Right Realism

• what are some of the right realism views?


  - they reject the belief that structural and economic factors cause crime

  - They blame the criminal for their own actions

  - belief tough penalties and strict forms of control will prevent crime

  - See crime as a growing problem which undermines social cohesion and threatens societies work ethic.
• What are the causes of crime according to RR?


  Biological differences

  Ineffective socialization

  Rational choice theory
• Explain biological differences


  Wilson and Hernstein (1985)

  Crime is caused by a mix of social and biological factors (biosocial factors)

  Biological differences makes a person more likely to commit crime and turn into a deviant eg. curtain personality trait and low IQ
• Evaluation of Biological differences theory


  It isn't widely accepted no hard evidence

  Lily (2002) says less than 3% of criminals have a low IQ

  Doesn't take corporate crime into account
• Explain ineffective socialization


  RR believe the best socialization is learnt through the family (socialization involves learning self-control, morals etc.)

  Charles Murray

  - focuses on the under class, a group at the bottom of the social class which doesn't socialise children to mainstream norms/values

  - the underclass is dependent on the welfare state and this causes men to cast away responsibilities of being a bread winner leaving the family with no male role model. Women aspire for this lifestyle.
• Evaluation on Charles Murray and ineffective socialization


  - armchair sociologist

  - statistically people are only welfare dependent for short periods of time

  - Doesn't take white collar crime into account
• Explain Rational choice theory


  Based on the fact individuals have the will to act and make decisions about whether the consequences outweigh the benefits of crime.

  Ron Clarke - argued WC crime is all about choice, criminals make a calculation, if the reward is greater than the potential risk.

  Clarke argues currently the risk is low and reward high, to prevent crime add CCTV to make risk higher
• Evaluation on rational choice theory

  - focus on petty crime

  - overestimates rationality of criminal (influcence of drugs?)

  - only utilitarian crimes

  - contradicts bio-social theory
• What do RR say are the solutions to crime

  - they believe practical solutions, which focus on control, containment and punishment should be used.

  Situational crime prevention - managing areas and removing opportunities eg. Target hardening where costs are increased and rewards are decreased.

  Environmental crime prevention - Broken window theory (Wilson and Kelling 1982) concentrates on how people feel about their space, the more deviance of crime the more crime that will happen.
• Evaluations on solutions to crime

  Situational - displaces crime instead of removing it, doesn't look at root causes of crime, ignores white collar crime, assumes all criminals are rational

  Environmental - requires police to react immediately (unrealistic), assumes that no evidence of crime won't encourage it