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A test of life history strategy theory as a predictor of criminal violence across 51 nations
Abstract
Proponents of life history strategy (LHS) theory propose that it is an explanation of intra-societal non-political violence, such as homicide and assault. Criminologists usually prefer a different explanation: variation in national violent crime rates is a function of differences in social–structural characteristics, such as absolute or relative poverty (socioeconomic inequality).
We found that national homicide rates and prevalence of muggings and attacks on people define a strong single criminal violence factor at the national level. We tested the predictive properties of various plausible predictors of this factor and, separately, of national murder rates. Only the two LHS variables (paternal absenteeism and adolescent fertility) predict the complex factor independently, whereas socioeconomic inequality (Gini), IQ, GDP, infant mortality, and pathogen prevalence do not. National murder rates are predicted by the two LHS variables and inequality but not by any other variables. This supports LHS theory as an explanation of national differences in criminal violence.
... Researchers have also examined the ability of LHS indicators to predict criminal behavior (Charles & Egan, 2005;Copping, Campbell, & Muncer, 2013;Minkov & Beaver, 2016;Rushton & Templer, 2009;Templer & Rushton, 2011). Indeed, Boutwell et al. (2015) drew upon the existing research on LHS and crime to propose a new evolutionary taxonomy and framework for understanding the origins of criminal behavior (for further discussion of this framework with an emphasis on research on non-human parallels, see Kavish, Fowler-Finn, & Boutwell, 2017). ...
... life expectancy and po- pulation density; all indicators of environmental instability and thus theoretical predictors of a faster life history speed) factors best fit the relationship. Minkov and Beaver (2016) found that parental ab- senteeism and adolescent fertility were better predictors of violent crime across 51 nations than a country's average IQ level, its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, or its Gini index (a measure of socioeconomic inequality; Minkov & Beaver, 2016). Furthermore, in a study of the 50 U.S. states, a state's birth rate was positively associated with its rape rate and its life expectancy was found to be negatively related to robbery and assault rates (Templer & Rushton, 2011). ...
... life expectancy and po- pulation density; all indicators of environmental instability and thus theoretical predictors of a faster life history speed) factors best fit the relationship. Minkov and Beaver (2016) found that parental ab- senteeism and adolescent fertility were better predictors of violent crime across 51 nations than a country's average IQ level, its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, or its Gini index (a measure of socioeconomic inequality; Minkov & Beaver, 2016). Furthermore, in a study of the 50 U.S. states, a state's birth rate was positively associated with its rape rate and its life expectancy was found to be negatively related to robbery and assault rates (Templer & Rushton, 2011). ...
The current study seeks to further understand risk factors for
sexually coercive behavior by evaluating how indicators of population
level average Life History speed (LHS; e.g., teen birth rate) compare to
typical criminogenic variables (e.g., Socioeconomic status) as predictors
of state variation in rape rates across the 50 United States, as well as
the relationship between individuals' LHS and self-reported proclivity
for, and perpetration of, sexually coercive behaviors in a community
sample (n = 162). LH strategies are described as a continuum of "LH
speeds," and variation in LHS has been connected to variation in
aggressive and violent behavior. The current project extends this
research by testing population level variation in LHS indicators and
individual variation in psychometric LHS as a predictor of variation in
sexually coercive behavior. At the U.S. state level, the teen birth rate
(B = .63, p = .016) was the strongest predictor of between-state
variation in rape rates. Although significant bivariate associations were
found between psychometric LHS and sexually coercive behavior, at the
multivariate level, facets of LHS were linked to self-reported propensity
to engage in sexual coercion, but less so with actual perpetration.
... Therefore, it is identified that homicides occur due to factors other than inequality. Thus, Minkov & Beaver [31] argue that murder rates in the United States are predicted by parental absenteeism and adolescent fertility. They are also due to a high possession of firearms [32]. ...
... This result is the opposite of that of a study for 51 nations that claims that cognitive achievement does not predict the homicide rate, nor do income inequality, GDP or poverty. The factors that predict homicides are: abandonment of children by their parents and teenage pregnancy [31]. ...
Abstract:
The aim of this research is to analyse the effect of income inequality on the homicide rate. The study is carried out in 18 Latin American countries for the period 2005–2018. The methodology used is the Generalized Least Squares (GLS) model and the data were obtained from World Development Indicators, the World Health Organization and the Inter-American Development Bank. Thus, the dependent variable is the homicide rate and the independent variable is income inequality. In addition, some control variables are included, such as: poverty, urban population rate, unemployment, schooling rate, spending on security and GDP per capita, which improve the consistency of the model. The results obtained through GLS model determine that inequality has a negative and significant effect on the homicide rate for high-income countries (HIC) and lower-middle-income countries (LMIC), whereas it is positive and significant for upper-middle-income countries (UMIC). On the other hand, the control variables show different results by group of countries. In the case of unemployment, it is not significant in any group of countries. Negative spatial dependence was found regarding spatial models such as: the spatial lag (SAR) and spatial error (SEM) method. In the spatial Durbin model (SDM), positive spatial dependence between the variables was corroborated. However, spatial auto-regressive moving average (SARMA) identified no spatial dependence. Under these results it is proposed: to improve productivity, education and improve the efficiency of security-oriented resources. View Full-Text
Keywords: inequality; homicides; Latin America; spatial models
... Prior research, moreover, has also found strong evidence of associations between other indicators of a faster LHS and direct measures of criminal behavior, including a younger age at reproduction and adolescent fertility (Hunt, 2006;Kavish and Anderson, 2018;Minkov and Beaver, 2016), total fertility (Yao et al., 2014), parental absenteeism (Minkov and Beaver, 2016), low self-control (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990;Tittle et al., 2003) and higher sensation-seeking (e.g. Joireman et al., 2003). ...
... Prior research, moreover, has also found strong evidence of associations between other indicators of a faster LHS and direct measures of criminal behavior, including a younger age at reproduction and adolescent fertility (Hunt, 2006;Kavish and Anderson, 2018;Minkov and Beaver, 2016), total fertility (Yao et al., 2014), parental absenteeism (Minkov and Beaver, 2016), low self-control (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990;Tittle et al., 2003) and higher sensation-seeking (e.g. Joireman et al., 2003). ...
Purpose: Criminology has produced more than a century of informative research on the social correlates of criminal behavior. Recently, a growing body of theoretical and empirical work has begun to apply evolutionary principles, particularly from Life History Theory, to the study of crime. As this body of research continues to grow, it is important that theory synthesizes evolutionary principles with the decades of sociological research on the correlates of crime.
Design: The current paper reviews the brief history of research applying Life History concepts to criminology, providing an overview of the underlying framework, exploring examples of empirically testable and tested hypotheses that have been derived from the theory, discussing cautions and criticisms of Life History research, and discussing how this area of research can be integrated with existing theory.
Findings: A growing body of research has, with relative consistency, associated indicators of a faster Life History strategy with aggression and violence in humans and across the animal kingdom. Research into these associations is still vulnerable to genetic confounding and more research with genetically sensitive designs is needed. The use of hypotheses informed by evolutionary insight and tested with genetically sensitive designs provides the best option for understanding how environmental factors can have an impact on violent and criminal behavior.
