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November 2014Volume 35, Issue 6, Pages 481–488
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Criminal offending as part of an alternative reproductive strategy: investigating evolutionary hypotheses using Swedish total population data

Shuyang Yao
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Shuyang Yao
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Affiliations

  • Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Box 281, S-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
,
Niklas Långström
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Niklas Långström
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Affiliations

  • Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Box 281, S-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
,
Hans Temrin
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Hans Temrin
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Affiliations

  • Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
,
Hasse Walum
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Hasse Walum
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Affiliations

  • Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Box 281, S-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
  • Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, 954 Gatewood Rd., Atlanta, GA 30329, United States

Correspondence

  • Corresponding author. Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, 954 Gatewood Rd., Atlanta, GA 30329, United States.
'Correspondence information about the author Hasse Walum
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Hasse Walum
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Affiliations

  • Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Box 281, S-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
  • Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, 954 Gatewood Rd., Atlanta, GA 30329, United States

Correspondence

  • Corresponding author. Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, 954 Gatewood Rd., Atlanta, GA 30329, United States.
Criminal offending as part of an alternative reproductive strategy: investigating evolutionary hypotheses using Swedish total population data
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.06.007
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Abstract

Criminality is highly costly to victims and their relatives, but often also to offenders. From an evolutionary viewpoint, criminal behavior may persist despite adverse consequences by providing offenders with fitness benefits as part of a successful alternative mating strategy. Specifically, criminal behavior may have evolved as a reproductive strategy based on low parental investment reflected in low commitment in reproductive relationships. We linked data from nationwide total population registers in Sweden to test if criminality is associated with reproductive success. Further, we used several different measures related to monogamy to determine the relation between criminal behavior and alternative mating tactics. Convicted criminal offenders had more children than individuals never convicted of a criminal offense. Criminal offenders also had more reproductive partners, were less often married, more likely to get remarried if ever married, and had more often contracted a sexually transmitted disease than non-offenders. Importantly, the increased reproductive success of criminals was explained by a fertility increase from having children with several different partners. We conclude that criminality appears to be adaptive in a contemporary industrialized country, and that this association can be explained by antisocial behavior being part of an adaptive alternative reproductive strategy.

Keywords:

Criminality, Antisocial behavior, Pair bonding, Mating strategy

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© 2014 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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November 2014Volume 35, Issue 6, Pages 481–488