Although aggressive behavior and its consequences has been a topic of concern for centuries, it is only within the recent past that serious attempts to understand aggression have been made. Within the last decade concern has expanded at a very high rate, perhaps impelled by an increase in aggression or the implication of an increase by frequent media reports of aggressive behavior. This apparent increased concern is matched by an increase in research.

This volume provides a context in which social and biological research on the aggressive behaviours of human and non-human subjects can be compared and integrated. Three basic interpretations of aggression dynamics emerge: economic; psychological process; and emergent process.