Guys Gone Wild Morgan Brown Pauline Castellanos Ashley Conner

Video Clip  Stop Violence Against Women Commercial  dRK6MV8iM dRK6MV8iM

Why do parents kill their own children?  Martin Daly and Margo Wilson (1988) They don’t. Parents have to make tough choices.

Why are almost all violent criminals men?  Donald Brown (1991) and Steven Pinker (2002) Cultural Universals  Daly and Wilson Comprehensive study of homicide  Polygamous societies  Males are highly competitive

Big Violence Starts Small  “Trivial Altercations”  Death penalty  Rape  Property Crimes

Norms Against Crime  Norms evolved in reaction to crime  Crime pays reproductively

Staying Alive  “Staying Alive” theory of female criminality (Campbell) A female must stay alive long enough to ensure her child survives to sexual maturity. Females are more risk-averse than males. Occasionally, females must compete for resources  Tactics of competition are usually low-risk and indirect.

Campbell continued  Benefits of aggression Men and women do not differ Women must compete for high-quality mates just as men do  Costs of aggression Men and women DO differ Explains the far lower incidence of aggression among women

Why women steal?  Survival needs  Men steal to show off and gain status and resources  Women steal less than men for exactly the same reason as they earn less than men.

The Exception  Women in Syria  Why? Clerical error Cultural or institutional reasons

Domestic Violence Hypotheses  Martin Daly Domestic violence occurs when a husband does not value his wife sufficiently and will mistreat her as a result Older wives are at greater risk  Margo Wilson Domestic violence is a maladaptive byproduct Younger wives are at greater risk

So, Who’s Right?  Data collection in Canada and the U.S.  Results Younger wives are at much greater risk of violence and murder than older wives  Wilson’s prediction was right

The Stats  Importance of wife’s age  Husbands aged married to wives aged are more than 6 times as likely to kill their wives than young husbands aged

Young Men vs. Old Men  Young men kill other males Old men kill their wives  Murderers aged % of their victims are males  Murderers aged % of their victims are males

Maladaption at its Worst  Spousal abuse is: an extreme, maladaptive, and largely unintended consequence of a man’s desire for mate-guarding  Younger wives are more valuable

A Common Misunderstanding  Male’s “Midlife Crisis”  Wife’s imminent menopause and end of her reproductive career

3 Interesting Things  1. The exception of Syrian women.  2. Older men kill more young women.  3. The causes of a midlife crisis

Weak Arguments  1. The Syrian Exception  2. Staying Alive Theory

Test Questions—Multiple Choice  1. According to work done by Daly and Wilson, why do parents kill their own children? A. Biological parents often do not kill their own children. B. Parents invest more in children who are more likely to be successful. C. None of the above. D. Both A and B.  2. What does Campbell say is the “Staying Alive” theory? A. That men commit crimes in order to protect themselves and “stay alive.” B. Women do not commit crimes and that is how they “stay alive.” C. Women commit crimes in order to “stay alive” until their children have reached sexually maturity.  3. The majority of women do not commit crimes. However, in what culture is there an exception to this rule. A. China B. Syria C. Iraq

Test Questions—True/False  4. A cultural universal describes why men in different cultures are not more likely to commit violent crimes.  5. Younger wives are at greater risk of spousal abuse and murder than older wives.  6. Many middle-aged men go through midlife crises because they are middle-aged.

Bibliography  Miller, A.S. & Kanazawa, S. (2007). Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire—Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do,