Theft

Abstract

This chapter discusses how an evolutionary psychological perspective can shed new theoretical light on theft and other property crimes. An evolutionary psychological perspective can simultaneously explain why theft and robbery (in fact, all interpersonal crimes) are an overwhelmingly male enterprise; why young men are far more likely to engage in crime than older men (the age—crime curve); why social class and criminality are negatively correlated (the association being far from a “myth”); and why criminals in general tend to be less intelligent than non-criminals. It can also elucidate the causal mechanism behind why lower-class men are more likely to engage in crime than upper-class men, and why less intelligent men are more likely to engage in crime than more intelligent men. At the same time, by focusing on individual characteristics that traditional criminologists and social scientists tend to overlook, such as physical attractiveness, height, and general intelligence, an evolutionary psychological perspective on crime can suggest novel hypotheses. For example, lower-class men who are physically more attractive should be less criminal than lower-class men who are physically less attractive, and the difference in intelligence between criminals and non-criminals should weaken to the extent that third-party enforcement (characteristic of modern society but not the ancestral environment) is absent.