Crime & Human Nature

Crime and Human Nature is the most comprehensive study ever made of the causes of crime. James Q. Wilson and Richard J. Herrnstein have systematically surveyed the research in wide-ranging fields and have assembled the latest scientific evidence to shed new light on who commits crime and why. For nearly half a century, crime has been explained as primarily arising from larger social conditions. Crime and Human Nature redirects our attention towards individual as well as social characteristics. The authors explore the effects of gender, age, personality, constitution, race, intelligence, the family, school, and community, the labor market, television, alcohol and drugs, and punishment and reward, and presents a theory that crime results from individual choice, which is itself influenced by a wide range of factors. Crime and Human Nature is a landmark survey, the most significant social work of the decade. 639 pages.