Violence among Psychiatric Patients and Criminals

Agressive behaviour is a part of basic human nature. It is an adaptive behaviour having its origin in genetically coded neural mechanisms that are acted upon by hormonal and psychosocial factors. It has multiple determinants whose manifestations and effects vary with age, sex and culture. Aggressive behaviour promotes the survival of the individual as well as the social groups. However, in the context of rapid social and cultural changes, the survival value of aggression becomes suspect. The new roles and norms required by social change create uncertainties. These are reflected in the form of various interpersonal and social problems. Aggression becomes one of the ways of expressing these. As is generally believed, appropriate aggression may not be harmful, and attempts to extinguish all forms of its may prove maladaptive. As such, violence is aggression gone astray and is a short term coping mechanism which in the long run tends to prove maladaptive to the individual and to society.