Testosterone Linked to Violent Behavior
James Dabbs, Jr., studied 4,462 men in 1990 and found that “the overall picture among the high-testosterone men is one of delinquency, substance abuse and a tendency toward excess.” These men, he added, “have more trouble with people like teachers while they are growing up, have more sexual partners, and are more likely to have gone AWOL in the service and to have used hard drugs,” particularly if they had poor educations and low incomes.
A separate study by Dabbs of young male prison inmates found that high testosterone levels were associated with more violent crimes, parole board decisions against release, and more prison rule violations. Even in women, Dabbs found, high testosterone levels were related to crimes of unprovoked violence, increased numbers of prior charges, and decisions against parole.
The latest study by Dabbs et al., which pooled data from two groups of prisoners, measured testosterone levels in the saliva of 692 adult male prisoners. The researchers found that inmates who committed crimes of sex and violence had higher testosterone levels than inmates who were incarcerated for property crimes or drug abuse. In addition, they say, “inmates with higher testosterone levels… violated more rules in prison, especially rules involving overt confrontation.”
An accumulation of evidence is converging on the conclusion that Blacks have higher testosterone than White men from age 7-33. From 33-40 it is about equal to Whites, and after age 40, Blacks have lower testosterone than Whites. My paper here offers clear evidence in the form of numerous scientific studies that Blacks indeed have higher testosterone than Whites.
Most everywhere they live in the world, Blacks are associated with high crime rates, in particular high violent crime rates. They are associated with high levels of violence in general. These elevated violence rates hold true for Blacks in the US, UK, Africa and the Caribbean. It seems odd that Black people would have coincidentally the same violence and crime-promoting environment in Africa, the US, the US and the Caribbean.
Black boys have more problems with teachers and elevated rates of delinquency, at least in the US.
In addition, in the US, UK, Africa and Caribbean, they have more sex partners than White males. It seems odd that wherever they are found, Blacks would find some sort of environment that coincidentally causes them to be more promiscuous than others.
It is not known where Blacks use drugs, including hard drugs more than Whites, or if they cause more problems in prison in terms of rule violations or violations involving force. It is also not known whether they get their parole denied more often. It is also known whether Blacks go AWOL in the service more than Whites.
However, increased delinquency, discipline problems at school, crime rates, violent crime rates and number of sex partners in Blacks suggest that these elevated behavioral variables may be related to increased testosterone since all of these are known correlates of high testosterone in men.
