Examination of the Role of Evolution Theory Essay

In this make-up I will briefly describe the evolutionary guess in general, and specifically as it relates to the involve of criminology. I will examine the miens in which natural selection has regulate the fulfilles which motivate human being way, especially in terms of how competing for restrict re outsets and ensuring that un enemyeds ancestral code is passed on ar linked to aggressive look. Two offences of which I piddle per countersignal companionship will be evaluated, with focus placed on the ways in which evolutionary surmise whitethorn account for the aspects of iniquitous port in each. Finally, I will reflect on the ways in which evolutionary possibility whitethorn help further our redeing of the causes and predictors of nefarious behavior and whether it should become a focus of a practicians efforts to help prevent crime and stiffen recidivism on an individual and programmatic level. organic evolutionary theory is the dissect of the ways in which hum an behavior has been shaped all over the history of the development of our species through the dish up of natural selection. Since human behavior includes criminal behavior, the count of evolutionary theory throne he implemental in our judgment of the causes of crime. Evolutionary theory seeks to repair understand and possibly predict at onces criminal behavior by examining the history of public as a species to determine the root source of aggressive and violent behavior.Natural selection is the process by which certain naturally-occurring adaptations get passed on from coevals to propagation because they tin manywhat advantage to natural selection and reproduction (reproductive success). Simply carryd, if one of our ancestors has a genetic trait that makes him or her more than(prenominal) probably to survive, mate, and create in a harsh social and animal(prenominal) climate, this trait will be carried on to his or her children. While on the other hand, an indivi dual miss this trait will be less possible to reproduce and pass his or her traits on to the a entirelyting generation. Over magazine, the gene traits that be favor fitting to option and reproduction continue to pass from one generation to the next, to eventually be present in advanced(a) man. This is survival of the fittest, that the most genetically fit individuals are the ones who survive and pass their gene pool on to the next generation through sexual reproduction.Evolution through natural selection is a reluctant process, however, and the purlieu give the sack intensify much more quick than the evolutionary process. This means that the adaptations which increased likeliness of survival and reproduction in our ancestral environment thousands of geezerhood ago do non needfully help us to do so straight off. piggishs did non sustain approaching to supermarkets, match.com, or central heating. Modern man does ask overture to plentiful resources, but our brains cede not had the time to catch up.In fact, these traits that once helped keep us alive as individuals and as a species can be harmful in our current environment, which is essentially different than the environment in which these drives were formed. In his germinal book, On Aggression (1966), Konrad Lorenz posited that aggressive behavior is inherited to help an individual to protect scarce resources, such as mates and food (Lorenz, 1966). Whereas aggression may have made it more likely that you would successfully compete for food and mates in our contrary past, it now leads more often to what is considered antisocial and criminal behavior.The two crimes that I will discuss today were carried out by wrongdoers with whom I have worked directly, which provides me with some unique insight into the situations, backgrounds, and psychological mindsets of the actors involved. Last spring, Joe stabbed his young woman of 5 years fivefold times in the face, chest, and neck. His girlfri end, Donna, sustained multiple life-threatening injuries requiring emergency surgeries and were well fatal. If not for the quick response by head start responders and the effective interventions of ER staff and doctors, this crime would be classified as a murder. Donna had filed a protection-from-abuse piece a year before the assault, aft(prenominal) Joe confronted and assaulted her for accept that she had been sleeping with another man. This order was broken some(prenominal) times before the stabbing took place, but Joe was quickly released each time.In my opinion, an evolutionary theorist would utter that this act of violence was motivated by the hero-worship of losing ones mate, and therefore his means by which to reproduce. If this had occurred in our ancestral environment, the motivation may have been more necessary as males would be competing for a limited number of female mates, but this is surely not the case today. Some other facts intimately Joe are that he was d iagnosed with bi-polar disorder and was not medicated because he could not afford his prescriptions. He had dropped out of school day in 10th grade, leaving him limited meshing opportunities, he was an active substance dependant, and he was raise in a single-parent household after his set out died in a car accident when he was 7.Joes father left his other son (Joes brother), who was only four years older, to deal on the majority of Joes upbringing from this psyche on. In my opinion, even though Joe may have had an nescient drive to protect what he desired to be a threat to his mate, it was the want of protective forces and the social movement of a combination of criminogenic seek factors, across multiple disciplines, which led to his criminal behavior. Evolutionary theory might have been able to describe wherefore some of the mechanisms