Often when I see ordinary people or activists talk about the disproportionate amount of men committing crimes, no questions are asked. Only statements are issued. "Men are clearly just so much more violent than women." "Women are so much more sensible than men" and a great variety of shaming and blaming.

I'm going to use another, very similar issue as contrast here: The disproportionate amount of African-Americans that go to jail. There is a lot of movement and activism to change this, (and i think there should be even more) but the perpetrators are rarely blamed except by racists. Instead, people seek to ask questions, such as "What kind of role models are these kids having?" and "How do we stop the propagation of drugs in such communities?" and "How do we change the cycle of poverty and violence happening?".

Now, the issues that drive many men (as a whole) to violent crime have some overlap with those that drive African-Americans to crime. But that's not what this is about. I believe an important part of changing the "men are mostly violent, sex-crazed aggressors" narrative is getting the public as a whole to accept that the whole "hurt people hurt people" thing applies to men too. We need to get the people around us to start asking questions like the ones they ask for other groups disproportionately represented in jail.

Like, how can we reduce sentencing and sentence length bias against men? How do we make sure our boys are growing up with good father figures? How do we make sure our boys are staying in school? Many things can be changed, but first the solution needs to be pondered.

Anyhow, I know this post is preaching to the choir somewhat, but if you feel compelled to start any sort of change, I believe this would be one of the most important areas to do it in. Also, can you share the stories of men convicted of violent crime that you know? I would like to hear and learn more about such cases.