Fitting the Facts of Crime: An Invitation to Biopsychosocial Criminology

The cognitive blindness inherent in the specialization of scientific fields is particularly common in the social sciences. For advancement in some scientific areas, knowledge from different disciplines needs to be increased and combined. Criminology requires the synthesis of the greatest amount of knowledge due to the fact that it draws on sociology, psychology, anthropology, chemistry, and social architecture. It requires knowledge of everything concerned with urban life and constant updating with respect to social change. Chad Posick, Michael Rocque, and J. C. Barnes, in their book Fitting the Facts of Crime: An Invitation to Biopsychosocial Criminology, present a biopsychosocial perspective to explain common findings in criminology and to guide new research and public policy. The main contribution of the book is to adapt some of the facts of criminology that have been accepted for more or less 30 years to the present day. The authors draw on the results of empirical research and evidence from biopsychosocial criminology to address established facts about sex and gender, age, environment, education, class, social ties and associations, stress and other influences, the etiology behind these facts, and exactly how they relate to criminal behavior. One of the important facts that the book highlights is that defining macrocriminology is as difficult as defining the neurophysiology of the human brain. Biology and the environment interact to affect human behavior. Criminal behavior is precisely the result of this interaction. Posick, Rocque, and Barnes, as biosocial criminologists, examine the genetic and environmental factors that cause behavioral disorders. However, it is difficult to bring these factors together because behind antisocial behavior, and thus crime, there is an overdetermined psychology. The authors show how biopsychosocial criminology can provide a unifying framework for enriching our understanding of some of the most robust and well-established issues in the field. In doing so, they augment existing inquiry and analysis by showing how biological and psychological findings can be seamlessly combined with social theories. Developed to become a standard text for criminology, especially for undergraduate education, the book introduces the basic concepts in the field and illustrates them in everyday life. In this respect, it can be extremely helpful in undergraduate education. The book contains many new insights about criminology. Findings that address early sexual behavior and pregnancy in disadvantaged areas, the brain’s ability to increase impulse control as it matures, or the relationship between hypocortisolism and stress and antisocial behavior are discussed in depth. The brain is the primary organ responsible for purposeful behavior. Genetic predispositions that influence the function of brain structure interact with environmental factors to generate behavior. Despite all the new methodologies and advances in technology, it has not been possible to uncover, for example, how stress alters the body and its functions. This is why more disciplines are collaborating to unearth the factors that cause criminal behavior. The book addresses these factors from every angle. For example, obstacles in measuring intelligence have discouraged sociologists from unraveling the mysteries of crime. If the influence of cultural factors on crime, and thus on intelligence, can be further explored, the relationship between intelligence and behavior might be revealed and therapies for criminal behavior can be enhanced. One of the more important benefits of the biopsychosocial perspective the authors try to develop is to identify what kinds of prevention programs work for different people. The book is organized in eight chapters covering a wide range of issues like biopsychosocial criminology, sex, age, class, peer relations, social learning, control, stress, criminal behavior, and justice. The introduction discusses the capacity of biopsychosocial criminology to explain the phenomenon 472 Reviews