Modern theories of crime and delinquency tend to be individualistic in their level of analysis and tend to focus on consensus crimes. The phenomenon of ethnic genocide is virtually impossible to examine within such parameters. Recent histories of the Holocaust by Browning and Goldhagen suggest that it was carried out by ordinary citizens who supported its objectives, not by dysfunctional psychopaths. Nor was it carried out by individuals intimidated by powerful authority structures. This article reviews the evidence from the new historiographies and proposes a theory of genocide based on xenophobia developed in recent accounts of evolutionary psychology.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alexander, R. D.
1987. The Biology of Moral Systems. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
2.
Browning, Christopher
. 1992. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. New York: HarperCollins
3.
Buss, David
. 1994. The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating. New York: Basic Books.
4.
Chagnon, Napoleon
. 1992. The Yonomamö: The Last Days of Eden. New York: Holt.
5.
Cohen, Lawrence E.
and Bryan Vila. 1996. “Self Control and Social Control: An Exposition of the Gottredeson-Hirschi/Sampson-Laub Debate.”Studies on Crime and Crime Prevention5 (2): 125-150.
6.
Daly, Martin
and Margo Wilson. 1988. Homicide. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
7.
De Waal, Frans
. 1996. Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8.
Dennett, Daniel
. 1995. Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.
9.
Elon, Amos
. 1997. “The Antagonist as Liberator: By Accusing `average' Germans of Eager Participation in the Holocaust, Daniel Goldhagen Put Germany on the Couch—and Became the Darling of Average Germans.”The New York Times Magazine, January 26, pp. 40-44.
10.
Gibbons, Don C.1997. “Review Essay: Race, Ethnicity, Crime, and Social Policy.”Crime & Delinquency43:358-380.
11.
Gilbert, Martin
. 1985. The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War. New York: Holt.
12.
Glueck, Sheldon
and Eleanor Glueck. 1968. Delinquents and Nondelinquents in Perspective. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
13.
Goldhagen, Daniel J.
1997. Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York: Random House. (With Afterword to the Vintage Edition and Foreword to the German Edition)
14.
Gottfredson, Michael
and Travis Hirschi. 1990. A General Theory of Crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
15.
Gould, Stephen Jay
. 1996. “The Diet of Worms and the Defenestration of Prague.”Natural History Magazine, September, pp. 18-24, 64, 66, 67.
16.
Hamilton, W. D.
1975. “Innate Social Aptitudes of Man: An Approach From Evolutionary Genetics.” Pp. 133-156 in Biosocial Anthropology, edited by R. Fox. London: Malaby Press.
17.
Hirschi, Travis
and Michael Gottfredson. 1995. “Control Theory and the Life-Course Perspective.”Studies on Crime and Crime Prevention4:131-143.
18.
Holloway, Ralph H.
1974. Primate Aggression, Territoriality, and Xenophobia. New York: Academic Press.
19.
Kelman, Herbert C.
and V. Lee Hamilton. 1989. Crimes of Obedience: Toward a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Mealey, Linda
. 1995. “The Sociobiology of Sociopathy.”Brain and Behavioral Sciences18:523-541.
22.
Milgram, Stanley
. 1974. Obedience to Authority. New York: Harper and Row.
23.
Reynolds, Vernon
, Vincent Falger, and Ian Vine, eds. 1987. The Sociobiology of Ethnocentrism. London: Croom Helm.
24.
Richards, Robert J.
1987. Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
25.
Ridley, Matt
. 1996. The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Penguin.
26.
Sampson, Robert J.
and John H. Laub. 1993. Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points Through Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
27.
Sampson, Robert J.
and John H. Laub. 1995. “Understanding Variability in Lives Through Time: Contributions of Life-Course Criminology.”Studies in Crime and Crime Prevention4:143-158.
28.
Shirer, William L.
1990. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. 30th Anniversary Edition. New York: Fawcett Crest.
29.
Simon, Herbert
. 1990. “A Mechanism for Social Selection of Successful Altruism.”Science250:1665-1668.
30.
Solarz. A.1995. “Editorial.”Studies on Crime and Crime Prevention4:127-130.
31.
Stein, George J.
1987. “The Biological Bases of Ethnocentrism, Racism and Nationalism in National Socialism.” Pp. 251-267 in The Sociobiology of Ethnocentrism, edited by V. Reynolds, V. Falger, and I. Vine. London: Croom Helm.
32.
Trivers, Robert L.1971. “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism.”Quarterly Review of Biology46:35-57.
33.
Weinstein, Jay
and Nico Stehr. 1997. “The Power of Knowledge: Race Science, Race Policy, and the Holocaust.”Department of Sociology, East Michigan University. Mimeograph.
34.
Williams, G. C.
1966. Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
35.
Wilson, James Q.
1993. The Moral Sense. New York: Free Press.
36.
Wilson, James Q.
, and Richard Herrnstein. 1985. Crime and Human Nature. New York: Simon & Schuster.
37.
Wright, Robert
. 1994. The Moral Animal. New York: Pantheon.
