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Adaptation and Sexual Offending

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Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Sexual Psychology and Behavior

Part of the book series: Evolutionary Psychology ((EVOLPSYCH))

Abstract

Agreement on the causes of sexual offending has eluded scholars because of an emphasis on studying proximate causes—as with crime in general, there are numerous variables that correlate with sexual offending. A more consilient view of sexual offending includes an evolutionary approach that attempts to answer ultimately why such behavior exists. To guide this research, Camilleri (The Oxford handbook of evolutionary perspectives on violence, homicide, and war, New York, 173–196) proposed a typology of sexual offenders that classifies offending based on two dimensions: (1) whether the behavior is an adaptation, by-product, or disorder and (2) if the mechanism is obligate or facultative. Categories resulting from this typology seem to capture the variability of sexual offending behavior. This chapter mostly reviews evidence of how sexual offending could function as an adaptation, draws links from nonhuman behavior literature, and briefly reviews alternative explanations, including by-products and disorders.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Although the explanation is more nuanced than simply “genes cause personality” (see Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005).

  2. 2.

    How poor regions within a location are clustered does not appear to matter. Poverty clustering was not found to be related to rape (Stretesky, Schuck, & Hogan, 2004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Westfield State University, Westfield, MA, 01085, USA

    Joseph A. Camilleri

  2. Department of Psychology, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Kelly A. Stiver

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  1. Joseph A. Camilleri
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  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

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Camilleri, J.A., Stiver, K.A. (2014). Adaptation and Sexual Offending. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Sexual Psychology and Behavior. Evolutionary Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0314-6_2

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