The evolution of rape: The fitness benefits and costs of a forced-sex mating strategy in an evolutionary context Menelaos Apostolou University of Nicosia, 46 Makedonitissas Ave., 1700 Nicosia, Cyprus abstract article info Article history: Received 15 November 2012 Received in revised form 27 June 2013 Accepted 27 June 2013 Available online xxxx Keywords: Rape Forced-sex mating strategy Parental choice Female choice Anti-rape mechanisms Past theorizing on the evolution of rape adduced the hypothesis that this act constitutes the behavioral ex- pression of a mechanism which has evolved to enable men of low mate value to circumvent female choice. This has recently been questioned on the grounds that during human evolution, women's mate choices were controlled by their parents. It, therefore, remains unclear which were the evolutionary forces likely to have shaped this mechanism and whether such a mechanism exists in the first place. Accordingly, this paper employs anthropological and historical evidence in an attempt to reconstruct the evolutionary context in which a forced-sex mating strategy emerged. On the basis of this evidence, it is argued that forced sex is the outcome of an innate conditional strategy which enables men to circumvent parental and female choice when they experience a competitive disadvantage, or when the costs of doing so are low. The implications of the operation of this mechanism during human evolution are further explored. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 2. The evolutionary context of rape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3. The evolution of rape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.1. Circumventing parental choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.2. Circumventing female choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.3. Opportunistic sexual access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 4. Parental anti-rape mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 5. Forced-sex mating strategy across cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 5.1. Forced-sex mating strategy in agropastoral and in hunting and gathering societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 5.2. Forced-sex mating strategy in post-industrial societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 6. General discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 1. Introduction Certain men under certain conditions pursue a forced-sex mating strategy (i.e., rape). This raises the question of the evolutionary ori- gins of this behavior. Two main hypotheses have been proposed. First, this strategy is the byproduct of other adaptations such as a high libido, desire for novelty in sexual partners, and willingness to engage in casual sex (Thornhill & Palmer, 2000). Second, rape is an adaptation that has evolved to enable men to increase their reproduc- tive success (Thornhill & Palmer, 2000). In the latter hypothesis, the asymmetry in parental investment, with females investing more in their offspring than males, turns the former into the scarce reproductive resource over which the latter strive to gain sexual access (Trivers, 1972). This puts women in a po- sition where they are able to exercise choice. Women do not choose randomly, but instead prefer men with characteristics such as good genes, high social status, and control of resources which are beneficial for them (Buss, 2003). These female preferences mean that men who lack desirable qual- ities are unlikely to be chosen as mates, suffering in effect consider- able reproductive costs. Given that men vary in their qualities, at every point in time there should be several men who find themselves Aggression and Violent Behavior xxx (2013) xxx–xxx E-mail address: m.apostolou@gmail.com. AVB-00755; No of Pages 7 1359-1789/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2013.06.006 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Aggression and Violent Behavior Please cite this article as: Apostolou, M., The evolution of rape: The fitness benefits and costs of a forced-sex mating strategy in an evolutionary context, Aggression and Violent Behavior (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2013.06.006