In the human world, sexual violence is one of the few universally chastised behaviors one can engage in. In the chimpanzee world, not so much. Researchers from Arizona State have observed violence from male chimpanzees towards females, and have concluded that it acts as a form of sexual coercion. Even weirder, long-term sustained violence lead female chimps to actively seek out the violent males as mating partners during peak fertility.

“This indicates that males, particularly those of high rank, successfully employ a strategy of long-term sexual intimidation,” says Ian Gilby, an assistant professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and research affiliate with the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University.

Though science has long been aware of male violence towards female chimpanzees, it was not known if this lead to reproductive success. Over a 17 year period, DNA testing of 31 infants born during the study confirms that, yes, males who bully and abuse the females tend have more offspring. No other mammal (unless you count wife-beating humans) is known to have adapted this strategy.

In an interesting twist, the study finds that aggression is not used to coerce sex in the short term, i.e., male chimps don’t appear to batter and rape females. The best predictor of paternity for high ranking males is actually the frequency of violence outside of the reproductive period. When violence is more common, they’re more likely to mate more often, thereby increasing the chances of fathering the offspring.

Though it’s reasonable to assume that females simply show a preference for aggressive, dominant males, the paternity patterns suggest that’s not the case. Instead, it appears that violent males are also more capable of guarding their mates from other suitors.

Lest a certain kind of human male take these results as carte blanche to be awful, Gilby cautions that our closeness in DNA doesn’t mean humans and chimps aren’t wildly different species:

“We should be careful not to jump to conclusions. Chimpanzees are one of our closest living relatives, but 7 million years of evolution separate us, and our mating systems are very different. Nevertheless, recognizing the adaptive value of male-female aggression in chimpanzees may inevitably help us to understand, and hopefully prevent, similar behavior among humans.”