Child homicides by stepfathers: A replication and reassessment of the British evidence.

Abstract

Daly and Wilson report that rates of fatal assaults of young children by stepfathers are over 100 times those by genetic fathers, and they explain the difference in evolutionary terms. Their study was replicated using updated homicide data, and population data from three surveys. The risk to young stepchildren was approximately 16 times that to genetic children, and stepfathers were twice as likely to kill by beating. However, when father's age was controlled for, the risk from cohabiting fathers was approximately six times. Above 4 years, stepchildren were at no greater risk than genetic children. Children are at risk from fathers primarily when both are young and they do not live together; stepfathers' apparent overrepresentation results largely from their relative youth, and from many non-residential perpetrators being labelled stepfathers. Other factors are also influential, but if these include stepparenthood, its impact is considerably less than previous researchers have claimed.

Physical Abuse of Children by Stepfathers in Colombia

“…In addition, the abusive stepfathers in this sample were predominantly young men. This finding converges with that of Nobes et al (2019) whose recent analysis of child homicides indicated that many perpetrators were young, casual and short-term partners of their victims' mothers. In fact, in that study, many of the perpetrators hardly knew the children and were therefore likely to have been misclassified as stepfathers.…”

“…Of course, the ecological and evolutionary accounts are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and genetic relatedness might be one of the many factors that explain child abuse by stepparents. However, the findings of this and other recent studies (Nobes et al, 2019;Temrin et al, 2011;Turner et al, 2007) The data from this Colombian sample indicate that the high rates of physical abuse by stepfathers resulted at least partly from numerous factors, perhaps beginning with parents' experience of abuse when they were children, and its subsequent intergenerational transmission via stressors such as interpersonal conflict and unstable relationships. There seems also to be an important role for the genetic mothers in this process.…”

“…Third, the sample is limited to families in one South American city. Until more studies in other settings are conducted, we cannot be sure that the findings can be generalized to other populations (though see Alexandre et al, 2010; Nobes et al, 2019; Temrin et al, 2011; Turner et al, 2007, for examples of such studies). A related point concerns possible cultural differences: As Klevens et al (2000) point out, their recruitment “relied on the community’s and institution’s definitions of ‘abuse,’ [which] may also bias the findings and restrict the possibilities for generalization or extrapolation of the findings” (p. 330), and the same might apply to how terms such as “violent episodes” were interpreted by the interviewers.…”

“…(e.g., Giles-Sims & Finkelhor, 1984;Malvaso, Delfabbro, Proeve, & Nobes, 2015;Nobes, Panagiotaki, & Russell Jonsson, 2019;Temrin, Nordlund, Rying, & Tullberg, 2011;Turner, Finkelhor, & Ormrod, 2007). For example, Temrin et al reported higher rates of antisociality in Sweden among both stepparents and child homicide abusers, suggesting that this and other parental characteristics may be confounding variables.…”

Reproductive Value and the Evolution of Aggression

“…Second, the risk of infanticide by a stepparent is significantly higher when children are within the 0-5 age range but drops significantly among older children (Daly and Wilson 1988). Finally, children of younger mothers are most at risk of violence (Daly and Wilson 1985;Nobes et al 2019).…”