Evolutionary social science: A new approach to violent crime

Evolutionary Social Science unites evolutionary psychology and social science. Its core assumptions are that: (I) modern societies owe their character to an interaction of hunter-gatherer adaptations with the modern environment: (2) some changes in societies reflect change in individuals; (3) historical changes and cross-societal differences can be due to similar adaptational mechanisms, and (4) different social contexts modify development through adaptive mechanisms. Preliminary research is reviewed concerning historical and cross-national variation in violent crime to illustrate the new research strategy. Societal differences in violence can be partly explained in terms of reduced parental investment and increased mating aggression. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.