Applying Evolutionary Principles to Criminality

doi:10.1017/9781108131797.039

38 - Applying Evolutionary Principles to Criminality

from Part IX - Applying Evolutionary Principles

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 March 2020

Sandie Taylor and

Edited by

Will Reader and

Lance Workman: Affiliation:
University of South Wales
Will Reader: Affiliation:
Sheffield Hallam University
Jerome H. Barkow: Affiliation:
Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia

Book contents

Get access

Summary

In this chapter, we consider how developments in evolutionary theory might be applied to help us understand why some people gravitate toward criminal behavior. Sociologists generally explain the emergence of criminal behavior in terms of responses to unfavorable societal factors. In contrast, social and developmental psychologists explain such behavior as the outcome of the interaction between individual differences and a challenging rearing environment. Evolutionary psychologists, however, bring a whole new perspective to the problem of criminality (Taylor & Workman, 2019). They suggest that evolutionary principles such as kin selection theory, reciprocation, sexual selection, and parental investment theory can provide powerful tools to help explain criminality. Before considering how these principles might be applied, we need first to explore what is meant by the concept of “criminality.”.

Defining criminality and, in particular, what encapsulates criminal behavior is far from straightforward. For a definition of what constitutes criminal behavior and criminality as an underlying cognitive and personality dimension, it is appropriate to adopt a legal approach.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior , pp. 471 - 480
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108131797.039 [Opens in a new window]
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Al-Rodhan, N. R. F. (2008). Emotional Amoral Egoism: A Neurophilosophical Theory of Human Nature and Its Universal Security Implications. Zurich: Lit Verlag.Google Scholar

American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.Google Scholar

Archer, J. (2004). Sex differences in aggression in real-world settings: A meta-analytic review. Review of General Psychology, 8, 291–322.CrossRef Google Scholar

Archer, J. (2013). Can evolutionary principles explain patterns of family violence? Psychological Bulletin, 138, 403–440.Google Scholar

Barkow, J. H. (1989). Darwin, Sex and Status: Biological Approaches to mind and Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Belsky, J. (2016). The differential susceptibility hypothesis: Sensitivity to the environment for better and for worse. JAMA Pediatrics, 170(4), 321–322.Google Scholar

Blackstone, W. (1765–1769). Commentaries on the Laws of England: A Facsimile of the First Edition of 1765–1769, Vol. 1. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar

Bourgeois, C., & Fisher, M. (2018). More bro’s, more woes? A look at the prevalence of coalitions in crimes of robbery. Evolutionary Behavioral Science, 12(2), 126–131.Google Scholar

Boyd, N. (2000). The Beast Within: Why Men Are Violent. Vancouver: Greystone Books.Google Scholar

Brunner, H. G., Nelen, M., Breakefield, X. O., Ropers, H. H., & van Oost, B. A. (1993). Abnormal behaviour associated with a point mutation in the structural gene for monoamine oxidase A. Science, 262(5133), 578–580.Google Scholar

Buades-Rotger, M., & Gallardo-Pujol, D. (2014). The role of the monoamine oxidase A gene in moderating the response to adversity and associated antisocial behavior: A review. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 7, 185–200.Google Scholar

Buller, D. J. (2005). Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar

Buss, D. M. (2009). How can evolutionary psychology successfully explain personality and individual differences? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4, 359–366.Google Scholar

Campbell, A. (1999). Staying alive: Evolution, culture, and women’s intrasexual aggression. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 203–214.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Cartwight, J. (2016). Evolution and Human Behaviour: Darwinian Perspectives on the Human Condition, 3rd ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar

Caspi, A., McClay, J., Moffitt, T. E., et al. (2002). Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children. Science, 297, 851–854.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Coccaro, E. F., Beresford, B., Minar, P., Kaskow, J., & Geracioti, T. (2007). CSF testosterone: Relationship to aggression, impulsivity, and venturesomeness in adult males with personality disorder. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 41(6), 488–492.Google Scholar

Coid, J., Yang, M., Roberts, A., et al. (2006a). Violence and psychiatric morbidity in a national household population – A report from the British Household Survey. American Journal of Epidemiology, 164(12), 1199–1208.CrossRef Google Scholar

