Evolutionary Criminology: Towards a Comprehensive Explanation of Crime - Hardcover

Russil Durrant; Tony Ward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0123979374 ISBN 13: 9780123979377

Publisher: Academic Press Inc, 2015

Synopsis

Theories of crime typically reflect the discipline of the theorist. There has been little attempt to construct multidisciplinary frameworks that integrate psychological, biological, and sociological concepts in explaining, and controlling, criminal activity. Evolutionary behavioral science is ideally placed to provide a comprehensive and scientifically grounded framework for understanding criminal behavior. As human beings evolved, criminal behavior was a result of adaptations, or the by-products of adaptations. This book introduces a comprehensive evolutionary behavioral science approach to crime and its management. * Authored jointly by specialists in evolutionary and forensic psychology* Integrates psychological, biological, and sociological concepts* Offers a unified theory to explain why criminal behavior exists* Introduces evolutionary concepts for non-biology experts to comprehend

About this title

About the Authors

Russil Durrant, PhD, is a senior lecturer at the Institute of Criminology at Victoria University of Wellington, where he teaches courses in criminal and forensic psychology, and criminological research methods. His research interests include violent offending, the psychology of punishment, and the role of evolutionary explanations in criminology. He is author of Substance Abuse: Cultural and Historical Perspectives (Sage, 2003), and An Introduction to Criminal Psychology (Routledge, 2013).

Tony Ward, PhD, DipClinPsyc, is currently professor in clinical psychology and director of clinical training at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has taught clinical and forensic psychology at the universities of Melbourne, Canterbury, and Deakin and is a professorial fellow at the Universities of Birmingham, Kent, Melbourne, and Portsmouth. He has coauthored more than 370 academic publications, and his major research interests include desistance and reintegration processes in offenders, conceptualizations of risk and its management, cognition and evolutionary approaches to crime, and ethical issues in forensic and correctional psychology. He was given the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) 2003 significant achievement award for his research into offence pathways. Professor Ward is the developer of the Good Lives Model and has published numerous books, book chapters, and academic articles on this model since 2002. His recent book, Desistance from sex offending: Alternatives to throwing away the keys (2011, Guilford Press- coauthored with Richard Laws), presents an integration of the GLM with desistance theory and research. He is currently working on a book length project on evolution, agency, and sexual offending.

Edition details

• Publisher: Academic Press Inc
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0123979374
• ISBN 13: 9780123979377
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 348