Right Realism

Right Realism

1. They believe

   • crime can only be reduced with harsher sentences
   • crime rises because the costs are not high enough
   • people are naturally selfish
   • selfishness must be controlled by laws
   • people weigh up the costs and benefits
   • people are responsible for their actions

2. what do they say about crime?

   • Routine activity
     • Felson
     • 1. motivated offender
     • 2. suitable Target
     • 3. Absense of capable guardian
     • Hurricane Andrew- locals protected property
   • Rational Choice
     • clarke
     • people have the power of free will and reason
     • people make a rational calculation of the consequences
     • people are more likely to offend if the rewards outweigh the costs
   • murray
     • welfare state
       • dependency
     • weakened work ethic
     • underclass grown up in fatherless families
     • boys have no male role models
     • lack of personal responsibility

3. crime prevention and control

   • situational crime prevention
     • Clarke
     • Reducing the opportunities for cime
     • three features of of measures aimed at situational crime prevention:
       • 1. directed at specific crimes
       • 2. involve managing or changing the immediate environment of the crime
       • 3. aim at increasing the effort and risk of committing crime and reducing the rewards
     • e.g. Target Hardening
       • e.g. locking doors/windows
       • CCTV
     • it is a rational choice theory of crime
     • Felson uses the Port Authority Bus Terminal in new york city as an example. the bus terminal was poorly designed and provided opportunities for cime. e.g. toilets were a setting for luggage theft and drug dealing. however, they re-shaped to 'design out' crime' e.g. large sinks which were used for bathing were replaced by small hand sinks
     • Displacement
       • SCP displaces crime
         • they will move to where targets are softer
       • chaiken
         • the crackdown on subway roberries dosplaced them onto the streets above
       • it can take several forms
         • spatial: moving elsewhere to committ crime
         • temporal: committing at a different time
         • Target: choosing a different victim
         • tactical: using a different method
         • functional: committing a different type of crme
     • H point- oppotunistic
     • H point- assumes rational calculation- ignores drugs and alcohol
     • ignores root causes e.g. poverty
   • Environmental crime prevention
     • based on Wilson and kellings theory of broken windows
       • signs of disorder shows no one cares
       • social or formal control
         • the situation deteriorates
           • the place becomes a magnet for deviants
     • zero tolerance
       • first solution: crack down on disorder
         • fix any broken windows
       • secondly: the police must tackle the slightest sign od disorder, even if it is not criminal
       • 50% drop in the homicide rate
       • H points
         • NYPD has 7,000 extra officers
         • there was a general decline across the US
         • from 1994 many new jobs were being created
         • decline in the availability of cocaine
         • attempted homicides remained high

4. social and community crime prevention

   • an alternative to RR
     • focuses on the potential offenders and their social context
       • aim strategies at removing the conditions that predispose individual to crime
   • perry pre-school project
     • an experimental group of 3-5 year old black children was greated where they offered a two-year intellectual enrichment programme
     • by the age of 40 they had significantly fewer lifetime arrests

5. criticisms

   • ignores wider structural causes such as poverty
   • it overstates offenders' rationality and how far they mak cost-benefit calculations before committing a crime while it may explain some utilitarian crime, it may not explain compulsive crime
   • it views criminals as rational actors freely choosing crime conflicts with its claim that their behaviour is determined by their biology and socialisation.
   • it also over-emphasises biological factors: according to lilly et al, IQ differences account for less than 3% of differences in offending