Left Realism and crime Flashcards
What do they see as the root cause of crime?
inequality
Who are the main victims? q
disadvantaged groups: the working class, ethnic minorities and women
What are the causes of crime?
relative deprivation, subculture and marginalisation
What are the two factor increasing people’s sense of relative deprivation?
media pump out messages urging everyone to aspire to material possessions, promoting what Young calls ‘a culture hooked on Gucci, BMW and Nikes’ , however society is becoming more unequal due to cuts in benefits, unemployment, job insecurity and low pay
What is relative deprivation downwards?
people who are better off feel resentment against those who are actually worse off who they see as scroungers
What is a subculture for Left realists?
a group’s way of solving the problem of relative deprivation
What do criminal subcultures do?
share society’s materialistic goals because legitimate opportunities are blocked, they resort to crime
because of discrimination or the poor quality of education they have received, youths are denied access to well paid jobs
What is marginalisation?
marginalised groups are ones that lack organisations to represent their interests and lack clearly defined goals
What happens to youths in terms of marginalisation?
jobless youths have no clear goals or organisations to represent them, they have a sense of powerlessness, frustration and resentment of injustice
What are the strengths of this theory?
draws attention to the importance of poverty, inequality and relative deprivation as the underlying structural causes of crime, draws attention to the reality of street crime and its effects especially on victims from deprived groups
What are the limitations of this theory?
over-predicts the amount of working class crime: not everyone who experiences relative deprivation and marginalisation turns to crime, focus on high crime inner city areas gives an unrepresentative view and makes crime appear a greater problem than it is
