Evolutionary Psychology and Family Violence

This chapter addresses family violence from an evolutionary perspective, focusing on intimate partner violence (IPV) and homicide (IPH), and on child abuse and filicide by parents and stepparents. We review evidence that male sexual proprietariness, manifested in coercive control of female partners and in violent responses to infidelity and desertion, is a dominant issue in IPV and IPH; argue that it must be understood as an evolved response to …