Quote Originally Posted by denuseri View Post
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.