by which Joes aggressiveness developed, but it could not account for the crime itself because everyone is born with these same innate aggressive mechanisms.The second crime I will describe was an assault carried out by members of rival ringings in a dispute over a female and rights to prime drug- change territory. Desmond is a member of the CRIPs gang and is involved in selling cocaine and marihuana in Northeastern PA. He has a prior record of three Possession of a Controlled eye with Intent to Deliver charges, two convictions for Assault, and was currently on probation. One day during the summer, he came home to his apartments at the Sherman Hills development to find his girlfriend talking with a member of a rival gang, the Bloods, whom she claimed to know from chief(a) school. The Bloods are also involved in selling drugs in this field, and both gangs often feud over how the territory should be broken up, but this range was clearly marked as belonging to the CRIPs. Desmond confronted the man, and after he claimed that he was dis reputeed, beat him up and steadfast his head on the curb with his foot.Evolu tion theorists would dry land that the motivations involved in this crime would be horror between rivals (unrelated acquaintances) based on competition for limited materials and intangible resources like social status and respect (Daly & Wilson, 1997). The resources in this case being exclusive access to the money to be made in an area with a high concentration of consumers. The other environmental factors at play here are the comprehend threat to Desmonds girlfriend, or mate, who is the means by which his gene pool will be passed on. In addition, Desmond gave as reasoning for his crime the fact that he had been disrespected and had to reassert his social status through a violent reaction.Although I swear all of these evolutionary motivations to be valid, I dont believe that it was innate drive alone which led to this crime. Anyone who is in a situation where he feels disrespected becomes angry, but not everyone responds by causing permanent damage to the offenders facial nerves . As Bartol & Bartol state, there is pocketable evidence to justify portraying humans as innately dangerous and brutal or as take forled by instinct (Bartol, 2011, p. 116). I believe that it was the social movement and interplay of a number of criminogenic risk factors which decided whether this fundamental interaction would end with words or fists.In this case, the risk factors with the most influence on behavior were minuscule socioeconomic status, lack of a pro-social peer group, lack of access to gainful employment opportunities, and antisocial attitudes and beliefs, among others. thither were the difference between how you or I would have reacted and how a gang member reacts. If these risk factors were extenuate by programs initiated to reduce Desmonds criminogenic risk and to provide him with access to protective factors, the crime most likely could have been avoided. There would be no way, however, to change his innate biological drives, developed over thousands of years of evolution, because these drives are static.I believe that evolutionary theory can help us better understand how and why the physiology and functioning of the brain developed the way it did through the process of natural selection. I also believe that this can be useful to our investigating of the minds structure and operations (Daly & Wilson, 1997). This knowledge can help us look for explanations for why some individuals take up in criminal behavior and to better understand the mechanisms by which this behavior occurs which can give us insight into developing more effective interventions (Ward & Durant, 2011). I think that the evolutionary theory can help us to understand macro-criminality, but I do not believe that this reason can help us nearly as much in our search for the causes and predictors of crime on an individual level. Working to reduce an individual offenders risk of recidivating requires a careful abridgment of what factors led him or her to lack the ability to control these innate drives and an intervention program to help them to strike to do so.Every person alive today has been shaped by the same evolutionary process, so what are the factors that lead some individuals to be able to keep these drives in check and make sagacious decisions while others give in to their primal desires and engage in criminal behavior? I believe that the answer to this question is that individuals who engage in criminal behavior are exposed to some combination of biological, sociological, and physiological criminogenic risk factors while lacking the straw man of protective factors which may have neutralized these risks.On these factors is where I believe we should be focusing our efforts and studies. Daly & Wilson state that the insights into the workings of criminal behavior should not be viewed as alternatives to sociological and psychological analysis, but as complementary components of a more complete understanding (Daly & Wilson, 1997) In this way, I believe evolutionary theory can give us insight into the how and the why of criminal behavior, but I believe we should be looking more closely at the who, where, and when.ReferencesLorenz, K. (1966). On aggression. New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Daly, M. & Wilson, M. (1997). Crime and conflict Homicide in evolutionary psychological perspective. Crime & Justice, 22, 51100. Bartol, C. R., & Bartol, A. M. (2011). brutal behavior a psychological approach. Upper bear down River Prentice Hall. Ward, T. & Durrant, R. (2011). Evolutionary behavioral science and crime Aetiological and intervention implications. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 16, 193-201.