Value: The current paper provides an updated review of the growing application of Life History Theory to the study of human behavior and acknowledges criticisms and areas of concern that need to be considered when forming hypotheses for research.
... Additionally, the link between LHS and human behavior has been found when examining specific indicators of LHS (Minkov & Beaver, 2016), as well as when using scores on psychometric measures of LHS (Wenner, Figueredo, & Jacobs, 2005), such that higher rates of fast LHS indicators and lower scores on measures of the K-factor correspond with higher rates of violence and aggression. ...
... Rushton and Templer (2009) found average life expectancy to be a significant predictor of national differences in serious assault, rape, and murder across 113 nations. Along similar lines, Minkov and Beaver (2016) uncovered evidence that adolescent fertility and parental absenteeism predicted national differences in muggings, assaults, and murders across 51 countries. At the level of the state, Templer and Rushton (2011) found state differences (within the USA) in life expectancy to predict robbery, assault, and murder rates. ...
This review of recent evolutionary theories on psychopathology takes on controversies and contradictions both with established psychological thought and within the evolutionary field itself. Opening with the ancestral origins of the familiar biopsychosocial model of psychological conditions, the book traces distinctive biological and cultural pathways shaping human development and their critical impact on psychiatric and medical disorders. Analyses of disparate phenomena such as jealousy, social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and antisocial behavior describe adaptive functions that have far outlasted their usefulness, or that require further study and perhaps new directions for treatment. In addition, the book’s compelling explorations of violence, greed, addiction, and suicide challenge us to revisit many of our assumptions regarding what it means to be human.
Included in the coverage:
· Evolutionary foundations of psychiatric compared to non-psychiatric disorders.· Evolutionary psychopathology, uncomplicated depression, and the distinction between normal and disordered sadness.
· Depression: is rumination really adaptive?
· A CBT approach to coping with sexual betrayal and the green-eyed monster.
· Criminology’s modern synthesis: remaking the science of crime with Darwinian insight.
· Anthropathology: the abiding malady of the species.
With its wealth of interdisciplinary viewpoints, The Evolution of Psychopathology makes an appropriate supplementary text for advanced graduate courses in the evolutionary sciences, particularly in psychology, biology, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy.
... Most recently, researchers have begun to examine criminality directly using a life history lens (e.g., Boutwell, Barnes, Deaton, & Beaver, 2013;Boutwell, Barnes, Beaver, Haynes, Nedelec, & Gibson, 2015). For example, Minkov and Beaver (2016) examined the criminality of 51 countries and found that nations with fewer teenage pregnancies and single parent homes (both indicators of faster LH) have lower reported levels of violent criminality (e.g., assault or mugging). Importantly, they found that a variety of common indicators, such as socioeconomic status, did not predict criminal violence. ...
... Importantly, they found that a variety of common indicators, such as socioeconomic status, did not predict criminal violence. The same researchers also found that crossnational incidences of homicide were also predicted by nationwide faster LH indicators (Minkov & Beaver, 2016). Nevertheless, this study was conducted at an aggregated population-level of analysis of national homicide rates and not directed to the prediction of individuallevel perpetration of aggressive acts. ...
We integrate life history (LH) theory with “hot/cool” systems theory of self-regulation to predict
sexually and socially coercive behaviors, including intimate partner violence (IPV) and
interpersonal aggression (IPA). LH theory predicts that a variety of traits form LH strategies:
adaptively coordinated behavioral clusters arrayed on a continuum from slow to fast. We test
various structural models examining the propositions that: (1) “hot” cognitive processes,
promoted by faster LH strategies, increase the likelihood of sexually/socially coercive behaviors
that make up IPV and IPA; (2) “cool” cognitive processes, promoted by slower LH strategies,
buffer against the likelihood of sexually/socially coercive behaviors that make up IPV and IPA.
We present single- and multi-sample structural equations models (SEMs and MSEMs) testing
hypothesized causal association of these theoretically specified predictors with IPV and IPA.
Study 1 develops a Structural Equation Model for IPV; Study 2, which extends the model to IPA
using MSEM, provides five cross-cultural constructive replications of the findings. Integrated
LH theory and hot/cool systems analysis of cognitive processes is a promising and productive
heuristic for future research on IPV and IPA perpetration and victimization.
... In a meta-analysis of approximately five hundred research results, Ellis (1988) showed the link between criminal behavior and a number of fast LH strategy components, such as gender (male), age (12-30), upbringing in a singleparent household, trauma experienced in childhood, early sexual maturation, early age of sexual initiation, promiscuity, low investments in offspring, and anticipation of early death. More recent studies support these findings, indicating a connection between criminal activity and receiving low parental investments in childhood (Hoeve et al. 2009), upbringing in a single-parent household (Barber 2004(Barber , 2007Bartol and Bartol 2014;Minkov and Beaver 2016), high fertility, high sexual drive, promiscuity (Boutwell et al. 2013;Nedelec and Beaver 2012;Yao et al. 2014), early paternity (Lehti et al. 2012;Stouthamer-Loeber and Wei 1998), or making low investments in partners and offspring (Yao et al. 2014). Furthermore, the results of research by Mishra et al. (2017) have shown the association between a fast LH strategy measured by the Mini-K and a higher probability of being arrested, charged, convicted, and incarcerated. ...
A high risk of morbidity-mortality caused by a harsh and unpredictable environment is considered to be associated with a fast life history (LH) strategy, commonly linked with criminal behavior. However, offenders are not the only group with a high exposure to extrinsic morbidity-mortality. In the present study, we investigated the LH strategies employed by two groups of Polish men: incarcerated offenders (N = 84) as well as soldiers and firefighters (N = 117), whose professions involve an elevated risk of injury and premature death. The subjects were asked to complete the Mini-K (used as a psychosocial LH indicator) and a questionnaire which included a number of biodemographic LH variables. Although biodemographic and psychosocial LH indicators should be closely linked with each other, the actual connection between them is unclear. Thus, this study was driven by two aims: comparing LH strategies in two groups of men with a high risk of premature morbidity-mortality and investigating the relationship between the biodemographic and psychosocial LH dimensions. The study showed that incarcerated men employed faster LH strategies than soldiers and firefighters, but only in relation to biodemographic variables (e.g., number of siblings, age of sexual initiation, life expectancy). No intergroup differences emerged regarding psychosocial LH indicators. Moreover, the correlation analysis showed a weak association between biodemographic and psychosocial LH indicators. The results strengthen the legitimacy of incorporating biodemographic LH traits into research models and indicate the need for further research on the accuracy of the Mini-K. The possible explanations for the intergroup differences in LH strategies are discussed.
... Commitment to a faster life history strategy can lead to greater risk-taking (Hampson et al., 2016;Mishra et al., 2017), impulsivity (Frankenhuis et al., 2016;Maner et al., 2017), and aggression against others (Figueredo et al., 2018). Also, robust indicators of faster life history, such as paternal absenteeism and adolescent fertility, predict national rates of criminal violence (Minkov and Beaver, 2016), child maltreatment, and homicide (Hackman and Hruschka, 2013). Moral condemnation of multi-partner mating may thereby occur when condemners believe that monogamy prevents competitive contests for mates, enhancing cooperation within groups and reducing negative physical and mental health outcomes. ...
