Adaptive Strategy Theory of Crime and Delinquency (From Delinquency and Crime: Current Theories, P 268-314, 1996, J. David Hawkins, ed. -- See NCJ-161769)

• NCJ Number: 161776
• Author(s): D C Rowe
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 47 pages
• Sale Source: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This chapter proposes adaptive strategy theory to account for the development of criminal behavior tendencies in the individual and for the persistence of crime in society as a form of social behavior.

Abstract

In the adaptive strategy theory, a diverse set of conceptual tools is applied to crime. The theory draws extensively upon concepts from the framework of evolutionary biology, such as strategies and adaptation, concepts which may account for the functional value of crime. The author uses conceptual models of genetic and cultural trait transmission to explain the acquisition of criminal behavior by learning. The chapter touches briefly on several possible adaptations, but focuses more on individual differences in criminal propensity and behavior. Although elegant evolutionary explanations have been proposed for specific crimes, such as homicide and rape, this chapter focuses more broadly on both common forms of theft and violent crimes. Criminals' lack of specialization in a single type of criminal activity encourages a theory of general criminal tendency. Figures, references