In an attempt to trace features of child abuse to a concern for ultimate causation such as is taught by modern evolutionary theory, the author considers two of its basic concepts, parental investment and parental certainty. Using the additional concept of inclusive fitness, evolutionists predict that a parent's investment in young children varies inversely with doubtful or step-parenthood, scarce parental resources, and unusually high costs for parental efforts. Child characteristics such as developmental problems ranging from poor speech to physical deformities and handicaps are also implicated in parental abuse and neglect. Premature children, separated from their mother for a long period immediately after birth for medical reasons, stand at risk for abuse and neglect, thus providing additonal evidence for an evolutionary interpretation of parent-child relationships. It is, therefore, necessary to continue to seek implications for family violence in evolutionary biology, and to explore the interface between these relationships and the various proximal mechanisms of abusive patterns of family interaction as well as their immediate antecedents. Forty-four references are appended.