Left wing explanations and solutions Flashcards
(13 cards)
What are the key left realist theories?
- focus on social inequalities
- subcultures create a collective identity
- provide a critique on the criminal justice system
What are Lea and Young (1993) 3 key theories on crime?
Marginalisation:
- Groups face social exclusion and limited access to resources and opportunities creating feelings of isolation, alienation, frustration pushing individuals towards criminal subcultures
Relative deprivation:
- It emerges through comparing one’s social and economic status to others making them feel deprived creating resentment causing them to engage in deviant activities to achieve desired goals
Subcultures:
- They reflect the experiences and values of marginalised groups providing support, solidarity and a sense of belonging that express values that clash with the dominant societal norms
Connections from Lea and Young’s theory
- Marginalisation leads to relative deprivation, which can motivate individuals to join subcultures or engage in crime
- Subcultures are formed due to marginalisation that may have different norms and values from the dominant ones that may increase the risk of deviance
- Adressing marginalissation and relative deprivation can help to prevent the formation of subcultures associated with crime
What is Braithwaite’s (1989) theory on shaming?
There are two types of shaming available in the criminal justice system. Disintegrative shaming is defined as negatively labeling someone in an exclusive way creating obstacles by confinement to socially acceptable norms. Re-integrative shaming avoids stigmatising through making the criminal aware of their negative impact on the victim and their community
What do Matthews and Young (1992) believe?
They stress the importance of context when trying to understand a criminal act and how it is socially constructed. Their ‘square of crime’ approach considers four aspects: not only the standpoint of the offender and the victim, but also the societal view (public opinion, media coverage and so on) and the state view (the policing and control agenda). An example of this approach could be an analysis of the different levels of media coverage and public outrage expressed in relation to different gang-related knife crimes, which have depended in part on the news and political agenda at the time, the community in which the crimes occurred, and the social and ethnic background of both the offender and the victim.
What does Young (1999, 2003) argue?
They focused on the ever-growing individualism of capitalist societies. He borrows ideas from Merton relating to the desire for material and financial success which can leave many in deprived situations feeling frustrated. As a society we have become less community-orientated because the mass media have encouraged a ‘me-culture’ obsessed with achieving monetary and materialistic goals. Consequently people now look out for themselves and their immediate family rather than the communities in which they live. This increasing individualism means that community and neighbourhood controls over crime and deviance have weakened. When this is coupled with the ‘intensity of exclusion’ felt by the underclass, which includes feelings of relative deprivation, resentment and humiliation, Young finds it easy to understand how some people may be driven to crime through using evidence from victim surveys.
Strengths of left realist theories
- Sheds light on systematic factors that contribute to crime such as social inequalities
- Challenges victim blaming as it acknowledges the impact of social forces on individuals and their choices
- Recognises various motivations for crime
- Solutions tackle the root cause of crime
Weaknesses of left realist theories
- Neglect of individual agency
- Quantifying and isolating the influence of specific social factors on crime can make an evaluation of solutions difficult
- Romanticisation of subcultures
- Clear and directly actionable solutions aren’t always addressed
Addressing social inequalities as a solution
- Investing in programs that create fairer access to education, employment and housing to reduce relative deprivation
- Challenging systematic inequalities based on race, ethnicity, gender and other factors creating a more equitable society reducing motivations for crime
Community - based interventions as a solution
- Youth centers, job training and mental health services foster positive social change and empowers individuals to make positive choices
- Encouraging collective relationships between police and communities to create trust
Transformative justice as a solution
- Focus on rehabilitation and restorative justice
- Victim - offender mediation: facilitate dialogues between victims and offenders to promote accountability and potential reconciliation
Weaknesses of left realist solutions
- Implementing large scale social reforms can be expensive and requires complex political efforts
- Neglect individual choices and personal accountability
- The long - term impact of certain interventions can be challenging to measure the requires ongoing evaluation and adjustments
What does Gilroy (1982) argue about left realist community policing?
It is simplistic and it under - estimates the deliberate racists strategies which he argues underpins the policing of some communities
