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A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion. Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer. xvi + 243 pp. The MIT Press,1999. $28.95.
Why Sex Matters: A Darwinian Look at Human Behavior. Bobbi S. Low. xviii + 412 pp. Princeton University Press, 1999. $29.95.
The enterprise of trying to understand the evolved bases of human social behavior using a Darwinian framework is a worthy one indeed. The authors of both of these books state that an evolutionary paradigm may, in helping us to better understand ourselves, help us to better the human condition in which we toil. It has taken nearly 30 years for biological explanations for the social behavior of humans to gain widespread acceptance in the behavioral sciences, but today Darwinian science stands steady to help us better ourselves.
It is therefore all the more disappointing that Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer, seeking to use principles of the nascent field of evolutionary psychology, have written a book about rape that is more of an ideological rant than an empirical, well-reasoned analysis. Because of its controversial subject matter, A Natural History of Rape has already received more attention than it deserves, but to summarize: The authors argue that rape is best understood in an evolutionary framework, as a behavioral adaptation molded by sexual selection. Rape, according to the authors, is a means of enhancing male reproductive success, a mating strategy used by some men as a heinous but viable alternative to the usual pattern of courtship. This of course has enraged those who consider rape to be first and foremost a violent act against women, rather than an attempt at reproduction. Thornhill and Palmer attempt to argue that rape occurs in contexts consistent with a Darwinian explanation, and they tell us over and over that their goal is to put an end to the behavior through a better understanding of it.
It is perfectly reasonable to hypothesize that rape, murder and any number of other behaviors have biological foundations. But let's consider Thornhill and Palmer's argument on its Darwinian merits, or lack of them. First and foremost, the authors make their argument nearly free of empirical evidence. They make sweeping species-wide statements about male-female mating preferences (for example, "Humans are mildly polygynous")...