The Explanation of Family Violence: The Role of Biological, Behavioral, and Cultural Selection

Abstract

The nonrandom pattern of both marital violence and child maltreatment across cultures suggests that such behaviors may have been adaptive in certain past environments. Biological and psychosocial concepts and principles form the basis for a biosocial theory of family violence. In evolutionary theory, the twin concepts of parental investment and paternity certainty suggest the existence of endemic conflicts of interest within marital pairs and between parents and offspring. A biosocial perspective suggests that the probability of marital violence increases when ecological instability leads to the erosion of structural buffers (such as kin support or sex segregation), to changes-or perceived changes-in the marital balance of power, and to the development of coercive patterns of marital communication. Common social indicators of marital violence, underemployment, financial pressures, anxiety, and alcohol abuse can be conceptualized as markers of ecological instability or its consequences. Child maltreatment ...