Realist Theories

Question 1

How do realists see crime?

Answer 1

As a crime to be tackled, and not just a social construction created by the control agencies.

Question 2

What are they key principles of all realists?

Answer 2

=> Argue that there has been a significant rise in crime rates; especially street crime, burglary and assault.

=> Concerned about the widespread fear of crime, and about the impact of crime on its victims.

=> Argue that other theories have failed to offer realistic solutions to the problem of crime, and they propose what they regard as ‘practical policies’ to reduce it.

Question 3

How do right and left realists differ?

Answer 3

Right realists - share the new right or neo-conservative political outlook and support the realist policies.

Left realists - socialists who favour quite different policies for reducing crime.

Question 4

What are the three focuses of right realism?

Answer 4

=> Biological differences.
=> Socialization and the underclass.
=> Rational choice theory.

Question 5

How do right realists see crime?

Answer 5

They see crime, especially street crime, as a real and growing problem that destroys communities, undermines social cohesion and threatens society’s work ethic.

Question 6

How do right realists criticize other theories?

Answer 6

=> Other theories fail to offer any practical solutions to the problems of rising crime.
=> They criticize a rising crime rate but no workable solutions to reduce the rising level of criminality.

Question 7

What are right realist concerns regarding crime?

Answer 7

Less concerned with understanding causes of crime and are instead more concerned with providing realistic solutions.

Question 8

What do right realists argue about causes of crime?

Answer 8

=> Reject Marxist ideas of crime, such as structural or economic factors (e.g., poverty and inequality) as the main causes of crime.

=> Argue that crime is the product of 3 factors:;individual biological differences, inadequate socialization and the under class, and rational choice to offend.

Question 9

What do Wilson and Herrnstein argue about crime?

Answer 9

=> Crime is caused by a combination of biological and social factors.

=> Biological differences between individuals make some people innately more strongly predisposed to commit crime than others e.g., personality traits such as aggressiveness, extroversion, risk taking and low impulse control put some people at greater risk of offending.

Question 10

How does effective socialization reduce the risk of individual offending, despite biology potentially increasing chances?

Answer 10

It involves learning self-control and internalizing moral values of right and wrong.

Question 11

What is the best agency of socialization for the nuclear family?

Answer 11

The nuclear family.

Question 12

What does Murray (1990) argue?

Answer 12

=> Crime rate is increasing because of a growing underclass (or ‘new rabble’) who are defined by their deviant behaviour, and who fail to socialize their children properly.

=> The underclass is growing in both the USA and the UK as a result of welfare dependency, and has done so since the 1960’s.

=> The underclass isn’t just a source of crime; its very existence threatens society’s cohesion by undermining the values of hard work and personal responsibility.

Question 13

What are the key points of Murray?

Answer 13

=> Growth of lone parent families and decline in marriage due to an over generous welfare state allowing women and their children to live off benefits.

=> Led to men no longer having to take responsibility for supporting their families meaning that they no longer need to work.

=> Lone mothers are less effective socialization agents, especially for boys. Boys with absent fathers lack paternal discipline and appropriate male models. These boys often turn to delinquent role models on the street as a result, choosing to gain status through crime instead.

Question 14

What is rational choice theory?

Answer 14

=> Assumes that individuals have free will and power of reason.

=> Rational choice theorists such as Clarke argue that the decision to commit crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the likely consequences.

=> If perceived rewards of crime outweigh the perceived costs of crime, or if the rewards of crime appear to be greater than those of non-criminal behaviour, then people will be more likely to offend.

Question 15

Why do right realists argue that crime has increased?

Answer 15

=> Perceived cost of crime is currently low.

=> There is little risk of getting caught and punishments are lenient.

Question 16

What is Felson’s routine action theory?

Answer 16

=> For a crime to occur there must; be a motivated offender, a suitable target (victim/property), and the absence of a capable guardian (e.g. police officer or neighbour).

=> Offenders are seen to act rationally, so the presence of a guardian is likely to deter them.

Question 17

What are the criticisms of right realist explanations of causes of crime?

Answer 17

=> Ignores wider structural causes such as poverty.

=> Overstates offenders’ rationality and how far they make cost-benefit calculations before committing a crime. While it explains some utilitarian crime, it doesn’t explain violent crime.

=> Its view that criminals are rational actors freely choosing crime conflicts, with its view that behaviour is determined by their biology and socialization. It also over emphasizes biological factors.

Question 18

Why do right realists not believe that it is useful to deal with causes of crime?

Answer 18

They cannot be easily changed.

Question 19

What view do right realists take towards tackling crime?

Answer 19

=> Practical measures need to be used to make crime less desirable.

=> Their main focus is on control, containment and punishment of offender’s, rather than eliminating the underlying causes of their offending or rehabilitating them.

=> Crime prevention policies should reduce the rewards and increase the costs of crime to the offender.

Question 20

What two strategies do right realists provide for tackling crime?

Answer 20

=> Target Hardening - refers to making committing a crime more difficult and reducing the opportunities for criminals to achieve their goal (E.g., greater use of prison and ensuring punishments follow soon after the offence to maximize deterrent).

=> Zero Tolerance - involves cracking down on all forms of neighbourhood decline in order to prevent future crime. (Wilson and Kelling - Broken Window Theory).

Question 21

Evaluate zero tolerance policing.

Answer 21

=> First introduced in New York in 1994 and was widely applauded for reducing crime.

=> Young argues that its success was a myth peddled by politicians and police keen to take credit for falling crime.

=> Crime rate in NY had already been falling since 1985, 9 years before the zero tolerance policy being implemented - and was also failing in other US cities that did not have zero tolerance policies.

Question 22

What does Young argue about zero tolerance policing?

Answer 22

=> Police need arrests to justify their existence and New York’s shortage of serious crime led police to ‘net widen’.
=> The success of zero tolerance was just a product of the police’s way of coping with a decline that had already occurred.

Question 23

What are some other criticisms of zero tolerance?

Answer 23

=> Preoccupied with petty street crime and ignores corporate crime may be costly and harmful to the public.

=> Advocating a zero tolerance policy gives police free reign to discriminate against ethnic minority youth and the homeless.

=> Over emphasizes control of disorder, rather than tackling underlying causes of neighbourhood decline such as lack of investment.

=> Zero tolerance and targeting hardening just displace crime rather than preventing it.

Question 24

What are the three focuses of left realism?

Answer 24

=> Relative deprivation.
=> Subculture.
=> Marginalisation.

Question 25

How are left realists views similar to Marxist views of crime? How are they different?

Answer 25

=> Both see society as unequal capitalist one.

=> Left realists believe in gradual social change, rather than violent overthrowing of capitalism as the way to achieve greater equality.

=> They believe in developing explanations of crime that will lead to practical strategies for reducing it in the here and now, rather than waiting for a revolution and a classless socialist utopia to abolish crime.

Question 26

How do left realists criticize other perspectives?

Answer 26

=> Criticize the Marxist focus on powerful groups (e.g. corporate crime); argue that it neglects working class crime and its effects.

=> Criticize Neo-Marxists for romanticizing w/c criminals as latter-day Robin Hoods, stealing from the rich as an act of political resistance to capitalism. Left realists explain w/c criminals mostly victimize other w/c, not the rich.

=> Criticize labelling theorists for seeing w/c criminals as the victims of discriminatory labelling by social control agents. Left realists argue that this approach neglects the real victims - w/c who suffer at the hands of criminals.