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Born to Kill?: A Critical Evaluation of Homicide Adaptation Theory

NCJ Number
228725
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 14 Issue: 5 Dated: September/October 20090 Pages: 374-381
Author(s)
Russil Durrant
Date Published
October 2009
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article presents a critical evaluation of the Homicide Adaptation Theory (HAT), an explanation of why homicide occurs.
Abstract
The central proposition of the HAT is that humans possess psychological adaptations for killing that have evolved because they successfully managed to solve specific, recurrent adaptive problems in the ancestral past. Central to HAT is the idea that under certain, highly delineated contexts, the benefits of killing would have outweighed the costs and hence specific psychological adaptations for killing would have evolved. HAT is proposed to fill an important gap in the literature on the etiology of killing. Given the enormous harm that results from the intentional killing of humans by other humans, the development of etiological theories of homicide is an important task. HAT is an attempt to explain why homicide occurs. This article presents a critical analysis of HAT beginning with a detailed overview of the core features of HAT. This analysis is followed by an evaluation of the key psychological adaptations, a comparison with alternative evolutionary explanations for homicide, and suggestions concerning the future of HAT. References

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