Evolutionary Criminology and Cooperation

“This book shows convincingly why criminology needs a basis in evolutionary theory --- an understanding of who we are as human beings. Dr. Svingen proposes an exciting new general theory that links crime to fundamental questions about the origins of human cooperation, retribution, and reciprocity. She also presents remarkable results of empirical work designed to test the theory. This is a great achievement of innovative interdisciplinary scholarship.”

- Prof. Manuel Eisner, Director, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge

“The book constitutes a laudable effort to draw attention to the field of evolutionary criminology. This monograph is well-written, skillfully organized, comprehensive, and meticulously referenced. Dr. Svingen has done a masterful job of synthesising the literature on the concepts of retribution and reciprocity in explaining crime; and empirically tested the Retribution and Reciprocity Model.”

-Dr. Heng Choon (Oliver)Chan, Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Birmingham


This book develops an evolutionary theory of crime. Both evolutionary theory and neurocriminology are growing fields that are attracting more and more interest for criminologists and wider fields alike. This book summarises important readings that relate to retribution and punishment and presents some neurocriminological findings. In addition, the book introduces a new methodology for the study of crime: a game theory experiment adapted from the field of behavioural economics. Overall, the book synthesises the key crime literature, presents a new theory of crime in a new field of evolutionary criminology and the methodology to study it, and provides empirical results in support of the theory. For any evolutionary and neuroscientist interested in deviance, this book offers a new model which is testable using more complex methods such as MRI scanners and survival simulations.


Evelyn Svingen is Assistant Professor in Criminology at the University of Birmingham, UK, with an interest in evolutionary theory and the neurophysiology of crime. She received her PhD in Criminology at the University of Cambridge, where she was awarded the Cambridge International Scholarship for the promise and originality of her work.