Right Realism

Right Realism

1. Crime destroys communities, undermines social cohesion and threatens society's work ethic

   • US & UK had tough stances towards offenders – and held view that the best way to reduce crime was through tough control and punishment, rather than rehabilitating offenders or tackling the causes of crime such as poverty
   • labelling theory and critical criminology are too sympathetic of the criminal and too hostile on law and order
     • Right realism focuses less on the causes of crime but more on how to provide practical solutions

2. Causes of Crime

   • go against marxist theory - old are poor but have low crime rates
   • Biological differences
     • James Q. Wilson & Richard J. Herrnstein - biosocial theory
       • some people are innately more strongly predisposed to commit crime
         • e.g. personality traits such as aggression extroversion risk taking and low impulse control - greater risk to offend
       • Herrnstein & Murray - main cause of crime is low intelligence which they see as biologically determined
         • Lilly et al - IQ differences only account for 3% of differences in offending
   • Socialisation and the underclass
     • effective socialisation can decrease the risk of offending as it involves learning self control and moral values
     • see nuclear family as the best agency of socialisation
       • lone mothers are ineffective socialisation agents especially for boys - absent fathers; boys lack paternal discipline and appropriate male role models
         • young males turn to delinquent male role models and street crime in order to gain status
         • focuses on petty street crime and not on corporate crime
     • Murray - crime rate increasing because of a growing underclass who are defied by their deviant behaviour and fail to socialise their children properly
       • due to welfare dependency
         • generous revolution - allowing increasing numbers of people to become dependent on the state; led to the decline of marriage and the growth of lone parent families and women and children can live off benefits
           • men no longer take responsibility for supporting their families = no longer need to work
   • Rational choice theory
     • individuals have free will and the power of reason 
     • Ron Clarke
       • decision to offend is a choice based on a rational calculation of the likely consequences; if the rewards of crime are greater than those of non-criminal behaviour - more likely to offend
         • costs of crime seem low - explains the increase in crime rate
     • Marcus Felson - routine activity theory
       • must be a motivated offender, suitable target and the absence of a capable guardian for crime to occur
         • informal guardians e.g. provided by the community more effective than formal ones (police) at deterring from crime
           • e.g. after Hurricane Andrew in Florida - patrols by local citizens to protect property during absence of police prevented looting and crime rates decreased during this time (Cromwell et al)
     • overestimates rationality and calculations before committing a crime - can explain utilitarian crime and not violent crime
     • conflicts with the idea that their behaviour is biologically and socially determined
   • ignores wider structural causes e.g. poverty

3. Tackling Crime

   • don't deal with the causes of crime since they cannot easily be changed; try to make crime less attractive (control contain and punish)
   • Wilson & Kelling - essential to maintain the orderly character of neighbourhoods; deterioration must be dealt with immediately
     • over emphasises control of disorder rather than tackling underlying causes of neighbourhood decline e.g. lack of investment
   • zero tolerance policy towards undesirable behaviour (prostitution begging and drunkenness)
     • gives free rein to discriminate against ethnic minority youth, homeless etc
     • results in displacement of crime to other areas
       • Jones - right realist policies in the USA failed to prevent the crime rate increasing
   • should reduce the rewards and increase the costs of crime (target hardening and longer prison sentences)