Wife Killings Committed in the Context of a Lovers Triangle

& Wilson, 1999). With occasional exceptions, men far outnumber women as the killers and women outnumber men as the victims (Daly & Wilson, 1988; Dobash & Dobash, 1979). These killings present a puzzle for social scientists: Why would the relationship most frequently characterized by love result in the highest risk of death? Several hypotheses have been advanced to account for these findings. One hypothesis invokes sheer proximity (Daly & Wilson, 1988). According to this hypothesis, the risk of getting killed is a function of the frequency of interaction. Because spouses interact with each other frequently, the risk of spousal homicide is commensurately high. A second hypothesis, which may be called the “killingas-by-product hypothesis,” invokes an evolved male psychology of sexual proprietariness that involves the use of violence as a means of coercive control of female sexuality: In attempting to exert proprietary rights over the sexuality and reproduction of women, men walk a tightrope. The man who actually kills his wife has usually overstepped the bounds of utility, whether utility is assessed in fitness or in more proximate currencies. Killing provokes retribution by the criminal justice system or the victim’s relatives; at the least, murdered wives are costly to replace. But killing is just the tip of the iceberg: For every murdered wife, hundreds are beaten, coerced, and intimidated.... There is brinksmanship and risk of disaster in any such contest, and homicides by spouses of either sex may be considered slips in this dangerous game. (Daly & Wilson, 1988, p. 205; for overviews of evolutionary psychology, in general, and of evolutionary psychological applications to homicide, in particular, see Daly & Wilson, 1997, 1999).