Constructing a Genetic-Social Framework

Abstract

In what follows, the case is made for an ontologically flexible, metatheoretical framework for the study of crime and criminal behaviour. This would entail focusing above all upon agency-structure, micro-macro, time-space, modified notions of Foucauldian power and the biological variable. The previous chapter discussed agency-structure, micro-macro and time-space (the original concepts which Sibeon’s ‘sensitising’ framework focuses upon), and their explanatory potential. Additionally, we discussed the importance of modified notions of Foucauldian power, emphasising that it is important to recognise ‘the dialectical relationship between agentic and systemic forms of power; the relational, contingent and emergent dimensions of power, and the concept that contra Foucault, aspects of power can be stored’ in positions/roles and in social systems/networks (Owen, 2012a). This chapter includes arguments for the modification of Sibeon’s original framework to include a focus upon the biological variable: the evidence from evolutionary psychology (EP) and behavioural genetics for a, at least in part, biological basis for some human behaviour. The chapter also explores further ideas pertaining to dualism between the social and biology as opposed to duality, and looks at the attempts of those who seek to redefine the relationship between ‘nature’ and ‘the social’.