Realist Theories of Crime Flashcards

Question

Evidence to support Broken Window’s theory: The case study of New York City in 1980s

Answer 1

In the 1980s, New York City’s crime rate was soaring. Total crime had more than doubled over the previous two decades; violent crimes tripled. The theory suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes, such as vandalism, loitering, public drinking and fare evasion, help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness. 50% drop in homoscide rate

Answer 2

1. Strength - Zero tolerance policing strategies have been very influential globally, including in the UK where it has influenced antisocial behaviour policies (e.g. ASBOs) 2. It only focuses on certain types of crime- petty street crime rather than more serious corporate/white collar crime. 3. Gives police free-reign to discriminate against minority groups, youths and the homeless etc. 4. Similar to SCP, it may just cause displacement and not deal with the actual causes 5. Left realists criticise the over emphasis on controlling disorder rather than tackling the causes of neighbourhood decline e.g. lack of investment in the area e.g. marginalisation, poverty and alienation

Answer 3

You can get a civil injunction, Community Protection Notice (CPN) or Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) as punishment for antisocial behaviour. Civil injunctions, CPNs and CBOs replaced Antisocial Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. ASBOs are still used in Scotland. Antisocial behaviour includes: drunken or threatening behaviour vandalism and graffiti playing loud music at night

Answer 4

They accuse other sociologists of not taking crime seriously enough, and believe we need explanations of crime that lead to practical strategies for reducing it. They believe crime statistics are accurate, and reflect true patterns of crime in society i.e. the working class and ethnic minorities are committing the most crime

Answer 5

Marxism acknowledges white collar/ corporate crime, which left realists look for. However, Marxists don’t focus enough on working class crime. Neo- Marxists romanticise this (Robin Hood figures) stealing from the rich as political resistance. Ignores that victims are other working class people, not rich capitalists Interactionists acknowledge the impact of discrimination and labelling on the individual. However, they overlook the real victims - working class people.

Answer 6

Marginalisation Relative Deprivation Subculture

Answer 7

Minority/ subordinate groups being pushed to the edges of society by agencies including the media, law and education. Those who lack clearly defined goals are socially excluded and may feel abandoned and frustrated and experience economic and social deprivation.

Answer 8

Feeling deprived compared to others in society. We may assume that as wealth increases in a society, crime decreases. However, the opposite is true. In wealthy countries, the gap between those who ‘have’ and those who ‘have not’ widens and we constantly judge ourselves against people more successful than ourselves. Living in environmental poverty (high unemployment and poor environment) can cause individuals to commit crimes/ deviant acts due to lack of opportunities. resources.

Answer 9

Subcultures tend to be created as a way to get by when experiencing either or both of the above. These work in the same way as explained by subcultural theorists.

Answer 10

found the desire to consume by looting what was otherwise denied them was a significant factor motivating approximately 15,000 people involved in riots and looting in English cities in August 2011

Answer 11

Young has more recently re-developed this theory in 2002, to link his explanations of crime to society today. Young claims we are currently in a ‘late modern society’ where instability, insecurity and exclusion make the problem of crime worse. Since the 1970s, de-industrialisation and the loss of unskilled jobs have increased unemployment, especially for young people and people of colour, and many jobs are now short term and low paid. This, alongside New Right cuts to welfare spending, has led to increased exclusion of those at the bottom.

Answer 12

**Growing individualism:** Growing emphasis on self-seeking and less concern for community and others - increases feelings of relative deprivation **Weakening of informal controls:** Traditional social structures like the family and close knit communities no longer provide support and informal controls **Growing economic inequality:** Globalisation has meant that the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest has grown massively (huge rewards for the top, reduced jobs for the bottom) - increased relative deprivation

Answer 13

Young also notes the growing contrast between cultural inclusion and economic exclusion as a source of relative deprivation Media-saturated late modern society promotes cultural inclusion: everyone, even the poor, have access to the media’s materialistic, consumerist cultural messaging There is greater emphasis on leisure, personal consumption and immediate gratification, raising everyone's expectations of a ‘good’ life At the same time, people at the bottom are economically excluded: they are denied opportunities to gain the products consumer society pushes them to buy

Answer 14

This contrast between cultural inclusion and economic exclusion creates a ‘bulimic society’: people gorge themselves on media images of expensive consumer lifestyles but are forced by economic circumstances to ‘vomit out’ their raised expectations, causing frustration and resentment. This is further increasing relative deprivation, and further increasing crime.

Answer 15

* Another trend in late modern society is for relative deprivation to be felt throughout society, not just by those at the bottom. * There is widespread resentment of undeserving high rewards that some receive. E.g. premiership footballers, ‘fat-cat’ bankers * This results in crime being found throughout the social structure, not just at the bottom * **Relative deprivation downwards also occurs whereby the middle class, who have to be hardworking and disciplined to succeed resent the ‘underclass’ who they stereotype as lazy and irresponsible, living off undeserved state benefits - MC feel they’re deprived for working hard ** * This has lead to nastier types of crime like ‘hate crimes’ as a result of relative deprivation downwards e.g. racist attacks on asylum seekers

Answer 16

Public reactions to crime are changing too Late modern society is more diverse and there is less public consensus about right and wrong - boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour are becoming blurred At the same time, informal controls become less effective as families and communities disintegrate This makes the public more intolerant and leads to demands for harsher penalties and increased criminalisation of unacceptable behaviour. Late modern society is a high-crime society with a low tolerance for crime

Answer 17

Young found in 2011 that since the mid-1990s the crime rate has fallen substantially This is a problem for realists because it suggests that crime is no longer the major threat they had originally claimed However, Young notes that it continues to be seen as a problem among the public

Answer 18

Crime surveys also show high levels of public concern about anti-social behaviour Young sees this as a result of **‘defining deviance up’** - making previously non-deviant behaviour now deviant Since the 1990s, governments have tried to control a wider range of behaviours, introducing ASBOs (Anti-social behaviour orders) in 1998 and IPNAs (Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance) in 2015

Answer 19

1. Blurring the boundaries of crime: so that rude and discourteous behaviour becomes crime. Breaching an ASBO is itself a crime, thus they ‘manufacturing’ more crime 2. Subjective definition: ‘anti-social’ behaviour has no objective definition, it is in the eye of the beholder 3. Flexibility: ASBOs have been used against people wearing hoodies, making noise, letting off fireworks, begging etc - the net can be constantly widened to generate an almost endless number of ‘infringements’ Therefore, even though the crime rate has gone down since the 1990s ,governments have created a new ‘crime’ - or anti-social behaviour wave - to replace it!

Answer 20

Left realism draws upon a number of theories to produce a fuller explanation for crime. It does not glamorize criminals like Marxist writers do. It takes the importance of crime and tackling it very seriously. It recognises the devastating effects for the victims of crime, particularly from deprived groups.

Answer 21

**Henry and Milovanovic (1996)** argue that LR accepts the authorities’ definition of crime as being street crime committed by the poor, instead of defning the problem as one of how powerful groups do harm to the poor through corporate crime (Marxist view) Interactionists argue that because LR uses quantitative data from victim surveys, they can not explain offenders’ motives Relative deprivation cannot fully explain crime because not all those who experience it commit crime - it overpredicts the amount of crime

Answer 22

In order to understand and tackle crime, Lea and Young have proposed the ‘square of crime’ to help understand the inter-relationships between four key elements of crime crime in the middle corner 1: social structral influences and formal control by the state corner 2: the public and the extent of public informal social control corner 3: victims, why do people become victims corner 4: offenders, what motivtaes them?

Realist Theories of Crime Flashcards

(46 cards)