ABSTRACT
The aim of this book has been to explore the utility of the emerging paradigm of evolutionary psychology for the study of homicide. Selection shapes behavioral control mechanisms—including the human psyche—so as to make behaving organisms effective reproductive competitors and nepotists. Species-typical motives have evolved to promote genetic posterity; it follows that our most basic human perceptions of self-interest are evolved tokens of the probable fitness consequences of alternative courses of action in historical environments. We therefore expect that two individuals will perceive themselves to be in conflict when the promotion of one’s expected fitness entails the diminution of the other’s. This, in brief, is the evolutionary psychological model that we have applied to the study of murder, and it has led us to a number of novel questions, hypotheses, and analyses. Although the research presented here is just a beginning, and although many of our ideas may prove wrong, we believe that the utility of the paradigm is established. Let’s briefly review where that paradigm has led us.
