Modeling the dark current in quantum well infrared photodetectors has been a topic of much recent research, but the implications of many of the underlying assumptions have not been clarified. We attempt to justify one such model and to provide physical insight for its success. We compare the dark current expression with experiments on several samples, and show that the model provides a good approximation for a wide range of device parameters including barrier thicknesses from 250 to 700 A˚ and number of wells from 4 to 32.