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I. Introduction
Domestic violence is a pervasive and continuing problem in the United States. This paper will focus on evolutionary-based theories about male aggression, arguing that these theories lead to specific predictions about when intervention is required in order to preempt serious bodily harm or death. More specifically, this paper will make the case that evolutionary psychologists have made great strides in identifying high-risk situations and that empirically supported notions about when women and children are at the greatest danger should serve as the impetus for domestic violence legal and policy reform.
The most important contribution of evolutionary theory to the area of domestic violence prediction starts with the idea of paternity assurance. The notion that males of all species promote their own reproductive success by exhibiting sexual jealousy and by selectively supporting only genetically related offspring provides the groundwork for most of the contributions evolutionary psychology has made to the study of domestic abuse. This paper will discuss the importance of these contributions, paying specific attention to the practical implications for law enforcement, judges, social workers, and policymakers.
Domestic violence is primarily a male phenomenon. Men are responsible for a disproportionate amount of partner abuse,1 and, although many households in the United States are headed by a single female, men are nevertheless guilty of more fatal child abuse on average than are women.2 In fact, many published studies and reports of domestic violence implicitly assume that the source of the violence is the adult male in the household.3 Furthermore, male aggression in the home exacts a heavy toll. Conservative estimates of infanticide indicate that between three and thirteen children are killed every day in the United States, the majority by biologically unrelated male "parents."4 Between thirty-nine and sixty-two percent of the 3419 women killed in the United States in 1998 were killed by intimates.5 Moreover, this trend appears to be relatively stable. While some types of fatal violence are decreasing, uxoricide6 is not. The number of men murdered by intimates has been dropping in recent years, while the number of women murdered by intimates has remained stable for two decades.7 According to Dr. Susan Wilt,8 "[w]e haven't come close to affecting intimate partner violence and homicide the way we have other kinds of...