Life history theory (LHT) predicts that individuals vary in their sexual, reproductive, parental, familial, and social behavior according to the physical and social challenges imposed upon them throughout development. LHT provides a framework for understanding why non-monogamy may be the target of significant moral condemnation: individuals who habitually form multiple romantic or sexual partnerships may pursue riskier, more competitive interpersonal strategies that strain social cooperation. We compared several indices of life history (i.e., the Mini-K, the High-K Strategy Scale, pubertal timing, sociosexuality, disease avoidance, and risk-taking) between individuals practicing monogamous and consensually non-monogamous (CNM) romantic relationships. Across several measures, CNM individuals reported a faster life history strategy than monogamous individuals, and women in CNM relationships reported earlier pubertal development. CNM individuals also reported more social and ethical risk-taking, less aversion to germs, and greater interest in short-term mating (and less interest in long-term mating) than monogamous individuals. From these data, we discuss a model to explain how moral stigma toward non-monogamy evolved and how these attitudes may be mismatched to the modern environment. Specifically, we argue that the culture of sexual ethics that pervades contemporary CNM communities (e.g., polyamory, swinging) may attenuate risky interpersonal behaviors (e.g., violent intrasexual competition, retributive jealousy, partner/child abandonment, disease transmission) that are relatively more common among those who pursue multi-partner mating.
... Boldness is also positively related to fecundity (fishing spiders: Johnson & Sih, 2005; laying hens: Barnett, Hemsworth, & Newman, 1992 There is a growing body of work on this topic examining humans, as well, much of which has uncovered evidence that variation in aggression and violence correlates with LHS (Beaver, Wright, & Walsh, 2008;Charles & Egan, 2005;Rushton & Templer, 2009;Rushton & Whitney, 2002), both across populations (e.g., Rushton & Templer, 2009;Rushton & Whitney, 2002;Walker et al., 2006) and across individuals within a population (Charles & Egan, 2005;Figueredo, Vásquez, et al., 2005). Additionally, the link between LHS and human behavior has been found when examining specific indicators of LHS (Minkov & Beaver, 2016), as well as when using scores on psychometric measures of LHS (Wenner, Figueredo, & Jacobs, 2005), such that higher rates of fast LHS indicators and lower scores on measures of the K-factor correspond with higher rates of violence and aggression. ...
For over a century and half now, the biological sciences have been moored to a unifying set of principles—that life on earth is ancient; that all life is descended from a common ancestor; that the diversity of species on the planet is the product of random genetic mutations and a combination of random genetic drift and nonrandom selection favoring alleles promoting survival and reproduction; and that these processes apply to every living organism (Buss, 2015; Darwin, 1859; Dennett, 1995; Goetz & Shackelford, 2006; Pinker, 1997; Stearns, 2000; Wright, 1994). Yet, for decades (and decades) in the social sciences, scholars have conducted their work as if humans, for all practical purposes, were exempted from these universal evolutionary processes (Horowitz, Yaworsky, & Kickham, 2014; Maynard, Boutwell, Vaughn, Naeger, & Dell, 2015; Pinker, 2002). At most, these scholars allowed for the fact that our bodies may have been historically sculpted by natural selection, but the instant we invented culture we were freed from the laws of nature and exempted from the pressures of selection forces (Cochran & Harpending, 2009). Consequently, the role of biology in some disciplines has come a distant second to the role of culture and socialization in exploring and explaining human nature and human differences (Pinker, 2002; Winegard, Winegard, & Boutwell, 2017).
... The importance for pro-social personality development of receiving parental guidance in the early years tallies with the results of a study that was published too recently to be cited in the book: in a study of 51 nations, Minkov and Beaver (2016) found that the rate of parental absenteeism in a nation was a significant predictor of its rate of criminal violence. This finding in turn converges with evidence that youth crime is over-represented in lone parent families in the UK, since they constitute approximately 25% of households with dependent children (Office for National Statistics, 2015a,b) yet produce approximately 70% of the nation's young offenders (Youth Justice Board, 2002). ...
Inspired by Hans Eysenck's belief that personality research can provide insights on societal problems, this article summarises a theory – the Welfare Trait – which attempts to explain the tendency of the welfare state to erode work motivation. This theory stems from the discovery that exposure to disadvantage during childhood promotes the development of employment-resistant personality characteristics. If true, this discovery matters because it means a welfare state which sets up perverse incentives that cause extra children to be born into disadvantaged households may harm the prospects of the nation by shifting its personality profile towards greater employment-resistance. Although still in need of more refined data, the Welfare Trait theory conforms to Hans Eysenck's belief that psychology in general, and personality psychology in particular, is germane to addressing important issues of widespread social impact. However, as in Eysenck's time, discussion of such ‘controversial’ issues leads to severe criticism and personal vilification, facilitated today by the ease of communication via social media (e.g., Twitter).
Various models of subjective culture (measures of self-reports) have been proposed since Hofstede’s original work but none of them have been validated by showing that they have analogs in objective culture (measures of societal practices). Inspired by Bardi and Schwartz’s discovery that Schwartz’s individual-level circumplex values model has an exact equivalent in a model of behaviors, we develop a test for the purpose of validating models of culture. We apply this test to Minkov’s revised two-dimensional variant of Hofstede’s subjective-culture model, consisting of individualism-collectivism (IDV-COLL) and flexibility-monumentalism (FLX-MON) (formerly “long-term orientation”), as Fog recently found that an analog to this model incorporates and summarizes all major validated models and dimensions of national culture. We analyze national measures of important social practices associated empirically and theoretically with IDV-COLL and FLX-MON: transparency-corruption, gender equality, political freedom, road death tolls, homicide rates, family structures, innovation rates, and educational effort and achievement. These yielded close analogs to IDV-COLL and FLX-MON, with similar factor structures across nations and across the 50 US states, explicable in terms of IDV-COLL, FLX-MON, and life-history strategy (LHS) theories. Thus, subjective culture structures have mirror images in objective culture structures. This provides validation for our test, for the Minkov-Hofstede two-dimensional model of culture, for the use of nations and some sub-national political entities as units of cultural analysis, as well as for IDV-COLL, FLX-MON, and LHS theories.
Self-control has been consistently linked to antisocial behavior and though low self-control makes delinquency more likely, neither the findings nor the theory suggests that low self-control necessitates participation in such behavior. There remains a shortage of research on those situational factors or individual characteristics that might lessen the effects of low self-control on antisocial behavior. Future orientation is one such characteristic that can have implications for the control of behavior. The purpose of the current study was to explore the independent and interactive effects of future orientation and low self-control on delinquency using data from Wave 1 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. A series of regressions showed that self-control and future orientation had independent effects on delinquent behavior. Further, future-oriented achievement expectations conditioned the effect of self-control on delinquency such that the effects of self-control were weakened with increases in future orientation. The findings suggest that prevention programs should place more emphasis on helping youth plan for the future. Further, research should more fully explore the other aspects of future orientation (e.g., specificity of planning and change/stability of aspirations), as they relate to self-control and delinquency.
