Human aggression often undermines health and well-being. In 2018, over 1.2 million violent crimes were recorded in the United States alone — a 4.7% increase from 2014 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2019). Such violence led to more than 65,000 fatalities in 2017 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019) and cost taxpayers over $25 billion in 2010 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). Alcohol and drug misuse are contributing factors in at least 40% of violent acts (Collins & Messerschmidt, 1993; Martin, 1992; National Institute of Justice, 1991). Despite the immense import of alcohol and drug misuse to understanding aggression, it remains unclear whether alcohol-related, drug-related, and non-substance-related aggression are three distinct constructs or if they are simply three facets of a single aggression factor. In what follows, we sought to fill this gap in our understanding by statistically modeling whether these three aggression phenotypes were best characterized as manifestations of a general aggression construct, or as three distinct constructs unto themselves.
