Affective and predatory violence: A bimodal classification system of human aggression and violence

The etiology of violent and aggressive behavior has been studied for several decades. Observations in the 1920s of human patients who manifested aggressive behavior after incurring neurological insults led researchers to explore a biological basis for the behavior. Animal research soon followed and provided the foundation for understanding this complex behavior. Efforts to use animal models of adaptive aggressive behavior to explain pathological aggression in a subgroup of the human population has proven to be a daunting task. The research has produced a vast database encompassing several distinct disciplines. Predatory and affective aggression garners support as a classification system from clinical, social, biopsychological and forensic databases. This article draws together this vast research and delivers an argument for a bimodal classification system of aggressive and violent behavior. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.