Aggression is any deliberate attempt to harm others against their will (Allen & Anderson, 2017). It does not include acts of self-harm, accidentally harming others, protecting oneself from assailants, or consensual infliction of pain. Rather, a malicious motivation to harm others is required for an act to be considered aggression (Parrott & Giancola, 2007). It is a behavior, meaning that angry feelings, hostile thoughts, and desires to harm others do not count as aggression on their own. The conceptual taxonomy of aggression is often articulated into a growing array of sub-types (e.g., appetitive, direct, hostile, impulsive, indirect, physical, premeditated, proactive, reactive, relational, retaliatory, verbal) that vary in their underlying goals, sources, targets, and timeframes (Parrott & Giancola, 2007). Although alcohol-related and drug-related aggression have been recognized for their massive impact on public health, empirical research that establishes their place within the aggression taxonomy has been lacking. Doing so is a theoretically useful endeavor that could unify the more applied substance misuse and violence research literatures with basic theories of aggression. Further, this taxonomic integration could allow for novel predictions to be made about alcohol-related and drug-related aggression, possibly leading to novel interventions.
