This paper aims to characterise the aggressive behaviour of great apes: the orang‐utan, the gorilla, the chimpanzee and the bonobo. We start by discussing the lack of consensual definitions for terms such as violence, aggression and agonistic behaviour. Secondly, we describe the evidence of aggression in each species. Finally we describe several referential models developed to explain the way of life and aggressive behaviour of the first hominins through insights provided from the behaviour of non‐human primates.