Coid, J., Yang, M., Tyrer, P., Roberts, A., & Ullrich, S. (2006b). Prevalence and correlates of personality disorder in Great Britain. British Journal of Psychiatry, 188, 423–431.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Craig, M. C., Catani, M., Deeley, Q., et al. (2009). Altered connections on the road to psychopathy. Molecular Psychiatry, 14, 946–953.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1988). Homicide. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar

Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1998). The truth about Cinderella: A Darwinian View of Parental Love. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (2005). The “Cinderella effect” is no fairy tale. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 507–508.Google Scholar

Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (2007). Is the “Cinderella Effect” controversial? In Crawford, C. & Krebs, D. L., eds., Foundations of Evolutionary Psychology. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 383–400.Google Scholar

Davis, M. S. (2006). Criminal mala in se: An equity-based definition. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 17(3), 270–289.Google Scholar

Decuyper, M., De Fruyt, F., & Buschman, J. (2008). A five-factor model perspective on psychopathy and comorbid Axis-II disorders in a forensic–psychiatric sample. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 31(5), 394–406.CrossRef Google Scholar

Dolan, M. (2004). Psychopathic personality in young people. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 10, 466–473.Google Scholar

Dugdale, R. L. (1877). The Jukes: A Study in Crime, Pauperism, and Heredity. New York: Putnam.Google Scholar

Dustin, R. R., & Alcock, J. (2018). Animal Behavior, 11th ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer.Google Scholar

Dutton, K. (2012). The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us about Success. New York: Scientific American.CrossRef Google Scholar

Fallon, J. (2013). The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain. Shelton, CT: Current Publishing.Google Scholar

Fallon, J. (2014). The Psychopath Inside. New York: Penguin Group.Google Scholar

Fazel, S., & Danesh, J. (2002). Serious mental disorder in 23000 prisoners: A systematic review of 62 surveys. Lancet, 359(9306), 545–550.Google Scholar

Frodi, A., Dernevik, M., Sepa, A., Philipson, J., & Bragesjo, M. (2001). Current attachment representations of incarcerated offenders varying in degree of psychopathy. Attachment and Human Development, 3, 269–283.Google Scholar

Gao, Y., Raine, A., Chan, F., Venables, P. H., & Mednick, S. A. (2010). Early maternal and paternal bonding, childhood physical abuse and adult psychopathic personality. Psychological Medicine, 40(6), 1007–1016.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Ge, X., Conger, R. D., Cadoret, R. J., et al. (1996). The developmental interface between nature and nurture: A mutual influence model of child antisocial behaviour and parent behaviours. Developmental Psychology, 32, 574–589.Google Scholar

Gibson, M. A., & Lawson, D. W. (2015). Applying evolutionary anthropology. Evolutionary Anthropology, 24(1), 3–14.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Glenn, A. I., Kurzban, R., & Raine, A. (2011). Evolutionary theory and psychopathy. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 16, 371–380.CrossRef Google Scholar

Gordon, H. L., Baird, A. A., & End, A. (2004). Functional differences among those high and low on a trait measure of psychopathy. Biological Psychiatry, 56, 516–521.Google Scholar

Greene, J. D., Sommerville, R. B., Nystrom, L. E., Darley, J. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science, 293(5537), 2105–2108.Google Scholar

Guo, G., Ou, X.-M., Roettger, M., & Shih, J. C. (2008). The VNTR 2-repeat in MAOA and delinquent behaviour in adolescence and young adulthood: Associations and MAOA promoter activity. European Journal of Human Genetics, 16(5), 626–634.CrossRef Google Scholar

Hagerty, B. B. (2010). Inside a psychopath’s brain: The sentencing debate. NPR. www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128116806.Google Scholar

Hare, R. D., & Neumann, C. S. (2006). The PCL-R assessment of psychopathy. In Patrick, C. J., ed., Handbook of Psychopathy. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 58–88.Google Scholar

Hauser, M. D., Cushman, F. A., Young, L., Kang-Xing, K., & Mikhail, J. (2007). A dissociation between moral judgements and justifications. Mind and Language, 22(1), 1–21.CrossRef Google Scholar

Hauser, M. D., Young, L., & Cushman, F. A. (2008). Reviving Rawl’s linguistic analogy. In Sinnott-Armstrong, W, ed., Moral Psychology, Vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 107–143.Google Scholar

Hobbes, T. (1651). Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil, 1982 reprint. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar

Kanazawa, S. (2009). Evolutionary psychology and crime. In Walsh, A. & Beaver, K. M., eds., Biosocial Criminology: New Directions in Theory and Research. New York: Routledge, pp. 90–110.Google Scholar

