| Abstract: | Research assessing the capacity of a cultural explanation to account for the relationship between certain structural positions and high rates of criminal violence has ignored a significant intervening variable. That variable is disputatiousness—the likelihood of being offended by a negative outcome and seeking reparation through protest. This article develops a cultural model of disputatiousness and aggressiveness. It hypothesizes that individuals who occupy positions featuring high rates of violence are more likely than their counterparts to be offended by a negative outcome, to protest the injury, and to use force when the protest fails. It also hypothesizes that differential disputatiousness and aggressiveness are most pronounced when the negative outcome involves an attack on the self by an equal in a public setting. Testing these hypotheses calls for individual level data bearing on behavioral dispositions under a variety of circumstances. A methodological procedure for collecting such data is proposed, and suggestions for future research are discussed. |
