Left realist perspectivse Flashcards
Left realist criticisms of marxist theories on crime/deviance
- romanticises WC criminals as ‘Robin Hood’ figures fighting inequality
- failing to take victimisation seriously
- having no practical policies suggested to reduce crime
Left realists found that WC were the most at risk to become victims from crime through
victim surveys like the Islington crime surveys
Left realists accept that most people don’t care about white collar and corporate crime because
they don’t consider it to impact their lives
Lea and Young’s concept of relative deprivation (1 of 3 of their key explanations for crime)
when people see themselves as being deprived in relation to others, generating discontent and resentment
Lea and Young’s theory of marginalisation (1 of their 3 explanations for crime)
some groups find themselves on the edge of mainstream society and feel excluded (lack of education, employment and sense of community) which can lead to anti-social behaviour, violence and rioting to express their frustration
Lea and Young’s third explanation for crime: subculture
working class deviant subcultures emerge as a group solution to relative deprivation and marginality, which can motivate crime by seeing deviance as acceptable
… argues that society is media saturated and the media raises people’s expectations of life
Young (late modernity/left realism)
Young’s concept of a ‘bulimic society’
late modernity/left realism
people gorge themselves on media images of expensive consumer lifestyles and then are forced by economic circumstances to vomit their raised expectations
… found the desire to consume by looting was a significant factor for many young people partaking in the 2011 London riots
Lewis et al
Young argues that relative deprivation is worsened by 3 features of late modernity
- growing individualism (less community spirit)
- the weakening of informal controls (like family)
- growing economic inequality and economic change (globalisation, growth of the wealth divide)
Lea and Young’s square of crime
it is necessary to examine these 4 elements to understand crime levels
- social structural factors and formal controls - influence context of the crime, whether its viewed as criminal, styles of policing etc
- public and informal social control - how people react, levels of public trust in police (reporting)
- the role of victims - why people are victims, what they do about it
- the offender - why did they do it, how driven were they by external forces
solutions to reduce crime
- better jobs, housing and wages to reduce relative deprivation
- having a more accountable criminal justice system
- reducing marginalisation through increased access to opportunity
- making crime control a shared responsibility between social institutions (eg school, social services etc)
… suggests that the police need to improve their relationship with the community to increase the flow of information (people don’t report crime when they don’t trust the police) - can do so by focusing on crime they know has happened rather than trying to discover crimes
Kinsey et al
… suggest that improved leisure facilities for the young, reducing income inequality, raising living standards for poorer families, reducing unemployment, improving housing and providing community facilities will help reduce crime
Young and Matthews
limitations of left realism
- neglects other responses to relative deprivation and marginality apart from crime
- neglects the role of gender (malestream criminology according to feminists)
- doesn’t pay much attention to white collar crime
- doesn’t explain why most WC youth don’t commit crime