Kanazawa, S., & Still, M. C. (2000). Why men commit crimes (and why they desist). Sociological Theory, 18(3), 434–437.Google Scholar

Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1996). Beyond Modularity: A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar

Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1998). Development itself is the key to understanding developmental disorders. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2(10), 389–398.Google Scholar

Kiehl, K. A., Smith, A. M., Hare, R. D., et al. (2001). Limbic abnormalities in affective processing by criminal psychopaths as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Biological Psychiatry, 50, 677–684.Google Scholar

Krebs, D. L. (1998). The evolution of moral behaviour. In Crawford, C. & Krebs, D. L., eds., Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology: Ideas, Issues, and Applications. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 337–368.Google Scholar

Krebs, D. L. (2011). The Origins of Morality. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Larsson, H., Andershed, H., & Lichtenstein, P. (2006). A genetic factor explains most of the variation in the psychopathic personality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115(2), 221–230.Google Scholar

Lyons, M. J., True, W. R., Eisen, S. A., et al. (1995). Differential heritability of adult and juvenile antisocial traits. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52, 906–915.Google Scholar

McDermott, R., Tingley, D., Cowden, J., Frazzetto, G., & Johnston, D. D. P. (2009). Monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA) predicts behavioural aggression following provocation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 2118–2123.Google Scholar

McGuire, J. (2004). Understanding Psychology and Crime: Perspectives on Theory and Action. Maidenhead: Open University Press.Google Scholar

McGuire, M., & Troisi, A. (1998). Darwinian Psychiatry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Mealey, L. (1995). Primary sociopathy (psychopathy) is a type, secondary is not. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 19, 579–599.Google Scholar

Mealey, L. (2005). Evolutionary psychopathology and abnormal development. In Burgess, R. L. & MacDonald, K., eds., Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Development, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 381–406.Google Scholar

Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., McClearn, G. E., & McGuffin, P. (2008). Behavioural Genetics, 4th ed. New York: Worth Publishers.Google Scholar

Raine, A. (2002). The biological basis of crime. In Wilson, J. Q. & Petersilia, J., eds., Crime: Public Policies for Crime Control. Oakland, CA: ICS Press, pp. 43–74.Google Scholar

Ruse, M., & Wilson, E. (1985). The evolution of morality. New Scientist, 1478, 108–128.Google Scholar

Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., Harari, H., Aharon-Peretz, J., & Levkovitz, Y. (2010). The role of the orbitofrontal cortex in affective theory of mind deficits in criminal offenders with psychopathic tendencies. Cortex, 46(5), 668–677.Google Scholar

Silk, J. B. (1980). Adoption and kinship in Oceania. American Anthropologist, 82, 799–820.CrossRef Google Scholar

Silk, J. B. (1990). Human adoption in evolutionary perspective. Human Nature, 1, 25–52.Google Scholar

Taylor, S. (2016). Crime and Criminality: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Abington: Routledge.Google Scholar

Taylor, S., & Workman, L. (2019). The evolution of crime. In Shackelford, T. K. & Weekes-Shackelford, V. A., eds., Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3209-1.Google Scholar

Trivers, R. L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In Campbell, B., ed., Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man. Chicago, IL: Aldine, pp. 139–179.Google Scholar

Trivers, R. L. (1985). Social Evolution. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings.Google Scholar

Troisi, A. (2015). The evolutionary diagnosis of mental disorder. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 6(3), 323–331.Google Scholar

Troisi, A., & McGuire, M. T. (2000). Psychotherapy in the context of Darwin psychiatry. In Gilbert, P. & Bailey, K. G., eds., Genes on the Couch: Explorations in Evolutionary Psychotherapy. London: Routledge, pp. 28–41.Google Scholar

Van Vugt, M. (2009). Sex differences in intergroup competition, aggression, and warfare: The male warrior hypothesis. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1167, 124–134.Google Scholar

Wild, S. E., ed. (2010). Webster’s New World Law Dictionary. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc.Google Scholar

Workman, L., & Reader, W. (2014). Evolutionary Psychology: An Introduction, 3rd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Yang, Y., Raine, A., Narr, K. L., Colletti, P., & Toga, A. W. (2009). Localisation of deformations within the amygdala in individuals with psychopathy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66, 986–994.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.