Human physique and behaviour has been shaped by the pressures of natural selection. This is received wisdom in all scientifically informed circles. Evolutionary psychology is arguably the fastest growing and most exciting perspective in social science. Criminology has, so far, been resistant to this mode of thought for reasons that include a perceived need to remain true to the tradition of human malleability by social context, the fear of racist eugenics, and a naive equation of natural selection with biological determinism. Given its fruitfulness elsewhere in biological and social science, it is only a matter of time before conventional criminology comes to be informed by the evolutionary perspective. This book provides an informed and realistic appraisal of the potential contribution that a more welcoming approach to the evolutionary perspective would make to criminology; both theoretically (by expanding understanding of the complexity of the origins of behaviour labeled criminal) and practically (where the evolutionary approach can be utilised to inform crime control policy and practice).
This fascinating new book opens up new ways of looking at different aspects of crime and crime control, and includes chapters on such topics as white collar crime, violent crime, female crime victimisation, environmental criminology and the behaviour of psychopaths.