Parenting behavior may respond flexibly to environmental risk to help prepare children for the environment they can expect to face as adults. In hazardous environments where child outcomes are unpredictable, unresponsive parenting could be adaptive. Child development associated with parenting practices, in turn, may influence cultural patterns related to insecurity and aggression (which we call the “risk-response model”). We test these propositions in a cross-cultural analysis. The Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS) includes indicators of parental responsiveness: father–infant sleeping proximity, father involvement, parental response to infant crying, and breastfeeding duration (age at weaning). Unresponsive parenting was associated with cultural models including greater acceptance of extramarital sex, aggression, theft, and witchcraft. Socialization practices in later childhood were not better predictors of the outcomes than was earlier parenting. We conclude that some cultural adaptations appear rooted in parenting practices that affect child development.
The current study contrasts and compares the role of socioeconomic factors that explain variations in the homicide rate for 165 countries in 2010. Regression analyses demonstrate that economic development (GNI), inequality (Gini), and poverty (excess infant mortality) are significant predictors of the homicide rate for all countries. However, subsample analyses shows that income inequality, not economic development or poverty, predicts homicide for countries with a medium level of human development. Also, the variations in homicide for developing countries are inadequately explained by our model. To conclude, an analysis of the countries that exhibited significant discrepancies between their predicted and observed homicide rate is discussed.
Sex differences in mortality rates stem from a complex set of genetic, physiological, psychological, and social causes whose influences and interconnections are best understood in an integrative evolutionary life history framework. Although there are multiple levels of mechanisms contributing to sex based disparities in mortality rates, the intensity of male mating competition in a population may have a crucial role in shaping the level of excess male mortality. The degree of variation and skew in male reproductive success may shape the intensity of male mating competition, leading to riskier behavioral and physiological strategies. This study examines three socio-demographic factors related to variation in human male reproductive success; polygyny, economic inequality, and the population ratio of reproductively viable men to women across nations with available data. The degrees of economic inequality and polygyny explained unique portions in the sex difference in mortality rates, these predictors accounted for 53% of the variance. The population ratio of reproductively viable men to women did not explain any additional variance. These results demonstrate the association between social conditions and health outcomes in modern nations, as well as the power of an evolutionary life history framework for understanding important social issues.
Life-history theory predicts that longer-lived, less fecund species should take fewer risks when exposed to predation than shorter-lived, more fecund species. We tested this prediction for seven species of dabbling ducks (Anas) by measuring the approach behavior (behavior of ducks when approaching potential landing sites) of 1099 duck flocks during 37 hunting trials and 491 flocks during 13 trials conducted immediately after the 1999–2000 waterfowl hunting season in California, USA. We also experimentally manipulated the attractiveness of the study site by using two decoy treatments: (1) traditional, stationary decoys only, and (2) traditional decoys in conjunction with a mechanical spinning-wing decoy. Approach behavior of ducks was strongly correlated with their life history. Minimum approach distance was negatively correlated with reproductive output during each decoy treatment and trial type. Similarly, the proportion of flocks taking risk (approaching landing sites to within 45 m) was positively correlated with reproductive output. We found similar patterns of approach behavior in relation to other life-history parameters (i.e., adult female body mass and annual adult female survival rate). Thus, species characterized by a slower life-history strategy (e.g., Northern Pintail [A. acuta]) were more risk-averse than species with a faster life-history strategy (e.g., Cinnamon Teal [A. cyanoptera]). Furthermore, although we were able to reduce risk-averseness using the spinning-wing decoy, we were unable to override the influence of life history on risk-taking behavior. Alternative explanations did not account for the observed correlation between approach behavior and life-history parameters. These results suggest that life history influences the risk-taking behavior of dabbling ducks and provide an explanation for the differential vulnerability of waterfowl to harvest.
We examined the effects of life-history variables on risk-taking propensity, measured by subjective likelihoods of engaging in risky behaviors in five evolutionarily valid domains of risk, including between-group competition, within-group competition, environmental challenge, mating and resource allocation, and fertility and reproduction. The effects of life-history variables on risk-taking propensity were domain specific, except for the expected sex difference, where men predicted greater risk-taking than women in all domains. Males also perceived less inherent risk in actions than females across the five domains. Although the age range in the sample was limited, older respondents showed lower risk propensity in both between-and within-group competition. Parenthood reduced risk-taking propensity in within-and between-group competitions. Higher reproductive goal setting (desiring more offspring) was associated with lower risk-taking propensity. This effect was strongest in the risk domains of mating and reproduction. Having more siblings reduced risk-taking propensity (contrary to our initial prediction) in the domains of environmental challenge, reproduction, and between-group competition. Later-born children showed a higher propensity to engage in environmental and mating risks. Last, shorter subjective life expectancy was associated with increased willingness to take mating and reproductive risks. These results suggest that life-history variables regulate human risk-taking propensity in specific risk domains.
This meta-analysis of 161 published and unpublished manuscripts was conducted to determine whether the association between
parenting and delinquency exists and what the magnitude of this linkage is. The strongest links were found for parental monitoring,
psychological control, and negative aspects of support such as rejection and hostility, accounting for up to 11% of the variance
in delinquency. Several effect sizes were moderated by parent and child gender, child age, informant on parenting, and delinquency
type, indicating that some parenting behaviors are more important for particular contexts or subsamples. Although both dimensions
of warmth and support seem to be important, surprisingly very few studies focused on parenting styles. Furthermore, fewer
than 20% of the studies focused on parenting behavior of fathers, despite the fact that the effect of poor support by fathers
was larger than poor maternal support, particularly for sons. Implications for theory and parenting are discussed.
Does sexual debut (i.e., experiencing sexual intercourse for the first time) increase the risks of participating in later
delinquent behavior? Does this risk increase if adolescents experience early sexual debut relative to the timing experienced
by one’s peers? Although many factors have been linked to sexual debut, little research has examined whether sexual initiation
is linked to later behavioral outcomes. Using data on adolescents participating in three waves of the National Longitudinal
Study of Adolescent Health (N=7,297), we examine the interconnections between sexual debut and later delinquency. In addition, we pay particular attention
to the role of timing of sexual debut. We find that experiencing sexual debut is associated with delinquency one year later.
In addition, those adolescents who experience early sexual debut relative to their peers are at higher risk of experiencing
delinquency compared to those who debut on-time; adolescents who experience late sexual debut are the least likely to participate
in delinquency. Moreover, the protective effect of late sexual debut appears to persist for several years. Findings are interpreted
by drawing on developmental theory and life course research.
Teenage parenthood is believed to cause special problems for both the young mother and her children. In this review, individual differences in the expression of parenting by different-aged mothers are explored in light of two questions: How do parenting practices originate, and how do parental practices affect the young child's social, physical, and cognitive development? Approaches to the study of teenage pregnancy are considered. Then, the prevalence of teenage pregnancy is explored. Next, research on teenage parenting practices, on the likely antecedents of parenting practices, and on outcomes of teenage motherhood for the child is reviewed. Finally, problems in methodology and with the interpretation of findings about teenage parenting are discussed. Social and economic disadvantages and teenage parenting often cooccur; most studies have not separated out the relative effects of the two, making interpretation of the outcomes of teenage parenting difficult. In addition, most studies focus on the prototypic teenage mother (black, urban, poor, unmarried), making generalizations to other groups difficult. The major outcome findings may be summarized as follows. First, intellectual differences in children born to teenage and older childbearers become more pronounced as children develop. Small differences are seen in studies in the preschool years and larger differences are found by the elementary school years. Adolescents of early childbearers are not doing as well in school as adolescents of older childbearers. Second, behavior differences as a function of age of childbearing are more likely to be seen in the early years than intellectual differences. Problems appear in activity levels, hostility, and undercontrol of behavior. Third, boys are more affected by teenage childbearing than are girls, at least in the early years.
