Left Realism vs Right Realism

Left Realism
1. Critiques
  1. key strength is recognition of multiple causes of crime
  2. it focuses on victims as well as ofenders
  3. relative deprivation or marginalisation cannot explain the motive behind offenders actons
  4. not all people in relative deprivation turn to crime
2. Jack Young
  1. social change and crime
    1. argues that late modernity is making crime worse
    2. less consensus about moral values
    3. people's desire for immediate and personal pleasure
    4. A breakdown of informal social controls
3. Ethnicity and crime
  1. Leas and young tackle black criminality
  2. They accept there is institutional racism
  3. Black criminality stems from racial discrimination, material deprivation , low wages and unemployment
  4. They see black youth as having high aspirations but not being able to achieve these (Merton's strain theory)
4. Origins of crime
  1. Relative Deprivation
    1. The reality for young black males is a choice of unemployment or 'white mans shit work' (Stuart Hall)
  2. Marginalisation
    1. White and black working class youth often fee alienated by schools, police etc.
    2. young black males face marginalisation through prejudice military policing
  3. Subculture
    1. Because of lack of opportunities they engage in crime (links to Merton's strain theory)
    2. Black youth subculture has high material expectations and aspirations however they are unable to achieve these
    3. Subculture of young blacks is different from their parents who accepted their marginalised position in society
5. The policing problem
  1. Kinsey, Lea and Young
  2. The police often resort to military policing
  3. Stop and search policies
  4. They argue that to improve this relationship the public should have more say in shopping police policy
6. Square of crime
  1. Looks beyond the offended and shows concern for victim patterns and formal and informal factors
  2. Crime can only be understood on terms of the interrelationship between the 4 elements
  3. 1. offender
  4. 2. State
  5. 3. Victim
  6. 4. Informal controls
7. Crime is a Phenomenon
  1. Argues that the rising crime rate cannot solely be explained by the unreliability rime statistics
  2. Argue that crime statistics do reflect typical criminals
  3. They focus on victims as well as offenders
Right Realism
1. James Q. Wilson
  1. Broken window Thesis
    1. incivilities need to be kept to a minimum otherwise wider anti-social behaviour will follow
    2. Reflects Durkheims idea that informal controls are crucial for law and order
  2. 3 key factors affecting long term crimes
    1. 1. Number of young males
    2. 2. costs/benefits of crime
    3. 3. inadequate socialisation
    4. solution
      1. target hardening through pro-active policing
  3. Zero Tolerrance
2. Ernst Van den Haag
  1. he argues it is reasonable for law and order agencies to target the poor
  2. Adopts a poor view of humanity
  3. Advocates a tough penal system
  4. like Durkheim he sees punishment as functional
3. Charles Murray
  1. A new right theorists
    1. Argues that the underclass are in sufficiently integrated into society's norms and vlaues
  2. paternalism
    1. deviant subcultural values of the underclass
  3. underclass are prone to criminal tendfancies
    1. violence
    2. welfare dependency
4. Solutions to crime
  1. increase costs of crime
  2. Reduce opportunities for offending
  3. Responsible parenting
  4. active citizens
  5. tought punishments (corporal&capital)
5. Critiques
  1. influential on government policy
  2. it is easy to pick on scapegoats
  3. zero tolerance shifts to other areas
  4. Marxist argue that concentration on minor crimes means serious crimes get ignored
6. Rational choice theory
  1. Developed by Clarke and Coleman
  2. the solution to crime
  3. Argues that criminals will engage in crime if the benefits outweigh the costs
  4. solution=increase cost of crime
7. Causes of crime
  1. inadequate and inappropriate socialisation
    1. non-traditional family
      1. single mothers
    2. Lack of discipline in schools
    3. mass media glamorises deviance&crime
    4. decline in influence of religious values
  2. Selfish human nature
    1. Permissive attitudes allow self indulgent and anti-social behaviour
    2. Feckless parenting
      1. Absent fathers
      2. lack of discipline
      3. Liberal policies of the statee
  3. welfare state
8. Anti-sociological criminology
  1. oppose any connection between crime and poverty
  2. A critique of sociological theory which has failed to solve the problem of crime
  3. negative view of human nature

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Left Realism vs Right Realism

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	Created by courtneyfry over 8 years ago