Adam Jones wrote an article, first essay in this book, in 2000, that provoked considerable debate, in which he argues that throughout history and around the world, the population group most consistently targeted for mass killing and state-backed oppression are non-combatant men of roughly fifteen to fifty-five years of age. Such males, Jones contends are typically seen as 'the group posing the greatest danger to the conquering force'. Jones's article also examines the use of 'gendercidal institutions' - such as female infanticide, witch-hunts, military conscription, and forced labour, against both women and men.