Until recently, variations in life history strategy were studied exclusively at the species level. Although this domain of study has been extended to examine systematic differences in life history strategy among various human ethnic groupings, more recent evolutionary theories of human development and related behavioral genetic work imply substantial within-group individual variation in life history strategy. We constructed a latent variable model identifying a single common factor, denoted as K, which underlies a variety of otherwise disparate life history parameters. This “K-Factor” loaded 0.36 on childhood attachment to the biological father, −0.36 on childhood attachment to any non-biological father figure, 0.38 on adult romantic partner attachment, −0.51 on mating effort, −0.58 on Machiavellianism, and −0.41 on risk propensity. The bivariate correlations of the K-factor with higher-order personality factors were statistically significant, −0.24 with “Big Neuroticism” and −0.67 with “Big Psychoticism”, and approached significance, correlating 0.12, with “Big Extraversion”. The K-factor appears to be an underappreciated individual difference variable of major importance to human development.
We describe an integrated theory of individual differences that traces the behavioral development of life history from genes to brain to reproductive strategy. We provide evidence that a single common factor, the K-Factor, underpins a variety of life-history parameters, including an assortment of sexual, reproductive, parental, familial, and social behaviors. We explore the psychometrics and behavioral genetics of the K-Factor and offer a speculative account of the proximate mediation of this adaptive patterning of behavior as instantiated in well-established functions of specific areas of the human brain, including the frontal lobes, amygdala, and hippocampus. We then apply Life History Theory to predict patterns of development within the brain that are paedomorphic (i.e., development begins later, proceeds at a slower rate, and has an earlier cessation) and peramorphic (i.e., development begins early, proceeds at a faster rate, and has a later cessation).
To investigate the link between attachment to parents and delinquency, and the potential moderating effects of age and sex, 74 published and unpublished manuscripts (N = 55,537 participants) were subjected to a multilevel meta-analysis. A mean small to moderate effect size was found (r = 0.18). Poor attachment to parents was significantly linked to delinquency in boys and girls. Stronger effect sizes were found for attachment to mothers than attachment to fathers. In addition, stronger effect sizes were found if the child and the parent had the same sex compared to cross-sex pairs of children and parents. Age of the participants moderated the link between attachment and delinquency: larger effect sizes were found in younger than in older participants. It can be concluded that attachment is associated with juvenile delinquency. Attachment could therefore be a target for intervention to reduce or prevent future delinquent behavior in juveniles.
Researchers using the parasite-stress theory of human values have discovered many cross-cultural behavioural patterns that inform a range of scholarly disciplines. Here, we apply the theory to major categories of interpersonal violence, and the empirical findings are supportive. We hypothesize that the collectivism evoked by high parasite stress is a cause of adult-on-adult interpersonal violence. Across the US states, parasite stress and collectivism each positively predicts rates of men's and women's slaying of a romantic partner, as well as the rate of male-honour homicide and of the motivationally similar felony-related homicide. Of these four types of homicide, wealth inequality has an independent effect only on rates of male-honour and felony-related homicide. Parasite stress and collectivism also positively predict cross-national homicide rates. Child maltreatment by caretakers is caused, in part, by divestment in offspring of low phenotypic quality, and high parasite stress produces more such offspring than low parasite stress. Rates of each of two categories of the child maltreatment--lethal and non-lethal--across the US states are predicted positively by parasite stress, with wealth inequality and collectivism having limited effects. Parasite stress may be the strongest predictor of interpersonal violence to date.
The relation between timing of first sex and later delinquency was examined using a genetically informed sample of 534 same-sex twin pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, who were assessed at three time points over a 7-year interval. Genetic and environmental differences between families were found to account for the association between earlier age at first sex and increases in delinquency. After controlling for these genetic and environmental confounds using a quasi-experimental design, earlier age at first sex predicted lower levels of delinquency in early adulthood. The current study is contrasted with previous research with non-genetically informative samples, including Armour and Haynie. Results suggest a more nuanced perspective on the meaning and consequences of adolescent sexuality than is commonly put forth in the literature.
Experiencia infantil y desarrollo de las estrategias reproductoras. Aunque la mayor parte de la psicología del desarrollo se ocupa de comprender si y cómo las experiencias infantiles dan forma al desarrollo psicológico y comportamental posterior, se ha prestado una escasa atención teórica a por qué tales influencias tipifican el desarrollo humano. Ello es especialmente cierto con respecto a los bien estudiados determinantes del emparejamiento, el establecimiento de lazos afectivos y las conductas parentales.
Teóricamente, Draper y Harpending (1982), Belsky, Steinberg y Draper (1991), Ellis (2004) y Chisholm (1996) han tratado de subsanar esta laguna estimulando la investigación sobre los vínculos entre las experiencias infantiles y las estrategias reproductoras, que se resumen a continuación. El interés por los efectos de la experiencia en la llegada de la pubertad distingue esta línea de trabajo de los estudios sobre el desarrollo más tradicionales porque la adopción de una perspectiva evolucionista sugiere que las experiencias familiares podrían afectar el desarrollo físico. Veinte años después que BSD (Belsky, Steinberg y Draper, 1991) lanzaran su «misteriosa» predicción, parece claro que el comienzo de la pubertad en las chicas está relacionado con determinados aspectos de las experiencias familiares tempranas
This article reports the prevalence of neglectful behavior by parents of university students in 17 nations (6 in Europe, 2 in North America, 2 in Latin America, 5 in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand) and tests the hypothesis that neglect is a risk factor for violence against a dating partner. The percentage at each university who experienced neglectful behavior ranged from 3.2% to 36% (median 12%), and the percentage who perpetrated violence against dating partners ranged from 15% to 45% (median 28%). Multilevel modeling found that the more neglectful behavior experienced as a child the greater the probability of assaulting and injuring a dating partner and that the link between experiencing neglect and perpetrating violence is stronger at universities in which dating violence is more prevalent. Efforts to help parents avoid neglectful behavior can make an important contribution to primary prevention of partner violence and probably also other forms of child maltreatment.
Humans exhibit hand preference for most manual activities in which they are specialized. Right- and left-handers have coexisted at least since the Upper Palaeolithic, and left-handers are in the minority in all human populations. The persistence of the polymorphism of handedness is a puzzle because this trait is substantially heritable and several fitness costs are associated with left-handedness. Some countervailing benefit is required to maintain the polymorphism. Left-handers may have a frequency-dependent advantage in fights--the advantage being greater when their frequency is lower. Sports data from Western societies are consistent with this prediction. Here, we show that the frequency of left-handers is strongly and positively correlated with the rate of homicides across traditional societies. It ranges from 3% in the most pacifistic societies, to 27% in the most violent and warlike. This finding is consistent with a frequency-dependent selection mechanism maintaining left-handedness in these societies.
