4.1 Right Realism

• What are 2 other criticisms of zero tolerance?

  Proccupied with petty street crime & ignores corporate crime

  Displaces to other places
• What did police do to justify their existence? & what did they claim from these arrests?

  They arrested people for minor deviant acts that wouldn't have been punished before due to a fall in crime

  Claimed that they caused the fall in crime
• How did Young criticise zero tolerance policing?


  Police & politicians were keen to take the credit for falling crime

  Whereas the crime rate in New York & elsewhere had already been falling since 9 years before
• What are 2 criticisms of the right realist explanation of the causes of crime?

  -Ignores wider structural causes like poverty

  -Over-emphasises biological factors (account for less than 3% of crimes)
• Why did Murray say the crime rate is increasing?


  -Because of a growing underclass who are defined by their deviant behaviour & fail to socialise their children properly

  -Due to welfare dependency

  -Lone mothers fail to discipline their sons properly & they turn to crime
• What do they think decreases the risk?

  Effective socialisation through the nuclear family
• What is Wilson & Herrnstein's biosocial theory?


  Crime is caused by a combination of biological & social factors

  Biological differences make some more predisposed to commit crime

  Aggressiveness, extroversion, risk taking & low impulse control
• What 3 factors is crime caused by, according to right realists?

  Individual biological differences

  Inadequate socialisation

  Individual's rational choice to offend
• What are right realists less & more concerned about?

  What causes crime & more concerned to provide realistic solutions
• Who is the main theorist of right realism? What did he emphasise?

  James Wilson

  Zero tolerance policing, Aims to reduce minor offences & more serious crime through relentless order maintenance & aggressive law enforcement
• What do ALL realists argue?

  -Been a significant rise in crime rates, especially in street crime, burglary & assault

  -Concerned about the fear of crime & impact of crime on its victims

  -Propose realistic solutions
• What did Wilson & Kelling say about environmental crime prevention?


  book 'broken windows' argues that the signs of disorder found in some neighbourhoods creates the idea that people don't care

  also an absence of both formal (police) and informal (community) social control so without remedial action the situation deteriorates and the neighbourhood enters a spiral of decline