NCJ Number
180825
Date Published
1999
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This chapter reviews the evidence used to support an evolutionary explanation for men's violence against women.
Abstract
At the same time that evolutionary psychology has presented a "strict constructionist" interpretation of the evolutionary origins of complex human behaviors, a contrasting trend has emerged within evolutionary biology. This new perspective moves away from an emphasis on the primacy of the gene and natural selection and toward a focus on the plurality of evolutionary processes (e.g., Gould, 1997; Gray, 1997; and Oyama, 1989). As part of this new approach to understanding evolutionary processes, a trend has emerged toward integrating feminist theory and evolutionary explanations of behavior. Some feminist scholars have focused on the complex interplay of genetic, developmental, and environmental variables in the construction of human behavior. This chapter contrasts these two approaches to understanding the evolutionary origins of male violence against women. It critiques the rape adaptation hypothesis, the evolutionary psychological position that violent male behavior represents sex-specific, species-typical evolutionary adaptations. The author argues that this approach is not scientifically rigorous, because it presents hypotheses that are virtually untestable. The chapter presents sociobiology as a more scientifically rigorous approach to examining evolutionary explanations of men's violence. It contends that the interaction of biological and environmental factors is critical to explaining men's violence. Using primate literature as a model, the author presents evidence on the effect of the ecological context in shaping human behavior, specifically men's violence against women.