This analysis also examines Gunn's assumptions about social hierarchy in light of recent research comparing hedonic (affiliative network) and agonic (conflictive hierarchy) structures. Finally, the author considers the role of mediating influences such as alcohol abuse, which may affect human violence through changes in social perception and dominance cues. Perception, decoding, attribution, and other types of nonverbal and verbal communication are essential to the social dominance model of human violence; gender appears to be a critical moderating variable, as reflected in various studies of female violent offenders. This analysis elaborates the factor of deficits in social perception, which may contribute at a critical moment to the development of a violent encounter, perhaps through interference with normal patterns of retreat and restraint. Alcohol consumption can exaggerate these dynamics by affecting decoding, self-image, and expectancy. 55 references