Topic 4 - Realist Theories Flashcards
(29 cards)
Right realism
New-right/Neo-liberal outlook, they favour ‘get tough’ stances on crime
Views of right realists
- Marxists emphasise too much on capitalism causing crime
- Labelling focuses too much on ‘others to blame’
- They would argue crime is a rational choice people are not passive
What do right realists do
Critique other theories for their failure to identify any practical crime prevention measures arguing that many of the theories are far too sympathetic to the offender and hostile to the agencies of social control
Causes of crime according to right realists
Wilson and Herrnstein present the biosocial theory:
- Biological differences
- Socialisation and the underclass
- Rational choice theory
Biological differences
HERRNSTEIN and MURRAY
- Some people are more pre-disposed to commit crime
- Personality traits such as aggression, impulsiveness, and extroversion put people at greater risk for offending
- Main cause of crime is low IQ
Socialisation and the underclass
MURRAY
- Effective socialisation can decrease the risk of them becoming offenders
- Nuclear family is best adapted to this as male role models instil discipline
- Crime is the result of the growing underclass who are defined by the deviant behaviour and their failure to socialise their children adequately
- The state has undergone a generous revolution since the 1960’s
- Subsiding the lifestyles of the underclass = decline of marriage and the nuclear family
BENNETT, DILULIO, and WALTERS argue children growing up surrounded by “deviant, delinquent, and criminal adults” produce “vicious, predatory unrepentant street criminals”
Rational choice theory
CLARKE
- Individuals have free will and the power of reason
- Decision to commit crime is a choice based on rational calculation of the likely consequences
If crime happens, calculations made…
- Rewards outweighs costs
- Benefit reaped illegitimately outweighs consequence enforced
- Risk of being caught is minimal
- Law is lenient
WILSON suggests if legit opportunities declines at the same time as cost of illegit opportunities then crime would rise
Routine activity theory
FELSON
1 A motivated offender
2 A victim or target - a victim or property
3 Absence of a capable guardian - formal control agencies e.g., police or neighbours
- If we assume the offender makes a rational choice to commit crime then the presence of a capable guardian is likely to deter them
- Informal rational guardian is likely to deter offending behaviour
A03 Right realists explanations of crime
- Ignores structural causes of crime
- Rational choice may be able to explain utilitarian crime to some extent but does not adequately explain non-utilitarian crimes such as violence
- Overstates the biological element - LILY ET AL found that IQ differences account for less than 3% of differences in offending
Right realists solutions to tackle crime
- Broken windows
- Zero tolerance policies
- Target hardening
Broken windows
WILSON and KELLING
- Crucial to maintain the appearance and orderly character of neighbourhoods to prevent crime taking place
Zero tolerance policies
- There should be no tolerance of underdesirable behaviour such as prostitution, begging, or drunkenness
- The police should control the streets so the law abiding feel safe
- First introduced in New York
Target hardening
- Greater use of prisons
- Ensuring punishment follows very quickly after an act of deviance to maximise their deterrent effect
- Costs of offending should be far greater
A03 Right realist approaches to tackling crime
- YOUNG argues the success of ZTP in NY has been largely exaggerated and in fact a myth that politicians and police used for an already decreasing crime rate
- It is preoccupied with petty street crime and ignores corporate crime
- ZTP allow the police to discriminate against the homeless, youths, and certain ethnic minority groups. JONES found that ZTP failed to prevent crime rising in the USA
- It over emphasises the need for the control of disorder rather than lack of investment as a cause of neighbourhood deviance
- Target hardening and ZTP leads to crime being displaced
Left realism
Emerged in the 1980’s to challenge right realist approaches on government policy
Who do left realist’s critique
- Traditional Marxists: focus too much on crimes of the powerful neglecting working class crime and its effects
- Neo-Marxists: romanticise working class criminals as stealing from the rich to give to the poor as an act of political resistance to capitalism. Given most crime is intra-class this is not a realistic standpoint
- Labelling theorists: see the working class as victims of discriminatory labelling by social control agents neglecting the working class people who are victims of these offenders
Aetiological crisis
There has been a crisis in explanation for the real increase in crime since the 1950’s
- JOCK YOUNG argue critical criminology is the result of an increase in reporting/labelling the poor
- The rise in crime is socially constructed rather than a reality
- LR’s argue that crime is actually rising and the victims are disadvantaged groups = sociology has a responsibility to take the rise in crime more seriously rather than theorising about it
Causes of crime according to left realists
LEA and YOUNG
- Relative deprivation
- Subculture
- Marginalisation
Relative deprivation
LEA and YOUNG draw the work of RUNCIMAN
- How deprived a person feels relative to others
- Media and advertising raises everyone’s expectations to own material possessions = rise in crime through illegitimate means
Subculture
Derived from MERTON, CLOWARD and OHLIN, and COHEN
- A group’s collectivist response to the problem of relative deprivation
- YOUNG identified groups in ghettos in the USA where there was a ‘full immersion’ into the American Dream
- Cannot achieve the mainstream goals of the dream legitimately due to blocked opportunities so they resort to street crime instead
- Some return to crime to close the deprivation gap but others will seek religious comfort. WEBER calls this the theory of dispriviledge which is an explanation for their disadvantage and suffering
- PRYCE identified subcultural responses amongst the African Caribbean community in Bristol such as Hustlers, Rastafarians, and Respectables
Marginalisation
- Lacks clear goals and organisations to represent their interests
- Marginalised groups are unemployed youths who do not belong to any organisation and so having no representation either through employment or politics
- This powerlessness results in crime as frustration is expressed through violence and rioting
Late modernity
YOUNG
- Instability, insecurity, and exclusion have made the problem of crime far worse
- 1950’s (golden age): full employment, low divorce rates, strong communities etc
- 1950’s: increase in unemployment and a significant loss of unskilled manual jobs that were traditionally taken up by young working-class men
Exclusion and crime
- YOUNG notes a growing contrast between cultural inclusion and economic exclusion as a source of relative deprivation:
1 media saturation promotes cultural inclusion
2 greater emphasis on leisure and consumption
3 failure of the ideology of meritocracy
Second aetiological crisis
YOUNG
- A second aetiological crisis as since the 1990’s there has been a fall in crime rate
- Suggesting it is no longer a major threat, however the social construct may still be a problem, most people believe that crime rate is increasing
