Buss postulates that the human mind has developed adaptations for killing (killing or homicide modules), that murder is qualitatively different from all other forms of violence, and that homicidal ideation (fantasies) almost invariably precedes carried-out kills, and he claims that Daly & Wilson’s slip-up argument fails because premeditated mate (spouse, partner) killing cannot result from the mere slip-ups central to the by-product (of ever more desperate strategies of mate guarding) hypothesis. In this review a number of alternative interpretations are presented: Normal distribution and coincidental status striving theory, special taxon of substrate dysfunctions, phylogenetic regression theory, and overcontrol theory. Finally, the problematic mate-killing module (as allegedly “superior” to the by-product theory) and the obscure role of homicidal ideation are critically assessed.
Bailey, K. G. (1987). Human paleopsychology: Applications to aggression and pathological processes. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
2.
Bailey, K. G. (2002). Upshifting and downshifting the triune brain: Roles in individual and social pathology. In G. Cory & R. Gardner (Eds.), The neuroethology of Paul MacLean: Convergences and frontiers (pp. 1-29). New York: Greenwood.
3.
Bloom, H. W. (1995). The Lucifer principle: A scientific expedition into the forces of history. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.
4.
Briken, P., Habermann, N., Berner, W., & Hill, A. (2005). The influence of brain abnormalities on psychosocial development, criminal history and paraphilias in sexual murderers. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 50, 1284-1288.
5.
Buss, D. M. (2000). The dangerous passion: Why jealousy is as necessary as love and sex. New York: Free Press.
6.
Buss, D. M. (2003). The evolution of desire: Strategies of human mating. (Revised Ed.). New York: Basic Books.
7.
Buss, D. M. (2004). Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind. (2nd Ed.). Needham Heights: Allyn & Bacon.
8.
Buss, D. M., & Duntley, J. D. (1998, July). Evolved homicide modules. Paper presented at the annual meeting of Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Davis, CA.
9.
Buss, D. M., & Duntley, J. D. (2002, June). Mating motives for murder. Paper presented at the annual meeting of HBES, New Brunswick, NJ.
10.
Buss, D. M., & Duntley, J. D. (2003). Homicide: An evolutionary psychological perspective and implications for public policy. In R. W. Bloom & N. Dess (Eds.), Evolutionary psychology and violence: A primer for policymakers and public policy advocates (pp. 115-128). Westport, CT: Praeger.
11.
Coccaro, E. E., Posternak, M. A., & Zimmerman, M. (2005). Prevalence and features of intermittent explosive disorder in a clinical setting. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 66, 1221-1227.
12.
Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1988). Homicide. New York: Aldine.
13.
Duntley, J. D., & Buss, D. M. (2005). The plausibility of adaptations for homicide. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (Eds.), The structure of the innate mind (pp. 291-304). New York: Oxford University Press.
14.
Ellis, L. (1998). Neodarwinian theories of violent criminality and antisocial behavior. Aggression & Violent Behavior, 3, 61-110.
15.
Fisher, M. L. (2002). Review of Buss (2000). Human Ethology Bulletin, 17, 16-18.
16.
Gellerman, D. M., & Suddath, R. (2005). Violent fantasy, dangerousness, and the duty to warn and protect. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 33, 484-495.
17.
Ghiglieri, M. P. (1999). The dark side of man: Tracing the origins of male violence. Reading, MA: Perseus.
18.
Goldstein, M. A. (2002, August). Evolutionary aspects of gender roles in war. Paper presented at the biannual meeting of the International Society for Human Ethology, Montreal, Canada.
19.
Hammer, C. I. (1978). Patterns of homicide in a medieval university town: Fourteenth century Oxford. Past & Present, 78, 1-23.
20.
Haselton, M., DeKay, T., & Buss, D. M. (1998, July). A theory of errors in cross-sex mind reading. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the HBES, Davis, CA.
21.
Hrdy, S. B. (1999). Mother nature: A history of mothers, infants, and natural selection. New York: Pantheon.
22.
James, W. (1890). Principles of psychology. New York: Holt.
23.
Katz, J. (1988). Seductions of crime: Moral and sensual attractions in doing evil. New York: Basic Books.
24.
Kenrick, D. T., & Sheets, V. (1993). Homicidal fantasies. Ethology & Sociobiology, 14, 231-246.
25.
Lindberg, N., Tani, P., Virkkunen, M., Porkka-Heiskanen, T., Appelberg, B., Naukkarinen, H., & Salmi, T. (2005). Quantitative electroencephalographic measures in homicidal men with antisocial personality disorder. Psychiatric Research, 136, 7-15.
26.
Lopreato, J. (1984). Human nature and biocultural evolution. Boston: Allen and Unwin.
27.
Mealey, L. J. M. (2000). Sex differences: Developmental and evolutionary strategies. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
28.
Megargee, E. I. (1966). Undercontrolled and overcontrolled personality types in extreme antisocial aggression. Psychological Monographs, 80, 1-29.
29.
Mulvihill, D. J., Tumin, M. M., & Curtis, L. A. (Eds.). (1969). Crimes of violence (13 vols.). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
30.
Nash, J. R. (1992). World encyclopedia of 20th-century murder. New York: Paragon House.
31.
Norris, J. (1988). Serial killers: The growing menace. New York: Doubleday.
32.
Pincus, J. H. (2001). Base instincts: What makes killers kill. New York: Norton.
33.
Raine, A. (1993). The psychopathology of crime: Criminal behavior as a clinical disorder. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
34.
Raine, A., Buchsbaum, M., & LaCasse, L. (1997). Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by positron emission tomography. Biological Psychiatry, 42, 495-508.
35.
Rhodes, R. (1999). Why they kill. New York: Knopf.
36.
Rowe, D. C. (1994). The limits of family influence: Genes, experience, and behavior. New York: Guilford.
37.
Rowe, D. C. (1996). An adaptive strategy theory of crime and delinquency. In J. D. Hawkins (Ed.), Delinquency and crime: Current theories (pp. 268-314). New York: Cambridge University Press.
38.
Solway, K. S., Richardson, L., Hays, J. R., & Elion, V. H. (1981). Adolescent murderers: Literature review and preliminary research findings. In J. R. Hays, T. K. Roberts, & K. S. Solway (Eds.), Violence and the violent individual (pp. 193-209). Jamaica, NY: Spectrum.
39.
van der Dennen, J. M. G. (1984). Clinical aggressology: Neuropathology and (violent) aggression. Aggressive Behavior, 10, 175-175.
40.
van der Dennen, J. M. G. (2006, July-August). Combat motivation and war atrocities: Human nature and “natural born killers”? Paper presented at the biannual meeting of the International Society for Human Ethology, Detroit.
41.
Wolfgang, M. E., & Ferracuti, F. (1969). The subculture of violence: Towards an integrated theory in criminology (2nd ed.). New York: Tavistock.
42.
World Report on Violence and Health. (2002). Geneva: World Health Organization.
43.
Wrangham, R. W., & Peterson, D. (1996). Demonic males: Apes and the origins of human violence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
