Why men commit crimes (and why they desist)

Hirschi and Gottfredson (1983) claim that the relationship between age and crime is similar in all social and cultural conditions and that no current sociological or criminological theory can account for this similarity. We i ntroduce the new field of evolutionary psychology and extend Daly and Wilso n's (1988) work on homicide to construct a general theory of male criminali ty, which explains why merl commit violent and property crimes. The theory can also explain the age-crime curve. It might also account for some empiri cal anomalies such as why physically smaller boys are more delinquent, and why violent criminals desist more slowly.