In this article we take an empirical cross-country perspective to investigate the robustness and causality of the link between income inequality and crime rates. First, we study the correlation between the Gini index and, respectively, homicide and robbery rates along different dimensions of the data (within and between countries). Second, we examine the inequality-crime link when other potential crime determinants are controlled for. Third, we control for the likely joint endogeneity of income inequality in order to isolate its exogenous impact on homicide and robbery rates. Fourth, we control for the measurement error in crime rates by modelling it as both unobserved country-specific effects and random noise. Lastly, we examine the robustness of the inequality-crime link to alternative measures of inequality. The sample for estimation consists of panels of non-overlapping 5-year averages for 39 countries over 1965-95 in the case of homicides, and 37 countries over 1970-1994 in the case of robberies. We use a variety of statistical techniques, from simple correlations to regression analysis and from static OLS to dynamic GMM estimation. We find that crime rates and inequality are positively correlated (within each country and, particularly, between countries), and it appears that this correlation reflects causation from inequality to crime rates, even controlling for other crime determinants.
This study advances anomie theory by examining the effect of anomic societal conditions and indicators of globalization on national homicide rates. Globalization may generate anomie in two ways: (a) via rapid change and (b) by contributing to economic dominance that may lead to a chronic state of anomie. To assess the role of globalization, measures of international trade are examined in a model of national homicide rates. Results show that net investment has a positive effect on rates of homicide across several models, suggesting that globalization and economic dominance aggravate homicide.
Dozens of cross-national studies of homicide have been published. Virtually all have reported an association between inequality and homicide, leading scholars to draw strong conclusions about this relationship. Unfortunately, each of these studies failed to control for poverty, even though poverty is the most consistent predictor of area homicide rates in the US empirical literature and a main confounder of the inequality-homicide association. The cross-national findings are also incongruent with US studies, which have yielded inconsistent results for the inequality-homicide association. In the present study, I replicated two prior studies in which a significant inequality-homicide association was found. After the original results were replicated, models that included a measure of poverty were estimated to see whether its inclusion had an impact on the inequality-homicide association. When effects for poverty and inequality were estimated in the same model, there was a positive and significant poverty-homicide association, while the inequality-homicide association disappeared in two of three models. These findings were consistent across different samples, data years, measures of inequality, dependent variables (overall and sex-specific homicide rates) and estimation procedures. The new results are congruent with what we know about poverty, inequality and homicide from the US empirical literature and suggest that the strong conclusions drawn about the inequality-homicide association may need to be reassessed, as the association may be a spurious result of model misspecification.
This study provides a first empirical test of the relationship between indicators of police performance and homicide rates in cross-national perspective. Results show that police performance indices are strongly associated with lower homicide rates, controlling for the levels of socioeconomic development, economic problems (poverty–inequality), democracy, and incarceration. They also show that police performance fully mediates the relationship between socioeconomic development and homicide. Thus, richer and more developed nations may have lower homicide rates because they have better police. Overall, results suggest that good policing matters for cross-national criminology, in addition to social and economic factors. Finally, the new police performance index is provided for future research.
The existence of a genetic factor behind group-level differences in life history strategy (LHS) has long been disputed. A number of recent studies suggest that some polymorphisms in the androgen receptor gene AR, the dopamine receptor gene DRD4, and the 5-HTTLPR VNTR of the serotonin transporter gene are associated with risk acceptance versus prudence and a short-term versus long-term time orientation, which are important aspects of LHS. We integrated studies from diverse nations reporting the prevalence of these three polymorphisms for many countries. We collected national indices for each of the three polymorphisms and found that they define a strong, single factor, yielding a single LHS-related, national genetic index. As expected, this index is strongly associated with reported national measures of LHS and time orientation, even after controlling for socioeconomic variables. The genetic effect seems especially strong across societies with high socioeconomic inequality.
This article presents 2 studies of the association of media violence rates with societal violence rates. In the first study, movie violence and homicide rates are examined across the 20th century and into the 21st (1920–2005). Throughout the mid-20th century small-to-moderate correlational relationships can be observed between movie violence and homicide rates in the United States. This trend reversed in the early and latter 20th century, with movie violence rates inversely related to homicide rates. In the second study, videogame violence consumption is examined against youth violence rates in the previous 2 decades. Videogame consumption is associated with a decline in youth violence rates. Results suggest that societal consumption of media violence is not predictive of increased societal violence rates.
A number of studies have used national behavior-related statistics to propose measures of a so-called “K factor”, or societal “hypometropia”. The reported variants of this dimension reflect societal differences in mating strategies, risk-acceptance, and aspects of time orientation, such as delay of gratification. Until now, no clear analog to this dimension had been found in paper-and-pencil studies of subjective national culture, focusing on values, beliefs, attitudes, or other worldviews. The present study analyzes values for children from the World Values Survey. A factor analysis across 71 nations partly replicates Inglehart’s two dimensions of national culture and extracts a third factor, defined by importance of thrift, responsibility, and independence versus obedience. It creates a clear contrast between East Asia and Africa and resembles a somewhat similar dimension of national culture by the Chinese Culture Connection. It is also associated with societal hypometropia. Thus, the K factor/hypometropia has an analog in national values.
The phenomena of strategic and cognitive differentiation and integration (SD–IE and CD–IE) amongst life history indicators and cognitive abilities as a function of level of latent life history speed have been robustly demonstrated in individual differences samples. Here we examine a cross-national sample (N = 76 nations) with respect to ten aggregate life history indicators (birth rate, infant mortality, skin reflectance, prevalence of STDs, overall life satisfaction, life expectancy, national IQ, cranial capacity, savings rate and crime rate), all of which share substantive common variance stemming from a K-Super factor which accounts for 66.6% of the variance amongst these indicators. All indicators became signifi-cantly less strongly correlated with the super factor as the level of K increased indicating the presence of robust SD–IE effects. A 'cognitive' factor comprised of the national IQ and cranial capacity variables also exhibited differentiation as a function of increasing levels of K, suggesting the presence of CD–IE also. Consistently with the findings of individual differences studies investigating SD–IE, the degree to which the indicators loaded on the K super-factor positively mediated their sensitivity to the effect.
Despite Rushton’s path-breaking work into evolutionary forces affecting life history traits, not many attempts at operationalizing the differential-K spectrum at the level of countries or racial groups have been made so far. We report the construction of a “national K” factor from country-level behavioral variables. This K factor is closely related to country-level intelligence (“g”), operationalized by a composite score of IQ and scholastic achievement. We further demonstrate relationships of both g and K with measures of current environment and hypothesized evolutionary antecedents. Whereas K is predicted most powerfully by intelligence, log-transformed GDP (lgGDP) and skin reflectance, g is predicted by skin reflectance, lgGDP, cranial capacity, and a measure of evolutionary novelty.
We use data of neighborhoods of Bogotá to assess the causal relation between their adolescent fertility and their homicide rates. We find that neighborhoods with high adolescent fertility rates, and that have low secondary enrollment and high crime rates at the moment the children of their teen mothers become teenagers, are more likely to have higher homicide rates in the future, when those children reach their peak crime ages, estimated to be between 18 to 26 years old in violent cities of Colombia. The result is robust to various specifications, and to modeling the spatial autocorrelation of homicides.
