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Affiliation
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Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. |
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Abstract
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Homicide is an extreme manifestation of interpersonal conflict with minimal reporting bias and can thus be used as a conflict "assay." Evolutionary models of social motives predict that genetic relationship will be associated with mitigation of conflict, and various analyses of homicide data support this prediction. Most "family" homicides are spousal homicides, fueled by male sexual proprietariness. In the case of parent-offspring conflict, an evolutionary model predicts variations in the risk of violence as a function of the ages, sexes, and other characteristics of protagonists, and these predictions are upheld in tests with data on infanticides, parricides, and filicides.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The goal of this article by Daly and Wilson was to explore the phenomenon of family homicide through an evolutionary social psychology perspective.
METHODOLOGY:
A non-experimental review of the literature was conducted for this study.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The authors stated that the evolutionary perspective can be taken to understand homicide. This perspective addressed the increased psychological significance of familial homicide and its prevalence. Family violence, they said, appears contradictory to selection processes which result in cooperation and lower conflict in families for continuation of genetic lines. The authors argued "that genetic relationship is associated with the mitigation of conflict and violence in people, as in other creatures, and that evolutionary models predict and explain patterns of differential risk of family violence" (p. 519). They argued that criminological studies of homicide in the U.S. have used limited categorizations of victim-killer relationships which do not distinguish between blood relatives and relatives by marriage. When these have been distinguished, the authors reported that victims and offenders related by marriage exceed those related by blood. When opportunity was controlled by examining blood and non-blood relatives in households, a Detroit study found relatives to be eleven times more likely to be slain by coresiding non-blood relatives. The step-parent, the authors argued, would be such a non-blood relative who would be more likely to kill. Such parents were said to be less likely to have positive feelings for step-children and less investment in their lives. Such children were found to be more injured because of decreased parental vigilance and supervision and because of direct abuse. Stepparent homes were found to be more represented in child abuse cases, though their own biological children were said to be generally spared. Stepparents were also found to be strongly overrepresented in cases of child homicide. It was found that a child who lived with one or more substitute parents in the U.S. in 1976 was about 100 times more likely to be fatally abused than a child living with biological parents. The authors argued that, in the case of spousal conflicts, that two major factors work against evolutionary harmony in mated pairs. These were the possibility of outside reproduction and the partners' interests in kin outside the current union. The authors argued that children from previous unions contribute to divorce rates and may also increase the risk of lethal violence. Adding to this was the fact of male sexual proprietariness of the female. This was said to be the dominant issue in marital violence. Jealousy and the female's intentions to quit the marriage were cited as initiating factors in male violence against females. Lethal violence was seen as an extension of that violence intended to control women. Women were said to be most at risk when they tried to leave the relationship. Young women were said to be at most risk because of the potential for rivalries against the husband and because of the instability of commonalities. Additionally, young women were reported to be most likely to be married to young men, the group most prone to homicidal actions. The root of parent-offspring conflict and violence was said to possibly be part of an endemic feature of sexually reproducing organisms. This is because the resources and efforts that would maximize the parents' reproductive posterity often works against the children's, the authors said. Disinclinations to raise children and participate in such activities as infanticide were said to be part of selection processes and more likely if 1) the offspring's parentage is questionable to the parent, 2) the quality of the offspring is in question, 3) or environmental conditions make the offspring's survival unlikely. The authors made several filicide predictions based on evolutionary thinking. 1) Filicide rates were predicted to decline with the child's age. 2) This decline was predicted to be negatively accelerated and concentrated in the first year after birth. 3) Filicides by the mother were predicted to decline more steeply than those by the father because of the limited reproductive cycle of women and the continuation of opportunity costs and questionable paternity for fathers. These predictions all received empirical support. Violence toward parents was argued to be associated with economic stressors and histories of abuse and mistreatment. Value of the parent was said to decline with age of the parent, and potential violence was said to increase.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors advocated the application of evolutionary principles to less extreme behavioral measures of conflict and with positive measures of harmony.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Evolutionary Perspective
Social Psychology
Domestic Violence Causes
Domestic Homicide
Adult Offender
Adult Victim
Adult Violence
Child Abuse Homicide
Child Abuse Victim
Child Abuse Causes
Child Abuse Offender
Spouse Abuse Homicide
Spouse Abuse Causes
Homicide Causes
Literature Review
Juvenile Victim
Partner Violence
Violence Against Women
Language: en |