Jealousy

[denuseri]

Among humans, what we call a crime of passion usually seems to mean killing the partner who has left or threatened to leave (and, in an increasing number of cases, their children.) I defy you to find an animal equivalent to such an evolutionarily self-destructive behaviour.

Not where I am from...its more likened to killing the person who one thinks just killed their loved one, or killing a cheating spouse on the spot when caught in the actual act, and never ever involves killing children...in fact its often legally considered a far lesser charge or completely justified or forgivable.

Animals like male lions kill the young they think doesn't belong to them all the time and amongst wolves only the mated alpha pair is allowed to actually mate...get caught humping in the pack outside that arrangement and you will be driven off or killed. The textbook cases with a chimps attempting to kill and or harm rivals in numerous situations are too many to document here but happen all the time ask any primateolegist about how violent our cousins in the wild can be it's no far stretch I am proposing to the forum here.

On the other hand, in a human context it does make sense in terms of a collective need to control. In the same way that rapists are the allies of men who want to keep women clinging to them for protection, these jealousy-berserkers are the allies of all the men who want to be sure their partner daren't leave.

Understanding how such things function in our animal friends provides valuable insight at times in understanding ourselves.

[leo9]

Among humans, what we call a crime of passion usually seems to mean killing the partner who has left or threatened to leave (and, in an increasing number of cases, their children.) I defy you to find an animal equivalent to such an evolutionarily self-destructive behaviour.

Not where I am from...its more likened to killing the person who one thinks just killed their loved one, or killing a cheating spouse on the spot when caught in the actual act, and never ever involves killing children...in fact its often legally considered a far lesser charge or completely justified or forgivable.

Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I had the impression from the news that it happened in the US as well. As may be, in this country we have had a distressing number of cases where someone has reacted to his (it's invariably a man) partner leaving, or threatening to leave, by killing her and their children. (One was literally just down the road from our house.) That is, to make it perfectly clear, the children of himself and the departing spouse. I repeat, I doubt very much whether you will find any non-human parallel to such counter-evolutionary behaviour.