Spousal Abuse and Homicide: Byproduct Theory (Daly and Wilson)
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Spousal Abuse and Homicide: Byproduct Theory (Daly and Wilson) Leah C. Teter and Joseph A. Camilleri Westfield State University, Westfield, MA, USA
Synonyms Intimate Partner Violence; Intimate Partner Homicide Though most homicides are perpetrated by men against other men, women are disproportionately the victims of spousal homicide. Globally, 39% of all homicides of women are by an intimate partner, whereas 6.28% of all homicides of men are by an intimate partner (Stöckl et al. 2013). Daly and Wilson proposed that uxoricide (i.e., killing of female spouse) is a byproduct of male sexual proprietariness. Male sexual proprietariness is a tendency for men to believe they own or are entitled to their intimate partner. Such beliefs would have been an adaptive response to competition with rival males. Men can increase their reproductive success through mate number, which creates a high degree of competition between men for access to mates. Men who were able to limit their intimate partner’s mating opportunities with rivals would have been more successful than men who did not. Having a partner who engages in extra-pair mating introduces a cost – investing resources and time in raising
offspring who are not genetically related (known as cuckoldry risk). Daly and Wilson suggest that intimate partner violence may function by limiting a partner’s extra-pair opportunities through coercive control to reduce the risk of cuckoldry and that uxoricide is a byproduct of such actions. A trait is considered to be a byproduct if it is not-adaptive because it does not solve any reproductive or survival problems (Buss et al. 1998). Daly and Wilson (1988) argue that in order for spousal homicide to be an adaptation, it requires a clear reproductive or sexual benefit, but if a husband kills his wife, it prevents any future reproductive success and presents additional costs such as retribution from the victim’s family, loss of caregiver to any current offspring, and gaining a reputation as a murderer which hinders the acquisition of new mates. They therefore suggest that spousal homicide is not an adaptation, but a byproduct of male sexual proprietariness because many incidents of uxoricide occur in the context of sexual jealousy or loss of a partner to a rival (c.f. chapter “Spousal Homicide: Evolved Homicide Module Theory [Buss]”). Daly and Wilson’s hypothesis of homicide as an evolutionary byproduct explains many of the identified risk factors and demographics associated with patterns of spousal homicide rates. It explains that younger women are at higher risk of being victims of uxoricide because there is greater competition among men for partners with higher reproductive value. Estrangement is also a risk factor because it results in losing a partner to a
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. K. Shackelford, V. A. Weekes-Shackelford (eds.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2046-1
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Spousal Abuse and Homicide: Byproduct Theory (Daly and Wilson)
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