They’re overwhelmingly the perpetrators of murder, and comprise most of their victims, with around 90 per cent of global homicides being committed by males, and 70 per cent being their targets. In the majority of cases, killers are unemployed, unmarried, poorly educated and under 30. Their sense of status is fragile. In most places, the leading reasons given for killing are ‘status-driven’, writes conflict researcher Dr Mike Martin, ‘the result of altercations over trivial disputes’.