Cross-national research has increased in the past few decades, resulting in a large body of empirical research. In particular, cross-national studies are often limited in data sources, which restrict variable selection to debatable proxy indicators. This study therefore uses meta-analytic techniques to examine major cross-national predictors of homicide to determine strengths and weaknesses in theory and design. The findings indicate several critical limitations to cross-national research, including biased sample composition, a lack of theoretical clarity in predictor operationalizations, and an overwhelming reliance on cross-sectional design. The predictors that showed the strongest mean effects were Latin American regional dummy variables, income inequality indicators and the Decommodification Index. Conversely, static population indicators, democracy indices, and measures of economic development had the weakest effects on homicide.
This article argues that social science can be conducted beneath the umbrella of natural science and evolutionary theory. Evolutionary social science makes four key causal assumptions: (a) that modern societies owe their character to an interaction of hunter—gatherer adaptations with the modern environment, (b) that some changes in societies reflect change in individuals, (c) that historical changes and cross-societal differences can be due to similar adaptational mechanisms, given (d) that different social contexts (e.g., food scarcity, single parenthood) modify psychological development through adaptive mechanisms. This approach is illustrated by cross-national data on violent crime and single parenthood.
Among foragers, men's foods are often shared widely outside the household, undercutting variation in the benefit their wives and children receive. This means polygyny may not be due to variation in household provisioning. Some have even suggested that bonds in general, whether polygynous or monogamous, may have less to do with male provisioning than male-male contest competition. However, an analysis of foragers in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample reveals that male provisioning does affect the mating system. Societies with higher male contribution to subsistence are more monogamous. The author argues that women value male provisioning less where males bring in less food, which results in greater polygyny. Where it is difficult for women to acquire food, they value male provisioning more, forcing males to compete via food acquisition. Food sharing prevents the polygyny threshold from being reached but does not completely erase the benefit of pair bonding with a good forager.
This article draws on Agnew's general strain theory to explain community differences in crime rates. After reviewing the communities and crime research, the author discusses the ways in which community-level variables contribute to strain, including the failure to achieve positively valued goals and the loss of positive stimuli/presentation of negative stimuli. The ways in which community-level variables condition the impact of strain on crime are then examined.
One third of all children are born to unmarried mothers and over one half of children will spend some time in a single-parent family. In fact, single-father families are the fastest growing family form. Using data from the 1995 National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, the authors extend prior research that has investigated the effects of growing up in a two-parent versus single-mother family by examining adolescent delinquency in single-father families, too. This strategy helps us to identify the mechanisms through which living with a single parent increases delinquency, notably, whether the effect is predominantly a function of parental absence (i.e., one versus two parents) or parental gender (i.e., single mother versus single father). The results indicate that adolescents in single-parent families are significantly more delinquent than their counterparts residing with two biological, married parents, although these differences are reduced once the authors account for various family processes. Furthermore, family processes fully account for the higher levels of delinquency exhibited by adolescents from single-father versus single-mother families.
This chapter discusses the variations in homicide as indicative of variations in competitive risk taking, interpreting prevalent conflict typologies and demographic patterns as reflections of evolved motivational and information processing mechanisms that function to regulate competitive inclinations and actions. Connections are then drawn to research on future discounting and impulsivity, on the effects of inequity on violence, and on the bidirectional influences between circulating testosterone levels and social experience. It argues that the Darwinian Theory, especially sexual selection theory, provides a framework that can both synthesize existing knowledge in these disparate domains and facilitate future discovery. Evolutionary psychology is the pursuit of psychological science with explicit consideration of the fact that the psyche is, like the body, a product of evolutionary processes.
This paper tests Agnew's (1992) general strain theory (GST) of crime and delinquency. GST argues that strain occurs when others (1) prevent or threaten to prevent you from achieving positively valued goals, (2) remove or threaten to remove positively valued stimuli that you possess, or (3) present or threaten to present you with noxious or negatively valued stimuli. The impact of such strain on delinquency is said to be conditioned by several variables, such as association with delinquent peers and self-efficacy. Data from a sample of 1,380 New Jersey adolescents provide qualified support for the theory; strain measures of the type described above have a relatively substantial effect on delinquency and drug use. Further, the effect of these strain measures is conditioned by delinquent peers and self-efficacy, as predicted by GST.
Violent crimes, including murders, rapes, and assaults are substantially higher in the Americas than other regions of the world. This study investigated the role of single parenthood ratios in accounting for this regional variation in violent crime of 39 countries using INTERPOL data. It pitted the prediction of parental investment (calling for a delayed relationship between single parenthood and crime) against a mating aggression hypothesis that predicted a contemporaneous effect. Regression analyses found that current single parenthood ratios were strongly and consistently predictive of violent crimes whereas single parenthood ratios 18 years earlier were not and this conclusion remained following controls for income inequality and the population sex ratio. The results indicate that the regional difference in violent crime is best explained in terms of mating competition rather than reduced parental investment. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–9, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Recently, the concept of “collective efficacy” has been advanced to understand how communities exert control and provide support to reduce crime. In a similar way, we use the concept of “parental efficacy” to highlight the crime reducing effects associated with parents who support and control their youth. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we examine the inter-relationship between parental controls and supports and their joint influence on youthful misbehavior. The results show that (1) support and control are intertwined, and (2) that parental efficacy exerts substantive effects on adolescent delinquency for the sample as a whole and across varying age groups.
An impressive body of research has revealed that individual-level IQ scores are negatively associated with criminal and delinquent involvement. Recently, this line of research has been extended to show that state-level IQ scores are associated with state-level crime rates. The current study uses this literature as a springboard to examine the potential association between county-level IQ and county-level crime rates. Analysis of data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health revealed statistically significant and negative associations between county-level IQ and the property crime rate, the burglary rate, the larceny rate, the motor vehicle theft rate, the violent crime rate, the robbery rate, and the aggravated assault rate. Additional analyses revealed that these associations were not confounded by a measure of concentrated disadvantage that captures the effects of race, poverty, and other social disadvantages of the county. We discuss the implications of the results and note the limitations of the study.
Regional differences in disease prevalence are associated with a wide array of cross-cultural differences. However, the complex relationships among culture, disease, and other ecological variables remain underinvestigated. Future research into the origins of cultural differences will benefit from the availability of a numerical index identifying the extent to which infectious diseases have been historically prevalent within regions defined by geopolitical borders. This article introduces such an index. This index is based on disease prevalence data obtained from old epidemiological atlases and is calculated for 230 geopolitical regions (mostly nations) around the world.
This paper presents a general strain theory of crime and delinquency that is capable of overcoming the criticisms of previous strain theories. In the first section, strain theory is distinguished from social control and differential association/social learning theory. In the second section, the three major types of strain are described: (1) strain as the actual or anticipated failure to achieve positively valued goals, (2) strain as the actual or anticipated removal of positively valued stimuli, and (3) strain as the actual or anticipated presentation of negatively valued stimuli. In the third section, guidelines for the measurement of strain are presented. And in the fourth section, the major adaptations to strain are described, and those factors influencing the choice of delinquent versus nondelinquent adaptations are discussed.
