Murder and rape are both legal terms that are used in contemporary society to describe the social construct of crime. Murder is a homicidal act resulting in death that is not permitted by the laws within society. Therefore, shooting a man to death as a lawful soldier engaged in a warranted military conflict with another country's group of soldiers is not considered murder. The same action between country members when there is no martial conflict, however, is considered murder. Rape consists of unpermitted sexual acts that have not been condoned by one of the parties. In most instances men rape women and other men, although women have been known to rape men as well. Evolutionary theory accounts for murder by positing it as a conflict of interests between two parties that is resolved violently (Dal and Wilson, 1997, p. 53). Moreover, this theory considers the fact that most crimes are committed over a conflict of interest regarding the attainment of resources, which is frequently the case when criminals murder one another over territory in drug wars. Another example is "violence motivated by sexual rivalry" (Daly and Wilson, 1997, p. 54). However, Darwin's theory of adaptation is ultimately at the center of the reason that evolutionary theorists can use this notion to explain murder. Adaptation propounds the viewpoint that species develop different mechanisms (literally, physically, cognitively and emotionally) to enable them to survive. There is a plethora of evidence that evolutionary theorists utilize to prove the notion that murder is simply a part of man's adaptive process. In this framework, then, adaptation is used to help individuals compete for the same resources. It is crucial to note, however that "evolutionary psychologists see no distinction in kind between psychological and biological phenomena" (Daly and Wilson, 1997, p. 56). Such psychologists also see little distinction between animals and people, and believe that murder on the part of both is merely a reaction "to the usurpation of essential resources by rivals" (Daly and Wilson, 1997, p. 58). Finally, such psychologists believe...
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