The Nurture Versus Biosocial Debate in Criminology: On the Origins of Criminal Behavior and Criminality takes a contemporary approach to address the sociological and the biological positions of human behavior by allowing preeminent scholars in criminology to speak to the effects of each on a range of topics. The text aims to facilitate an open and honest debate between the more traditional criminologists who focus primarily on environmental factors and contemporary biosocial criminologists who examine the interplay between biology/genetics and environmental factors.

Human Biodiversity and the Egalitarian Fiction

Human biodiversity and the egalitarian fiction
John PaulWrightUniversity of Cincinnati
Mark AldenMorganUniversity of Cincinnati

Biosocial criminology was born from a contrarian spirit. Deeply unsatisfied with traditional sociological explanations of crime, biosocial criminologists have pursued and reinvigorated lines of research that had been idle for decades (Wright & Boisvert, 2009). Indeed, with few and isolated exceptions (see Ellis & Walsh, 1997), biological criminology had essentially been relegated to the dustbin of history (Wright & Cullen, 2012). Not only had it been replaced by purely social explanations of crime, but it also became synonymous with racial prejudice. Indeed, it was just a few years ago that no mainstream criminologist would dare link genetic or biological forces to criminal behavior (Wright & Boisvert, 2009; Wright ...

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