Darwin uit de zwarte doos? Analytische sociologie, evolutionaire psychologie en Gottfredson en Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime

Samenvatting

Darwin from the black box? Analytical sociology, evolutionary psychology and the General Theory of Crime of Gottfredson and Hirschi. Using the framework provided by analytical sociology, the degree to which both self-control theory and the evolutionary conditional adaptation theory (CAT) are capable of furnishing a direct and fine-grained causal link between macro-level circumstances and individual criminal behavior is assessed and compared. It is claimed that because self-control theory seems to rely on unspecified biological and developmental concepts, the CAT is better able to eliminate the black box that links family context to crime and delinquency within criminological theory. By utilizing the attachment module as the key situational mechanism cat provides explanation for the primacy of early childhood experience. Furthermore by viewing criminal behavior as part of a facultative reproductive strategy the correlation of crime with both sex and age can be accounted for. Evidence in favor of the mental module approach over the rational actor perspective is presented.