Twenty years ago, Martin Daly and Margo Wilson published their now-classic book Homicide. This book overturned a whole generation of liberal scholarship. It is still a welcome antidote to the kind of nonsense that some liberals, unacquainted with the data, continue to spout today.
For instance, it is not unsual to hear that "with the exception of the police and the military, the family is perhaps the most violent social group, and the home is the most violent social setting in our society. A person is more likely to be hit or killed in his or her home by another family member than anywhere else or by anyone else."
Once this was the conventional academic wisdom. Indeed Daly and Wilson encountered precisely this quotation in a textbook by two leading criminologists in the 1970s. One can see the political purpose to which such conclusions are put. Then, as now, they are used by feminists, homosexual activists and others to justify legal assaults on the nuclear family and to provide justifications for divorce, gay marriage, and other "alternative" family arrangements.
Daly and Wilson are scholars of evolution, and to them this idea that genetically related people pose the greatest social danger to each other's lives made absolutely no sense. So they began to review the data. Indeed they went way beyond what anyone had studied previously, dissecting not only the facts from the United States and other Western countries, but also performing cross-cultural comparisons in some cases going back to ancient times.
Daly and Wilson found that the liberal scholars were simply wrong. In some cases the errors were statistical. For instance, consider the statement that "more people in America are murdered each night in their beds than on the street." This is probably true, and it's because vastly more people are in their beds than on the streets. The statistic in no way shows that the bedroom is a more dangerous venue than the street! When intelligent people make such simple errors the usual reason is that their ideological prejudices are guiding the way they read the data.
But Daly and Wilson made a more startling, and significant, finding. They discovered that the data on homicide typically did not distinguish between blood-related individuals and non-blood-related individuals. For instance, when you separate murders of children committed by their fathers from murders of children by mothers' boyfriends and step-fathers and other unrelated persons, you discover that the latter group poses a far greater danger to children than the former group. Specifically, Daly and Wilson found that infants are 20 to 100 times more likely to be killed by a step-parent than by a natural parent.
Since Daly and Wilson's book there has been a wealth of data extending their conclusions. The data on child sex abuse, for example, follows the same pattern. Biological parents are much less likely to sexually abuse their children than mothers' boyfriends or step-parents. Here the natural genetic aversion to incest is an obvious explanation, but so is the fact that biological parents tend to be more closely attuned to the welfare of their offspring.
Until Daly and Wilson's book, genetic relatednedss was not considered a relevant factor in measuring infanticide and child abuse. But Daly and Wilson showed that it is the single most important predictive factor. And their pioneering work is now supported by a whole ream of data. The point of course is not that most step-parents pose a danger to children but that children face a greater risk of violence from step-parents than they do from natural parents.
These facts of course fit perfectly with common sense. And even though the cultural left will continue to make excuses, the facts also makes biological sense.No wonder that increasing divorce rates in society have produced a dramatic increase in violence against children. And if these biological and historical patterns hold, a further increase in the legitimation of "alternative lifestyles" can only be expected to produce more victims.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 62)
1.
DoubleD are you stating that husband and wife are blood relatives?
JefFlyingV at 8:23PM on Aug 2nd 2008
2. Renzo; this is why I was saying that Dinesh is not a scholar. He just restates other scholars works.
Ryan Anderson at 8:50PM on Aug 2nd 2008
3. So how in the blue hell Mr. D'Souza does child murders some how take a poliical tenor. The cultural left? WTH? Correct me if I am wrong you mental gimp but does not the death of child stand alone as a greivous event, than to have you turn it into an us/them debate. Seriously, you need mental help there chief, your education does not cover this fact. Go back to conversing with Al-Jazeera this conversation mixing left and right with the murder of children will not jive with Americans but maybe with thoose folks who believe in honor killings.
Logan at 9:04PM on Aug 2nd 2008
4.
Oh, us bad, terrible, world destroyers. Liberals love trees, conservatives love wars. Liberals don't pry into other people's lives, conservatives publish names of gays.
I really can't figure out why you hate so many people, maybe it DOES have something to do with where you come from. Let's see.... gays, atheists, muslims, liberals, molecular biologists...
And that's just the groups we currently know about. I'm sure your writing a book on some new group for your readers to hate.
ex-christian at 9:28PM on Aug 2nd 2008
5. Why does Denise continue to try to divide our people by creating an either/or liberal or conservative viewpoint? Is it because he is more interested in pushing his strange political agenda or does he just take stupid pills? Personally, I think he has some deep seated sexual issues, being extremely ugly and all.
gshort3011 at 9:29PM on Aug 2nd 2008
6. Why does Denise continue to try to divide our people by creating an either/or liberal or conservative viewpoint? There are moderates around. Is it because he is more interested in pushing his strange political agenda or does he just take stupid pills? Personally, I think he has some deep seated sexual issues, being extremely ugly and all.
gshort3011 at 9:31PM on Aug 2nd 2008
7.
