realism on crime

• right realism


  A new right conservative viewpoint
• James Q Wilson


  -people choose to commit crime

  -3 factors that influence criminality: biosocial; socialisation; rational choice
• Biosocial theory - Wilson & Herrnstein


  -people are born more likely to commit crime e.g., personality traits, low intelligence. Social values can also make people more likely to commit crime

  
  

  AO3:

  -deterministic

  -characteristics outlines are more common with certain classes/ethnicities

  -excuses criminal behaviour
• Rise of the underclass - Murray; Bennet, Dilulio & Walters

  -biology somewhat influences crime but criminality is more so influenced by inadequate socialisation

  -people socialised in a nuclear family are less likely to commit crime as this is the only family type that performs adequate socialisation

  
  

  AO3:

  -different cultures socialise differently

  -deterministic
• Rational choice - Cornish & Clarke


  -criminals weight up the positives and the negatives about committing a crime and then make a rational choice as to if they should commit crime based on this
• right realism crime prevention


  -zero tolerance policy - all crime is not accepted and punished

  -broken windows theory: if people can see crimes have already been committed, they are more likely to commit crime
• Right realism - AO3


  -ignores structural causes of crime e.g., poverty

  -biosocial & rational choice contradict each other

  -overstates rationality

  -ignores corporate crime

  -Young: the ZTP in New York is not what decreased crime, crime rates were decreases before this policy was implemented
• left realism


  -crime is caused by relative deprivation; marginalisation and subcultures
• relative deprivation


  -Runciman (key thinker)

  -how deprived people feel compared to others, or to their expectations

  -leads to crime as people resent others and commit crime to get what they want

  -Lea & Young: there is more crime in todays society as people are more aware of relative deprivation

  -Young: relative deprivation alone does not cause crime, it is mixed with individualisation as it encourages people to be self-interested
• marginalisation


  -people pushed to the edges of society

  -these groups lack clear goals & do not have organisations to represent them

  -Young: unemployed youth = marginalised - have no organisations to represent them/no clear goals, only frustration expressed via criminal means
• subculture


  -subcultures = groups collective solution to the issue of relative deprivation

  -different groups = different solutions e.g., crime or religion, this is done to close the 'deprivation gap'

  -Pryce: several subcultures in Bristol's black community, include the 'saints' (pentecostal church followers)

  -Young: criminal subcultures subscribe to values & goals of society e.g., materialism & consumerism, example: places in USA where there is "full immersion of the American Dream" but they have blocked opportunities so have to commit crime
• left realism - AO3


  -turns criminals into victims

  -assumes there is a value consensus

  -deprivation doesn't explain all crime

  -focuses on inner-city crime