Studying Crime With Evolutionary Psychology

Reviews the book, Evolutionary Criminology: Towards a Comprehensive Explanation of Crime by Russil Durrant and Tony Ward (see record 2015-17415-000). This book could be a great, important book if it gets criminologists to recognize the value of studying crime by using evolutionary psychology theory and also by studying the biological bases of crime, not just pursuing social explanations. Evolutionary psychology theory and findings have had a powerful effect on the field of psychology. The book comprises three main sections: Section I is called “The Evolutionary Framework” and gives great detail about the theories in evolutionary psychology. There is also a lot of emphasis on the theories in Section II, “Explaining Crime,” and in the final section, Section III, “Responding to Crime.” Even though the last two sections are not directly on evolutionary psychology theories, there is a lot written about the theory in those sections. Certainly, the authors show their bona fides in knowing about evolutionary psychology. Perhaps it will also have a persuasive effect in convincing others, especially criminology researchers, to adapt evolutionary psychology explanations in their work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)