Since I'm never going to leave you alone about your comment on enjoying the casualties on both sides of the Iran-Iraq war, why don't you elaborate a bit on why you hate them?
As you're such a good christian, there must be a powerful reason to giggle about death and destruction. Are they too liberal for your tastes? Not "Calvin" enough? What exactly is it you have against them?
ex-christian at 9:38PM on Aug 2nd 2008
8. Dinesh:
You have really outdone yourself this time!!!
Not only have you dug up and restated someone else's 20 year old opinion, but you have managed to suggest that it somehow is an argument against divorce, remarriage, or any other relationship on the apparent grounds that children are more likely to be abused or murdered by "family" members or acquaintances other than their biological parents!!
Even if it is true that a step-father or "boy friend" living in the same household is more likely to commit such a heinous crime than the child's biological father, this in no way has any bearing on whether or not relationships other than "one man, one women" joined by some church's idea of marriage are any more likely to produce such behavior. Moreover, if, as you seem to want to imply, gay marriage in some way demeans this church sanctioned relationship, it certainly has no bearing upon molestation of children within that relationship.
As usual, you want to extract a statistical opinion that you like from some source that you can call a "classic" (in your opinion) and extrapolate it to imply that somehow this undermines what you see as a "liberal" agenda. Talk about trying to "tar and feather with a broad brush"!
Harvey at 9:51PM on Aug 2nd 2008
9. Why does Denise continue to try to divide our people by creating an either/or liberal or conservative viewpoint? Is it because he is more interested in pushing his strange political agenda or does he just take stupid pills? Personally, I think he has some deep seated sexual issues, being extremely ugly and all.
gshort3011 at 9:29PM on Aug 2nd 2008
I think it tems from the culture he was brought up in. You see in his country though they are all the same they still manage to develop a form of bigotry among themselves. Those who have a more European complexion i.e. lighter complexion tend to look down on their darker bretheren. If you notice in many of the marriages you'll see the bride with brightened skin. The majority of their heads of state are of lighter complexion, those not of the lighter complexion compensate by bieng if you'll pardon the expression an "Uncle Tom."
Logan at 11:04PM on Aug 2nd 2008
10. Dinesh,
The Daly-Wilson report is only right to a point.
When you take abortion into account, blood relatives of the cultural left are far more likely to commit infanticide.
camoflauge at 11:07PM on Aug 2nd 2008
11. Oh and to answer your question. What's so great about christianity? Real Christians are nothing like you Mr. D'Souza
Logan at 11:06PM on Aug 2nd 2008
12.
Admittedly, I am a Doofus.
But how the hell does this:
"One can see the political purpose to which such conclusions are put. Then, as now, they are used by feminists, homosexual activists and others to justify legal assaults on the nuclear family and to provide justifications for divorce, gay marriage, and other "alternative" family arrangements."
fit with the rest of your blog???
Doofus at 11:16PM on Aug 2nd 2008
13. their ideological prejudices are guiding the way they read the data
----
Well duh, D'Stupid. Kind of like you somehow arcing this nonsense into sonething about the liklihood kids will get killed in their homes by non-married liberals. What a raft of wank....and no basis in reality. About the only thing you didn't through in were lesbians and atheists. Although the red herring of "Family Values" alludes that as your purpose.
Yet more proof that Da'Doplh D'Itler is an intellectual lightweight.
T.Brough at 11:17PM on Aug 2nd 2008
14. What an "unsual" blog entry. If your mother doesn't decide to terminate you in the womb, but then she can't get along with the real father, the kids are at 'higher' risk from mommy's new 'man'.
hmmmm.
How is this a liberal vs. conservative issue again?
It's not the 'liberal' young girls that are having ALL the abortions, it's not the liberal women that are having ALL the divorces and I'm sure that it is not the boyfriend/step fathers who are all liberals, surely.
When 'die hard' political Christians yell, "This is a Christian country!", are you now admitting that this is simply wishful thinking?
not-pboyfloyd at 11:16PM on Aug 2nd 2008
15. Come on Doofus, don't you see how the feminists cause the men to cheat on their wives, It is plain as the nose on your face that the homosexuals are causing women to tell their hubby that jr. is their kid when jr. is actually their nephew don't you watch Maury do't you see all the gays in the audience taking notes of their covert operations. Geez, doofus pay attention. lmao
Logan at 11:29PM on Aug 2nd 2008