NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) -- Women who commit violent crimes and show "aggressive dominance" in prison are more likely to have high levels of testosterone than other female inmates, a study shows.
The report in the September-October issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine notes that older female prison inmates whose testosterone levels decreased with age also showed decreased aggressive behavior -- but not those whose hormone levels remained high.
"The study shows that testosterone in females has much the same effect as it has in males. In the context of prison, women are more dominant and tended to have committed violent crimes," says Dr. James Dabbs, professor of psychology at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Dabbs points out that levels of testosterone in women "are much lower than in men, maybe a tenth of the levels in men. But among (women) themselves, they are equally varied in that in some women, the levels may be twice as high as in others, as in some men they are twice as high as others."
The study included 87 female inmates, ages 17 to 60, at a maximum security prison. The women's testosterone levels were measured via a test of saliva, which Dabbs says correlates with blood levels of the hormone.
The Georgia researchers examined the women's court records and made assessments of their prison behavior based on prison records and interviews with staff.
According to Dabbs, the new findings are similar to those in recent studies of male prison inmates in which testosterone levels were highest among men convicted of violent crimes such as rape, homicide, assault. As inmates they also violated more prison rules.
According to Dabbs, additional but "tentative" findings in his study pertain to five women whose testosterone levels were lowest. Three staff members (without knowledge of the inmates' hormone levels) "used the phrases 'very manipulative,' 'denies her part in problems,' 'sneaky,' a 'snake in the grass,'" to describe the five, Dabbs notes. And when asked for a single adjective that best described these inmates, all agreed "treacherous" was the word.
According to Dabbs, this subjective assessment of the five "makes sense."
"If you're going to be straightforward in your behavior, you need a lot of gumption behind it." Thus, lacking the "gumption" conferred by higher hormone levels, these women find ways to be "equally bad -- bad-tempered or bad-natured -- but are afraid to show it directly," he explains.
Still, Dabbs acknowledges the possibility of a chicken versus egg question; that is, which comes first -- the hormone level or the violent behavior?
"It's both. Testosterone comes at a certain level, and some people are higher than others and always have been and will be, and that's going to make them a little bit different," he says. "On the other hand, behavior is going to change it (testosterone level). In studies of athletes, winning a contest increases testosterone and in studies of animals, winning a fight increases testosterone," he points out.
"In my view, the most important part is how the testosterone affects the behavior, because some people are just chronically higher in testosterone," Dabbs adds.
But the researcher says the new study "does not imply testosterone is the only variable or the most important one. Social factors, physical condition, and other hormones undoubtedly contribute to criminal behavior and behavior in prison."
SOURCE: Psychosomatic Medicine (1997;59)
