Pub. date: 2002 | Online Pub. Date: September 15, 2007 | DOI:
10.4135/9781412950664 | Print ISBN: 9780761922582 | Online ISBN:
9781412950664| Publisher:SAGE Publications, Inc.About this
encyclopedia Evolutionary Perspectives on Crime Although
evolutionary theory was developed by biologists, social
scientists since the last quarter of the twentieth century have
been applying its principles to the study of human culture
(anthropology) and the human mind (psychology). This fusion has
been called sociobiology (Wilson 1975). Recently, criminologists
interested in biosocial theory have begun to apply an
evolutionary understanding to the study of the causes of crime.
This development promises to expand the reach of criminological
theory. Modern evolutionary theory began with the early
nineteenth-century effort by theologians to enlist the
assistance of naturalists and philosophers in proving the
existence of God. In an argument originating with Thomas
Aquinas, the perfection of the design of the natural world was
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