Aggression from a gender perspective and the development of a moral compass

It is often claimed that the world in which we live is full of cruelty, ruthlessness and violence. Media reports on violence among students often paint a bleak picture of teachers and the school environment struggling to cope with manifestations of aggression among young people. We questioned whether the absence of the internalisation of moral norms or as this paper will refer to a it a ‘moral compass’. Numerous studies confirm associations between aggression and moral disengagement (Arsenio et al., 2006; Tisak, Tisak & Goldstein, 2006; Paciello et al. 2008; Krettenauer et at., 2008) and these media reports and research confirm that aggression is not just the domain of men (Krahe, 2005; Card et al., 2008; Bjorkqvist, 2017). Is there a difference between genders? Throughout the ages, there have been debates about gender differences in morality from Aristotle to Aquinas to Freud, but the study of female aggression as a phenomenon has only relatively recently begun to receive due attention (Bjorkqvist, 1994, p. 180). It should be noted that social patterns predispose women to the role of victims, while men act as perpetrators of violence.