Punishment, Public Policy, and Prevention

In this chapter we provide an overview of evolutionary approaches to crime prevention, punishment, and public policy. We begin by considering some important conceptual issues that arise in applying evolutionary criminology to the effective management of crime. We focus first on how an evolutionary approach can contribute to social and situational crime prevention efforts. Drawing from the material presented in Chapter 5 , we then consider what an evolutionary perspective has to offer in terms of understanding how we should punish offenders and what potential opportunities there are for restorative justice initiatives. We conclude this chapter by considering the wider public policy implications of an evolutionary approach to crime prevention. Preventing crime (and the harms caused by crime) is no straightforward task and an evolutionary perspective offers no magical solutions. However, armed with a conceptually richer account of why individuals offend, why we punish, and what accounts for variation in offending (and punishment), provides us with an opportunity to help guide the development of effective strategies for managing crime.