Main description:

This volume is an interdisciplinary exploration of our understanding of the causes and consequences of violence. Represented in its chapters are noted scholars from a variety of fields including psychology, anthropology, law, and literature. The contributions reflect a broad scope of inquiry and diverse levels of analysis. With an underlying evolutionary theme each of the contributors invoke their separate areas of expertise, offering empirical and theoretical insights to this complex subject. The multi-faceted aspect of the book is meant to engender new perspectives that will synthesize current knowledge and lead to a more nuanced understanding of an ever timely issue in human behavior. Of additional interest, is a foreword written by world renowned psychologist, Steven Pinker, and an afterword by noted evolutionary scholar, Richard Dawkins.

Feature:

Includes a Foreword by Steven Pinker
Multidisciplinary approach to violence as an aspect of human behavior
Builds on an evolutionary perspective
Features innovative empirical and theoretical insights

Back cover:

Our contemporary capacity for understanding and empathy suggests that people are becoming less disposed to violence. At the same time, current developments in war technologies and the popularity of blood-soaked movies and video games point to the opposite conclusion. The works of Darwin hold crucial keys to the puzzle, yet his theories--and evolutionary theory in general--are often dismissed as relics, or worse. 

The Evolution of Violence explores and explodes myths about evolutionary theory while restoring Darwinian concepts to modern-day relevance. In these provocative pages, violence scholars from across the disciplines elegantly argue that evolutionary perspectives, far from conflicting with current science, complement and enhance standard social theory. Compelling original essays in areas such as domestic abuse, sibling conflict, and aggression in women make the case with clarity, and the contributors' theoretical and empirical insights carry significant practical implications for violence prevention. Among the featured topics:  

• Sexual selection and the psychology of intergroup conflict.
• Warfare and human nature.
• Evolutionary behavioral genetics of violent crime.
• Intimate partner violence: an evolutionary view.
• Evolutionary perspectives on child welfare law.
• An evolutionary developmental lens for understanding the causes and consequences of human aggression.

Scholarly and useful for researchers and evolutionary scientists while accessible to interested laypersons, The Evolution of Violence is no simple reminder of how far we've come as a species--it points clearly to our human potential for future progress.

Contents:

Intimate Partner Violence in Evolutionary Perspective.- War Before Civilization – 15 Years On.- Violence in Literature: An Evolutionary Perspective.- Evolutionary Perspectives on Child Welfare Law.- Warfare and Human Nature.- Sexual Selection and the Psychology of Intergroup Conflict.- Evolutionary Behavioral Genetics of Violent Crime.- The Evolutionary Psychology of Sibling Conflict and Siblicide.- Aggression Grows Up: Looking Through an Evolutionary Developmental Lens to Understand the Causes and Consequences of Human Aggression.- Adaptation and Coherence: Evolutionary and Dynamical Perspectives on Human Violence.- Violence and Aggression in Women.