 million Soviet POWs, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Communists, Socialists

Demise of Native Americans

From Roanoke to Wounded Knee

History’s Greatest Murderer

Mao Zedong

Media And Violence: High School Students

Columbine Shootings

Media And Violence: Terrorism

Who Benefits From These Images ?

The Cost Of Virulent Political Rhetoric

Congresswoman Giffords

Guns

Canada US US/Can

Murders* 2.0 7.6 3.8 x

Murders with Firearms* 0.6 5.2 8.7 x

Murders with Handguns* 0.3 4.6 15.0 x

Murders without Firearms* 1.4 2.4 1.7 x

* Per 100,000 Population

US Soft On Crime ?

US 700

Russia 635

Belize 460

South Africa 405

Mexico 145

UK 125

Prisoners (Per 100000) Population

Egypt 120

Canada 110

Australia 110

France 75

Japan 45

India 40

Equal Justice For All: Who Goes To Prison ?

• Justice Department reports that one in eight black men in their 20s or early 30s were behind bars last year, compared with 1 in 63 white men.

• 72-87% of those in prison are functionally illiterate. As the saying goes "If you think Education is expensive, Try ignorance"......

• In 1980, about 40,000 Americans were locked up for drugs-only offenses. Now the number is 450,000, three-fourths of them black or Latino, though drug use is no higher in those groups than among whites.

Terrorism

The response of the weak

The Likelihood of Death Per Year in the US (Averaged Over the Last Decade)

Pneumonia 1 in 4,500

Suicide 1 in 9,200

Murder 1 in 14,000

Automobile Accident 1 in 6,500

Domestic Terrorism 1 in 800,000

My Dog

Fozzie Is Hung Up On Paper

Salem Witch Trials

Young Girls And Hostility To Newcomers

Holocaust

Hitler And German Poverty After World War I

Recent News Or Just

Mental Imbalance And A Hostile Political Environment

A Replay Of An Old Story

Gabby Giffords

Almost All Behavior Is Due To An Interaction

Between The Individual And Social Environment

Freud

He Who Is At So Many Beginnings

Three Influences on Freud

Judaism Darwin World War I

Freud’s Theory of Instincts

• Life Instincts: Eros and libido

• How the life instincts work

• The Death Instincts: Thanatos

• How the death instincts work

• Conflict of life and death instinct

Catharsis

Release of Instinctual Energy

Konrad Lorenz and Ethology

Imprinting On Aggression

Aggression in Nonhuman Animals

• Often involves territoriality1) Territory holders get to reproduce

2) Get to use resources in territory

• Sexual selection

Aggression in Nonhumans And Humans

• Aggression in nonhumans often strengthens the species

• Aggression in nonhumans often regulates population

• Aggression in humans could destroy life on Earth

• What went wrong?

Aggression Between Wolves

• How long would it take a wolf to kill another wolf?

• Why do wolves seldom kill other wolves?• Aggression inhibiting signals evolve over time

Aggression Between Hummingbirds

• Would hummingbirds have strong or weak aggression inhibiting signals? Why?

• With respect to aggression inhibiting signals are humans more like wolves or more like hummingbirds? Why?

Humans Aggression Inhibiting Signals

• How long would it take a human to kill another human with his or her bare hands?

• Until recently humans were relatively harmless omnivores.• However, recently in our evolutionary history human tool

use greatly expanded.

Humans Aggression Inhibiting Signals

• Humans became the master killer of the planet• Humans did not have time to evolve strong aggression

inhibiting stimuli• As a result, aggression largely uncontrolled by inhibiting

signals has a destructive impact on the survival of the species.

Distance Aggression And Inhibiting Signals

• Persons engaged in hand-to-hand combat • Humans did not have time to evolve strong aggression

inhibiting stimuli• As a result, aggression largely uncontrolled by inhibiting

signals has a destructive impact on the survival of the species.

Capital Punishment

• 74 percent of Americans surveyed say they favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder in a 2003 Gallup poll

• Despite its public support capital punishment remains controversial in the US

Capital Punishment

• Of the 85 prisoners executed in 2000, 49 were white, of which 6 were white Hispanic; 35 were black and 1 was American Indian. 

Of the 3,593 prisoners on the death rows of U.S. prisons at the end of 2000, about 55 percent were white, 43 percent were black, with all other races represented 2 percent.

Capital Punishment: How To Kill?

Capital Punishment: How To Kill?

Capital Punishment: Ignorance Hypothesis

• Furman vs Georgia• Justice Marshall• A woman taking Social Psychology• Stuart and Vidmar

Capital Punishment: Who Do We Execute

•Of the 85 prisoners executed in 2000, 49 were white, of which 6 were white Hispanic; 35 were black and 1 was American Indian. 

•Of the 3,593 prisoners on the death rows of U.S. prisons at the end of 2000, about 55 percent were white, 43 percent were black, with all other races represented 2 percent.

•Blacks were almost five times as likely as Whites to be on death row

Executions By State (2002)

State Executions State ExecutionsTexas 33 Ohio 3Oklahoma 7 Alabama 2 Missouri 6 Mississippi 2 Georgia 4 North Carolina 2 Virginia 4 Louisiana 1Florida 3 California 1 South Carolina 3

Of 71 Executions 67 (94%) Occurred in the South

Executions Of Juveniles By State Since 1976

State Executions Texas 13Virginia 3 Oklahoma 3 Georgia 1Louisiana 1Missouri 1South Carolina 1

Of 23 Executions 23 (100%) Occurred in the South

Capital Punishment: Phillips Archival Study

•Phillips (1980) recorded reports of murders and capital punishments publicized in London between 1858 and 1921.

•Immediately after a well‑publicized execution, homicides dropped about 35%.

•Several weeks later homicides increased above the rate that would have been expected if no execution had taken place.

•When averaged over a period of six weeks, capital punishment did not influence the number of homicides.