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Marriage Markets and Male Mating Effort: Violence and Crime Are Elevated Where Men Are Rare

Overview of attention for article published in Human Nature, September 2016
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#34 of 549)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (93rd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
11 news outlets
blogs
2 blogs
twitter
54 X users
googleplus
1 Google+ user

Citations

dimensions_citation
38 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
79 Mendeley
Title
Marriage Markets and Male Mating Effort: Violence and Crime Are Elevated Where Men Are Rare
Published in
Human Nature, September 2016
DOI 10.1007/s12110-016-9271-x
Pubmed ID
Authors

Ryan Schacht, Douglas Tharp, Ken R. Smith

Abstract

The negative social outcomes in populations with male-biased sex ratios are a growing concern. In general, the expectation is of heightened violence as a result of excess men engaging in antisocial behavior and crime, thereby threatening societal stability. While intuitive, these claims are largely unsupported in the literature. Using mating market theory as our guide, we examine indicators of male mating effort, including (1) violent competition between men (homicide, aggravated assault) and (2) indicators of uncommitted sexual behavior (rape, sex offenses, and prostitution). Our unit of analysis is U.S. county-level data. We find that counties with more men have lower rates of crime and violent behavior. Our findings challenge conventional claims of male excess leading to elevated levels of violence. Instead, in support of mating market predictions, we find that criminal and violent behavior related to male mating effort is least common in male-biased sex ratios. We discuss the implications of our findings for public policy regarding incarceration and criminal behavior.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 54 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 79 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Austria 1 1%
Sweden 1 1%
United Kingdom 1 1%
Luxembourg 1 1%
Croatia 1 1%
Unknown 74 94%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 17 22%
Other 8 10%
Student > Master 8 10%
Student > Doctoral Student 6 8%
Student > Bachelor 6 8%
Other 16 20%
Unknown 18 23%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 21 27%
Social Sciences 18 23%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 5 6%
Materials Science 3 4%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 2 3%
Other 9 11%
Unknown 21 27%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 132. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 11 March 2023.
All research outputs
#318,191
of 25,582,611 outputs
Outputs from Human Nature
#34
of 549 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#6,058
of 330,901 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Human Nature
#2
of 15 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,582,611 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 549 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 33.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 330,901 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 15 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.