摘要：The protection of individuals and property has been the responsibility of males throughout the ages. In the early civilisations the heads of families regulated the behaviour of their members. Later with the development of extended family systems and communities a male or a number of males were chosen to ensure the safety of the group. In other words, there was always a male at the head of the family or group and it was under the leadership of either the father (patria potestas), the familial patriarch (parens familiae) or the head of the community (parens comuniae) that strict behavioural codes were enforced (Brown, Esbensen & Geis 1998:177).
