Elsevier

Aggression and Violent Behavior

Volume 13, Issue 6, November–December 2008, Pages 481-489
Aggression and Violent Behavior

Punishment, proprietariness, and paternity: Men's violence against women from an evolutionary perspective

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2008.07.004Get rights and content

Abstract

In this article, we use an evolutionary perspective to examine intimate partner violence, focusing on men's violence against women. Previous examinations of intimate partner violence have typically used a proximate level of analysis, emphasizing the immediate, non-evolutionary causes of intimate partner violence. Complementing this approach, an evolutionary perspective offers an understanding of how such psychology and behavior could have arisen via natural selection. Here, we argue that (1) the recurring adaptive problem of paternity uncertainty plays a central role in intimate partner violence, (2) physical violence functions to punish and deter female sexual infidelity, and (3) sexual violence may function as an anti-cuckoldry tactic, with its occurrence related to suspicion of female sexual infidelity.

Section snippets

Male sexual jealousy and paternity uncertainty

Jealousy is an emotion that is experienced when a valued relationship is threatened by a real or imagined rival, and generates contextually contingent responses aimed at reducing or eliminating the threat. It functions to maintain relationships by motivating behaviors that deter rivals from poaching and that deter mates from infidelity or outright departure from the relationship (Buss et al., 1992, Daly et al., 1982, Symons, 1979). Because ancestral men and women faced adaptive problems of

Physical violence

Male sexual jealousy or “male sexual proprietariness” (Daly et al., 1982) is one of the most frequently cited causes of intimate partner violence, both physical and sexual (e.g., Buss, 2000, Daly and Wilson, 1988, Daly et al., 1982, Dobash and Dobash, 1979, Dutton, 1998, Dutton and Golant, 1995, Frieze, 1983, Gage and Hutchinson, 2006, Russell, 1982, Walker, 1979). Physical violence is a tactic used by men to restrict an intimate partner's behavior, especially her sexual behavior outside the

Intimate femicide

Occasionally, men's use of violence against their partner is lethal. Male sexual jealousy is a frequently cited cause of intimate femicide across cultures (Daly and Wilson, 1988, Serran and Firestone, 2004). Killing an intimate partner is certainly costly, but under specific circumstances, its benefits could have outweighed its costs enough for selection to produce psychology associated with partner-killing by men. According to Daly and Wilson (Daly and Wilson, 1988, Wilson and Daly, 1998,

Factors affecting the severity of violence

Male sexual jealousy is exacerbated by presence of genetically unrelated children or stepchildren. Men whose partners currently are raising children sired by previous partners “may resent their predecessors' children as living violations of their monopoly” over their partners (Daly, Singh, & Wilson, 1993, p. 209). In addition to problems associated with increased sexual jealousy, unrelated co-resident children also may generate conflict over parental investment. Unrelated men may be less

Physical violence in nonhuman animals

Studies on nonhuman animals have demonstrated that physical violence within pair-bonds is neither exclusive to humans nor to a specific sex (e.g., Eggert and Sakaluk, 1995, Shellman-Reeve, 1999, Wagner, 1992; cited in Alcock, 2005). The male burying beetle, for example, is often the target of violence when his partner's survival or reproduction is threatened (Eggert & Sakaluk, 1995). When discovering the fleshy carcass of an animal that would provide ample resources for future offspring, male

Mate retention

Men's mate retention behavior is another example of the behavioral output of jealousy and a means through which reproductive threats to fitness can be minimized. Buss (1988) identified specific mate guarding behaviors, such as vigilance (e.g., dropping by unexpectedly to check up on a partner), concealment of mate (e.g., taking a partner away from a social gathering where other men are present), and monopolization of time (e.g., insisting that a partner stay home rather than go out). These mate

Sexual violence

Between 10% and 26% of women experience rape in marriage (Abrahams et al., 2004, Dunkle et al., 2004, Finkelhor and Yllo, 1985, Hadi, 2000, Painter and Farrington, 1999, Russell, 1982, Watts et al., 1998). Rape also occurs in non-marital intimate relationships. Goetz and Shackelford (2006) secured prevalence estimates of rape in intimate relationships from a sample of young men and from an independent sample of young women in a committed relationship for at least one year, but not necessarily

Conclusion

It is possible to study intimate partner violence with little or no knowledge of evolution. Most scholars do. Those who study intimate partner violence from an evolutionary perspective often ask questions that are different from those asked by most clinical and forensic psychologists. Evolutionary psychologists are interested in ultimate explanations, referring to the evolved function of a trait, behavior, or mechanism. This is in contrast to proximate explanations, which refer to the immediate

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