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Marital Status and Infanticide

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Child homicide; Filicide; Neonaticide

Definition

This entry concerns the relationship between an individual’s marital status (e.g., unmarried, married, widowed) and the intentional killing of infant offspring. While infanticide (the killing of children up to 2 years of age) is sometimes treated separately from neonaticide (the killing of newborns within the first 24 h of birth), both phenomena are considered.

Introduction

Contemporary evolutionary approaches to infanticide emphasize a life history perspective. Life history theory assumes that individuals will exhibit behaviors that, on average and subject to constraints, maximize their lifetime reproductive success and that of their progeny while minimizing energetic costs (Clutton-Brock 1991; Stearns 1992). Life history theory emphasizes tradeoffs; for instance, between quality and quantity of offspring, between current and future reproduction, or between somatic maintenance and reproduction. Parental investment theory is a...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Christina M. Carolus

  2. Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Erik Ringen

Authors
  1. Christina M. Carolus
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  2. Erik Ringen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christina M. Carolus .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychology, Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL, USA

    Curtis S. Dunkel

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Carolus, C.M., Ringen, E. (2018). Marital Status and Infanticide. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3693-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3693-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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