Realist Approaches to Crime

Left Realism
1. A Marxist derived approach to criminology that argues that crime hurts the most vunerable in society rather than the rich and powerful, so resources need to be spent on helping and protecting these poorer victims of crime
2. Lea and Young's explanation of why working class and african carribean young people commit crime revolves around 3 key concepts ...
  1. Relative Deprivation
    1. Refers to how deprived someone feels in relation to others, it can lead people to crime when people feel resentment that others are better off than them
    2. Lea and Young note that although people today are more prosperous compared with the past, they are more aware of their relative deprevation due to media and advertising which raises everyones expectation of standards of living
    3. Working class youth feel relatively deprived compared to middle class youth, while african carribeans youths compare themselves to white britons with regard to life chances and opportunities such as standard of living, consumer goods and income
    4. Relative deprevation is made worse when it is combined with individualism (pursuit of self interest) are likely to lead to criminal response as individualism undermines family and community values of mutual support, co-operation and selflessness
      1. Links to Durkhiem's idea of anomie
      2. Informal social control is usually excersised by family and community are weakened as a result of anti social behaviour, violence and crime increases
  2. Marginalization
    1. Left realists argue that young people often feel marginalized (they have little or no power to change their situation)
    2. So negative treatment by the police and authorities may result in further hostile feelings and resentment towards mainstream society which may lead to additional violence and anti social behaviour
  3. Subculture
    1. Working class and black people who experience relative deprevation and marginalization may form deviant subcultures
    2. These subcultures react to their perception that society does not value them, by becoming involved in street crimes such as drug pushing, gang violence, mugging, anti social behaviour ...
3. Solutions to Crime
  1. Lea and Young argue that crime can only be reduced with the assistance of local communities
    1. The police rely on the public for information, so they need to regain the confidence and support of local communities so people feel comfortable providing information about crime
      1. Marxists argue that left realists are naive to assume that police can be made accountable since they are a key part of the repressive state apparatus protecting capitalist society
  2. Deal with the deeper structural causes of crime, main cause of crime is deep inequality nature of capitalist society and it's inequalities in income, wealth and opportunity which has produced a culture of envy, frustration and hostility
    1. Lea and Young argue that crime can only be reduced or eliminated by improving people opportunities to achieve a decent standard of living
      1. Need to reduce income and wealth inequalities by creating jobs for all and improving housing and enviroment of council housing
  3. Social and Community Crime Prevention
    1. Left realists argue that situational crime prevention and enviromental crime prevention are doomed to failure as they are treating the symptoms of crime not causes of crime
      1. They argue that politicians need to address economic and social conditions; poverty, unemployment, poor housing, poor education, low pay and racial discrimination
    2. Left realists argue economic and social reform programmes need to be put in place by government if crime is to be reduced, these policies should include ...
      1. Educational programmes aimed at improving educational success and reducing number of 16 years olds leaving school with no qualifications
      2. Minimum pay legislation to ensure people are paid a fair wage
      3. Reduction is income/wealth inequalities e.g. through tax
      4. Economic investment in poorer communities to create jobs and feel more appreciated by society
  4. Should be a co-ordinated attempt to improve peoples economic and social opportunities
  5. If people feel UK is more meritocratic people will be less likely to feel relative deprevation and powerlessness
    1. People will feel they can work hard and achieve a decent standard of living
    2. Less inclined to commit crime
4. Criticisms of Left Realism
  1. Little evidence to support view that young working class or black criminals interpret reality way Lea and Young do
  2. Lea and Young do not explain why the majority of working class and african carribeans do not turn to crime
  3. Theory only focusses on subcultural criminal responses and does not explain crimes such as burglary which are individual crimes rather than in gangs
  4. It Focusses on street crime (only a fraction of crime) and ignores white collar crime worth $400 bilion
  5. Fails to explain crimes not economically motivated e.g. rape or child abuse
  6. Right realists argue that left realists make excuses for criminals and tighter controls and more effective socialization of children and severe punishment are main means by which society should reduce crime
  7. Tends to over predict amount of working class and black crime, not everyone who experiences relative deprevation and marginalization create deviant subcultures and commit crime (deterministic)
Right Realism
1. Approach of crime derived from right wing theories of Wilson emphasizing 'zero tolerance'
  1. Right realists say that people are naturally inclined towards crime if it can further their interests or if there is little chance of being caught
