A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion by Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer

Rape is horrific for women. The mere thought of rape arouses anxiety, revulsion, and anger, so it is not surprising that women are very ambivalent about subjecting rape to scientific scrutiny. Research on deadly or grotesquely disfiguring diseases probably arouses less distaste and ambivalence. Ambivalence arises out of the mix of anxiety, revulsion, and a desire to have more information.

The authors of A Natural History of Rape are familiar with various expressions of such ambivalence, and they understand why women are so anxious. As scientists, they value knowledge and assume that trying to understand everything about why rape occurs is far more beneficial for women in the long term even if the scientific inquiry inspires anxiety and revulsion. The evolution-minded scientific approach that the authors espouse has resulted in many novel and nonintuitive insights about why rape occurs and why women are so devastated by the victimization. Thornhill and Palmer are doubly handicapped by the topic and by their theoretical approach since most people have no relevant background in evolutionary biology. Even evolutionary biologists can be reluctant to think about our own species as if it were just another (very special) species.

The evolution-minded approach that Thornhill and Palmer have developed with respect to rape is carefully articulated in this book. The programmatic overview applies to other aspects of human affairs, including psychopathology. Their assumptions, the logic of their inferences, and their standards of evidence are explicitly laid out for the interested reader. They do not engage in subterfuge or bafflegab. Any weaknesses in the data or assumptions or inferences are there to be discerned, and therein lies their intellectual strength. They passionately embrace the scientific method whereby claims about causal inferences are open to public scrutiny, revision, and better understanding. Neither science, nor Darwinism, nor any other -ism has a unitary voice. The authors themselves are not always in agreement, but their alternate hypotheses and inferences can be resolved with further scientific investigation. The authors are strongest when discussing why rape occurs and why it is so harmful to women. The intellectual confrontations with those who do not appreciate the power of scientific methods or their conceptual framework have obviously inspired the authors to listen and think hard about the misunderstandings, but neither author has undertaken a systematic investigation of the history and sociology of interdisciplinary communication and competition. Nevertheless, their insights may serve others well.

Thornhill and Palmer are among a growing number of evolutionists whose research and scholarship are producing new knowledge about the causes and consequences of various kinds of interpersonal harms, and what might prove to be effective prevention policies.

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