Biobehavioral Perspectives on Criminology

This book provides a much-needed overview of the "biobehavioral" perspective in the study of crime. As the author points out, mainstream criminology relies on sociological theories to "explain" crime, but cannot explain why individuals in identical circumstances nonetheless behave differently. The biobehavioral perspective, compatible with or identical to the biosocial perspective and behavioral ecology, acknowledges the interrelatedness of nature and nurture and gives causal priority to neither. Genes bias, but do not determine, behavior, and the expression of any gene depends upon the environment in which it develops. The biological underpinnings of antisocial behavior, drawn from many recent and sophisticated studies from psychology, behavior genetics, psychobiology, cognitive sciences, and related fields, interact with family, social and other environmental variables to create both psychological and sociological phenomena, including crime and delinquency. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has interactied with children, or tried to change their own behavior while accounting for their own traits. However, much of the biology in this book will be new to readers of mainstream criminology and criminal justice texts, which present the "biological" perspective as an amalgam of Lombroso's discredited claims that criminals are evolutionary throwbacks to more primitive times, and theories such as that involving XYY chromosome mutation that try (and mainly fail) to explain the behavior of a few select offenders. This is an important book for students of crime, as it supplements, but does not supplant, the sociological perspective that dominates criminology. It is short. It can be used in conjunction with a mainstream text or as the basis for a course in the biology or psychology of crime, or can be read on its own by anyone interested in crime or human behavior generally. Two cautions - it is not written in the simple language of many undergraduate textbooks, and is also a bit expensive.