2. There are 3 main aspects of right realist theories of crime (underclass theory, rational choice theory, social bonds)
  1. Underclass Theory
    1. Murray suggests that in UK their is a distinctive lower class subculture below working class, an underclass
      1. This subculture subscribes to deviant and criminal values than mainstream values and his culture is pass to younger generation via socialization
    2. It has been argued that welfare state is responsible for the emergence of underclass as welfare dependency had undermined people's sense of commitment and obligation to support each other
    3. People from this underclass have no desire for formal employment and prefer living off illegal economy and the state
    4. Large percentage of underclass children are brought up by single mothers who are often inadequate parents
      1. Absent fathers means boys lack paternal discipline and male role models so may turn to deliquent role models to gain respect and status through crime (link to Cohen's status frustration)
        These young males are generally hostile towards police and authorities
    5. As a result of these factors, right realists see this alleged underclass as main cause of crime in recent years in inner city areas and council estates
  2. Rational Choice Theory
    1. Right realists have argued that the decision to commit crime is a choice based on rational calculation of the likely consequences
      1. If the rewards of the crime outweigh the costs or if the rewards of the crime appear to be greater than those of non criminal behaviour then people will be more likely to offend
    2. Right realists argue that currently the perceived costs of crime are low so the crime rate has increased
      1. Criminals see little chance of being caught and they view the punishment if they are caught as weakened and ineffective
  3. Social Bonds
    1. Hirschi argues that people are rational in terms of their actions and choices, they weigh up the costs and benefits of their behaviour
      1. Hirschi also argues that most people do not commit crimes as they have 4 social bonds in their lives, so costs of crime (caught and punished) outweigh the economic and personal benefits
        Attachment - committed to family relationships which may be threatened by involvement in criminality
        Commitment - people may have invested years into building a career, business or home, all of which would be lost if involved in crime
        Involvement - is there enough time or space for law breaking, also respect or reputation may be lost e.g. by collegues or bosses
        Belief - people may have been brought up in strong belief of obeying rules, discipline and respecting law
    2. Hirschi suggests that these controls prevent people from turning to crime, young people also usually have less to loose in terms of attachment, repect and reputation may be enhanced by criminality
3. Solutions to Crime
  1. Situational Crime Prevention (Clarke and Felson)
    1. Examples of SCP; cctv, security guards, metal detectors, neighbourhood watch schemes, re designing housing
    2. Clarke and Felson argue that if society is to limit crime, it is more effective to make the 'costs' of committing crimes higher
    3. Approach to crime which ignores the motivation for offending and instead concentrates in making it more difficult to commit crime
    4. A pre-emptive approach that relies on reducing opportunities for cime
      1. Aim is to increase the chance of criminal being caught and or deterring criminality by reducing opportunity for crime
    5. Criticisms of SCP
      1. Left realists note that SCP ignores the root causes of crime such as poverty and inequality
      2. It may lower types of minor crime but is irrelevant for crimes of the powerful e.g. white collar crime which is more costly to society
      3. Marxists note that CSP creates a new type of social inequality; the poor will be the main victims of crime because the middle class can afford to invest in making themselves harder targets and take crime out of their lives
      4. Often just displaces crime to another area
      5. Fails to explain why people would commit crime in the first place
  2. Enviromental Crime Prevention
    1. This approach influenced by right realist Wilson, who argues that crime is caused by anti social behaviour such as graffiti, drugs, littering, swearing in public
      1. This creates a sense of 'everything goes' in society
    2. Wilson uses the example of broken windows - if signs of disorder such a few broken windows are left unrepaired or graffiti is not removed, it encourages more of the same
      1. If these problems are not dealt with it sends out a clear message to criminal and deviants that no one cares
    3. One right realist enviormental solution is that police should aggressively tackle all types of crime and disorder and not just react to serious crimes
      1. This 'zero tolerance' approach was adopted in New York to tackle graffiti, drug dealing, fare dodging. over several years all types of crimes declined dramatically
4. Criticisms of Right Realism
  1. Hard to apply rational choice theory to violent crimes that result from an irrational outburst
  2. Ignores structural approaches to crime e.g. poverty (left realist)
  3. Concerned primarily with street crimes, ignoring white collar crime ($400 billion)
  4. Ignores the underlying causes of crime

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Realist Approaches to Crime

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	Created by Victor Mendon over 10 years ago