Rushton's theory of r-K race differences was examined in relation to the rate of murder, rape, and serious assault per 100,000 population and Gross Domestic Product per Person for 74 countries from the 1993–1996 International Crime Statistics published by INTERPOL and the 1999 CIA World Fact Book. Each country was assigned to one of the three macro-races East Asian, European, and African. The results corroborated earlier findings that violent crime is lowest in East Asian countries, intermediate in European countries, and highest in African and in Black Caribbean countries. The median number of violent crimes per 100,000 population were: 7 East Asian countries—34; 45 European countries—42; and 22 African and Black Caribbean countries—149, respectively. The median Gross Domestic Product per Person was highest in East Asian countries (12,600), intermediate in European countries (12,600), intermediate in European countries (7,400), and lowest in African and Black Caribbean countries ($1,900). Across the three population groups there was an ecological correlation of –.96 between crime and wealth (wealthier countries had less crime). Finer-grained analyses, however, found that while wealth was negatively related to crime across European or East Asian countries, it was positively related to crime for the African and Black Caribbean countries (i.e., the wealthier an African or Black Caribbean country, the greater its rate of violent crime). Future research needs to examine genetic factors in addition to cultural factors as well as their interactions.
National differences in murder, rape, and serious assault were examined in 113 countries in relation to national IQ, income, skin color, birth rate, life expectancy, infant mortality, and HIV/AIDS. Data were collated from the 1993–1996 International Crime Statistics published by INTERPOL. Violent crime was found to be lower in countries with higher IQs, higher life expectancies, lighter skin color, and lower rates of HIV/AIDS, although not with higher national incomes or higher rates of infant mortality. A principal components analysis found the first general factor accounted for 52% of the variance. Moreover, the correlations were significantly higher with skin color, a more biologically influenced variable, than with measures of national income, a more culturally influenced variable. When the 19 sub-Saharan African countries were excluded from analysis the crime/IQ relation held but the crime/skin color relation did not.
This article hypothesizes that in societies where spouses are considered to have
relatively equal status, they are more likely to be intimate with one another than
in societies where there is spousal status inequality. The authors ask: What are
the core attributes of intimacy between husband and wife cross-culturally? And
what sociocultural norms and practices are associated with intimate/nonintimate
spousal relationships? Five variables are used as indicators of intimacy: husband–
wife sleeping proximity, privacy in sleeping for husbands and wives, husband–
wife eating arrangement, husband–wife spending leisure time together, and
husband attending birth of his child. These variables are correlated with 60
variables for female status in “traditional” societies constructed and coded by
Whyte. From this research, the authors develop a female kin power model based
on five main sociocultural variables: war, skewed sex ratio, polygyny, parental
warmth, and socialization for aggression. Results indicate that intimacy in
spousal relationships is significantly predicted by female status.
The literature on human mate preferences is vast but most data come from studies on college students in complex societies, who represent a thin slice of cultural variation in an evolutionarily novel environment. Here, I present data on the mate preferences of men and women in a society of hunter-gatherers, the Hadza of Tanzania. Hadza men value fertility in a mate more than women do, and women value intelligence more than men do. Women place great importance on men's foraging, and both sexes rate character as important. Unlike college students, Hadza men place considerable importance on women being hard-working, and Hadza women cite looks about as often as men do. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)
Early motherhood (less than 20 years of age) was found to be significantly correlated (r = .33) with the number of DSM-III symptoms of conduct disorder in a sample of 253 boys aged 6-13 years who had been referred to outpatient clinics. The following models were compared using path analysis: (a) Teenage motherhood, parental antisocial personality, and SES each contribute uniquely to the prediction of childhood conduct problems; (b) teenage motherhood mediates the association of SES and parental antisocial personality with child conduct problems; and (c) teenage motherhood is spuriously related with child conduct problems because of common associations with SES and parental antisocial personality. Model (c) best fit our data. Similar results were obtained whether maternal age at the birth of the firstborn child or the proband child was used to define maternal age and when teenage motherhood was defined as giving birth at less than 18 years.
The early identification of risk factors for juvenile offending is one important step in preventing youth violence and offending. This cohort study examined whether perinatal circumstances predicted offending during adolescence.
Washington State birth certificates from 1974 to 1975 were linked to juvenile justice data to identify all individuals adjudicated between 10 and 17 years of age. Thirteen thousand five hundred seventy-three offenders were compared with a sample of 38 387 nonoffenders matched on gender and birth order.
Both male and female children of mothers who were teenagers at the child's birth or at her first birth, or who were born to unmarried mothers, had significantly increased risk for any juvenile offending, and for being adjudicated for five or more crimes (chronic offending). Males born to unmarried mothers under 18 years old had an 11-fold increased risk of chronic offending compared with males born to married mothers >/=20 years old. Low birth weight and preterm gestational age carried no increased risk for juvenile offending.
Birth to teenage or unmarried mothers are strongly associated with later risk of juvenile delinquency. Although there are multiple, interrelated risk factors for juvenile delinquency, prevention of births to teenage and/or unmarried mothers may help to prevent subsequent juvenile delinquency.
Studies have shown that poverty and income are powerful predictors of homicide and violent crime. We hypothesized that the effect of the growing gap between the rich and poor is mediated through an undermining of social cohesion, or social capital, and that decreased social capital is in turn associated with increased firearm homicide and violent crime. Social capital was measured by the weighted responses to two items from the U.S. General Social Survey: the per capita density of membership in voluntary groups in each state; and the level of social trust, as gauged by the proportion of residents in each state who believed that "most people would take advantage of you if they got the chance". Age-standardized firearm homicide rates for the years 1987-1991 and firearm robbery and assault incidence rates for years 1991-1994 were obtained for each of the 50 U.S. states. Income inequality was strongly correlated with firearm violent crime (firearm homicide, r = 0.76) as well as the measures of social capital: per capita group membership (r = -0.40) and lack of social trust (r = 0.73). In turn, both social trust (firearm homicide, r = 0.83) and group membership (firearm homicide, r = -0.49) were associated with firearm violent crime. These relationships held when controlling for poverty and a proxy variable for access to firearms. The profound effects of income inequality and social capital, when controlling for other factors such as poverty and firearm availability, on firearm violent crime indicate that policies that address these broader, macro-social forces warrant serious consideration.
The United States has a teenage birth rate that is high relative to that of other developed countries, and falling more slowly. Children of teenagers may experience difficult childhoods and hence be more likely to commit crimes subsequently. I assess to what extent lagged teen birth rates can explain why the United States had the highest developed country crime rates in the 1980s, and why US rates subsequently fell so much. For this purpose, I use internationally comparable crime rates measured from the 1989-2000 International Crime Victims Surveys. I find that an increase in the share of young people born to a teen mother increases the assault rate. The type of assault affected is perpetrated by unarmed lone assailants known to the victim by name, particularly at home or at work, and is not reported to the police. The pattern of teen births in the United States explains –30% of the relative fall in assaults by assailants known to the victim, but more than explains the 1980s gap with the rest of the world. I also present evidence on larceny and burglary.