57-7-260
The study of the evolutionary roots of crime began with the work of Martin Daly and Margo Wilson, a married couple who work at McMaster University in Canada. They looked at what is usually regarded as the most serious crime of all, murder.
That murderers are usually young men is well known, but Dr Daly and Dr Wilson dug a bit deeper. They discovered that although the murder rate varies from place to place, the pattern does not. Plot the rate against the age of the perpetrator and the peak is the same (see chart). Moreover, the pattern of the victims is similar. They, too, are mostly young men. In the original study, 86% of the victims of male killers aged between 15 and 19 were also male. This is the clue as to what is going on. Most violence (and thus most murder, which is simply violence's most extreme expression) is a consequence of competition between young, unemployed, unmarried men. In the view of Darwinists, these men are either competing for women directly ('You looking at my girl, Jimmy?') or competing for status ('You dissing me, man?').
This is not to deny that crimes of violence are often crimes of poverty (for which read low status). But that is precisely what Darwinism would predict. There is no need to invoke the idea that people are 'born criminal'. All that is required is the evolution of enough behavioural flexibility to respond appropriately when violence is (or would have been, in the evolutionary past) an appropriate response.
A. 어휘
plot 구획하다, 분할하다. plot the rate 분포비율을 도표로 그려 보라.
perpetrator 가해자, 범죄자. victim 희생자. clue 실마리, 端緖(단서). as to ...에 관한.
dissing=discharging. cf. discharge 解雇(해고)하다.
invoke 간청하다, (신의 이름을) 부르다. “born criminal' 타고난 범죄자.
flexibility 유연성. appropriately 적절하게.
B. 구문
- (for which read low status).
[이점에 대해서는 low status(낮은 서열) 부분을 읽어보시라]
57-8-261
Crime…
An evolutionary analysis explains many things about crime (and not just murder)particularly why most criminals are males of low status. A woman will rarely have difficulty finding a mate, even if he does not measure up to all her lofty ideals. In the world of Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty, however, a low-status man may be cast on the reproductive scrap heap because there are no women available to him at all. Though the world in which humanity evolved was nowhere near as polygamous as Moulay Ismail's, neither did it resemble the modern one of monogamous marriage, which distributes women widely. In those circumstances, if the alternative was reproductive failure, risking the consequences of violence may have been are worth the gambleand instincts will have evolved accordingly.
For similar reasons, it is no surprise to Darwinists that those who rape strangers are also men of low status. Oddly, considering it is an act that might result in a child, the idea that rape is an evolved behaviour is even more controversial than the Darwinian explanation of murder. Randy Thornhill of the University of New Mexico, who proposed it on the basis of criminal data and by comparing people with other species, was excoriated by feminists who felt he was somehow excusing the crime. On the other hand, it has become a mantra among some feminists that all men are rapists, which sounds a lot like the opposite point of view: biological determinism. Insert the word 'potential', however, and this claim is probably true. To a Darwinist, the most common form of forced mating, so-called date rape, which occurs in an already charged sexual environment, looks a lot like an adaptive response. Men who engage in it are likely to have more offspring than those who do not. If a genetic disposition for men to force their attentions on women in this way does exist, it would inevitably spread.
A. 어휘
males of low status 낮은 지위(서열)의 남자들.
measure up to ...에 달하다, 부합되다. lofty 매우 높은, 고상한.
reproductive 생식의. scrap 쓰레기, 자투리, 폐물. polygamous 一夫多妻(일부다처)의.
monogamous 一夫一妻(일부일처)의. alternative 양자택일, 代案(대안).
instinct 본능. rape 강간. oddly 묘하게도, 이상하게도. excoriate 몹시 비난하다.
mantra 呪文(주문), 기도. biological determinism 생물학적 결정론.
insert 揷入(삽입)하다. potential 잠재적인, 가능성의. forced mating 강제로 짝짓기.
charged 감정이 高潮(고조)된, 강렬한, 자극적인. adaptive 적응하는, 순응적인.
offspring (집합적) 자식, 자손. disposition 기질, 性向(성향). inevitably 불가피하게.
B. 구문
- a low-status man may be . . . reproductive scrap heap.
[사회적 지위가 낮은 남자가 생식의 쓰레기 더미 위에 던져진다면(남자가 자식을 가질 기회가 없다면)]
- distributes women widely
[결혼할 여자를 널리 고르게 배분하다(남자가 결혼할 기회가 많다)]
- if the alternative was reproductive . . . have evolved accordingly.
[만약 그 대안이 생식의 실패가 된다면(자식을 남기지 못하게 되었다면) 폭력의 결과를 무릅쓰는 것은 도박을 해 볼만한 가치가 있었을 것이다. 그리고 본능은 이에 상응하여 진화되었을 것이다.]
Darwinism: Why we are, as we are ④
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- 2009-09-29, 09:58











