Evolutionary Criminology Towards a Comprehensive Explanation of Crime

[...]... Chapter 5) All human groups have norms that are typically explicitly articulated and that prescribe the domain of appropriate behavior Many of these norms clearly relate to intentionally harmful acts, but norms also regulate a wide class of behaviors such as what food can be eaten and when, who is an appropriate marriage partner, and how individuals of different standing should address one another Second,... mainstream criminology We make this case using three main sources of data: surveys of members of the American Society of Criminology, textbook coverage of evolutionary approaches, 6 1.  CRIMINOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY THEORY and coverage of evolutionary approaches in leading criminology journals Evolutionary approaches have not been completely neglected, however, and we follow the foregoing analysis with a. .. situations, and interpersonal social interactions We also recognize here the importance of human agency and discuss how this can be reconciled with the evolutionary framework that we adopt in the first part of the book The final chapter of Part II tackles cultural and socialstructural explanations for crime Although it may seem that evolutionary approaches have relatively little to offer in terms of. .. limited—coverage in mainstream criminological and sociological journals (e.g., Armit, 2011; Brannigan, 1997; Kanazawa & Still, 2000; Savage & Kanazawa, 2002; Wood, 2011), and evolutionary ideas form one component of the newly emerging paradigm of “biosocial criminology that has been showcased in several recent books (Walsh, 2009; Walsh & Beaver, 2009; Walsh & Bolen, 2012) and special issues of criminology. .. for criminal behavior is responsible for a significant amount of harm in society Our responses to crime can also be the source of significant harm and the overarching pragmatic goal of criminology and criminal justice is to manage crime in ways that reduce the adverse effects associated with it In order to do this, we must be armed with the best explanatory accounts that are available because attempts... promising avenue for advancing our understanding of the evolutionary underpinnings of human behavior (including criminal behavior and our responses to crime) In Chapter 4, we develop and present a conceptual framework for integrating evolutionary explanations with mainstream criminological approaches to understanding crime and our responses to crime Central to this framework is the recognition that explanations... different types of explanation can be employed to understand any given behavioral phenomenon With some qualification, and a particular role for social-structural and cultural explanations (which, we argue, can be viewed in both distal and proximate terms), we use this framework for organizing the theoretical approaches for understanding crime that are used in the second part of the book In part two of the book,... discipline at all (Garland, 2011) We suggest, however, that criminology can reasonably be described as an applied social and behavioral science As such, criminology is organized around a particular set of phenomena—very roughly, crime and our responses to crime rather than a specific level of analysis like sociology or psychology (Agnew, 201 1a) In this respect, criminology is somewhat like medicine— an applied... to other theoretical approaches in criminology, including “strain theory,” “control theory,” “rational choice theory,” “cultural criminology, ” and “critical criminology (exact phrases) As can been seen in Table 1.1, the results of this analysis are fairly clear and largely support the idea that evolutionary approaches have had a relatively limited role to play in criminology as a discipline Indeed,... social sciences let this Darwinian revival almost completely pass them by—sociology is the most notable example, but, as we argued above, criminology has also failed to incorporate evolutionary approaches in any meaningful way There are a few exceptions, however One example is the evolutionary ecological theory of criminal behavior developed by Cohen and 10 1.  CRIMINOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY THEORY Machalek . Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Offenders What is Offender Rehabilitation? 250 Evolutionary Explanatory Framework and Rehabilitation 251 Rehabilitation Implications 254 Example of Empathy and. material herein. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A. discipline at all (Garland, 2011). We suggest, however, that criminology can reasonably be described as an applied social and behavioral science. As such, criminology is organized around a particular