Realist theories

• Right realism - overview

  • Main focus is on crime reduction strategies
  • Criticise other theories for failing to offer any practical solutions to the problem of rising crime
  • Regard labelling and critical criminology as too sympathetic to criminals
• Right realism - biological differences

  • Wilson and Herrnstein - crime is caused by a combination of biological and social factors
  • Personality traits such as aggressiveness, risk taking and low impulse control increase chances of offending
  • Herrnstein and Murray - main cause of crime is low intelligence, which they also see as biologically determined
• Right realism - socialisation and the underclass (Murray)


  • The best agency of socialisation is the nuclear family
  • Crime rate is increasing because of a growing underclass who fail to socialise their children properly
  • Underclass is growing due to welfare dependency
  • This has led to decline of marriages and growth of lone parents, means socialisation is impacted
  • Counter - no evidence that young people raised by one parent commit more crimes
• Right realism - rational choice theory (Clarke)


  • decision to commit crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the likely consequences
  • If the perceived rewards of crime outweigh the perceived costs, then people will likely offend
• Right realism - criticisms of explanations for crime

  • Ignores wider structural causes such as poverty
  • Only explains utilitarian crime, not impulsive or violent crime
  • Rational choice conflicts with biological differences
  • Lilly - IQ differences account for less than 3% of differences in offending
• Right realism - tackling crime (Wilson and Kelling)


  • Zero tolerance - the police should focus on controlling the streets so that law-abiding citizens feel safe
  • Claim this method achieved huge reductions of crime after it was introduced in New York in 1994
  • Counter - Young found that crime was falling in New York 9 years before the policy was introduced
• Right realism - further criticisms of zero tolerance 


  • Ignores corporate crime
  • Gives police free rein to discriminate against minorities
  • leads to displacement of crime to other areas
• Left realism - overview

  • Like Marxists, they see society as unequal due to capitalism
  • Unlike Marxists, they believe in gradual change rather than violent overthrow of capitalism
• Left realism - relative deprivation (Lea and Young)


  • People now days are better off, but the media has made us more aware of relative deprivation, raising desire for goods and therefore increasing utilitarian crime
• Left realism - subculture (Young)


  • Inspired by Cohen
  • There are neighbourhoods in the USA that are fully immersed in the American Dream
  • Opportunities to achieve these goals legitimately are blocked, resorting in an increase of street crime
• Left realism - marginalisation (Young)


  • These groups lack both clear goals and organisations to represent their interests
  • Young unemployed people express their frustration through criminal means such as violence and rioting
• Left realism - late modernity (Young)


  • Instability, insecurity and exclusion have worsened crime
  • Calls 1950s - 60s the 'golden age'
  • Increased media has pushed consumerist cultural messages
  • Greater emphasis on leisure and immediate gratification
  • The poor still deprived of opportunities
  • Diversity means right and wrong has become blurred
• Left realism - falling crime rate

  • Crime rate has fallen since 1990s, which disproves LR theory that crime is a major threat
  • Counter - Young says that because crime is a social construct, it may still be seen as a problem
  • 2019 England and Wales Crime Survey - 81% thought crime had risen
• Left realism - the rising 'anti-social behaviour rate' (Young)

  Due to:

  • Blurring the boundaries of crime
  • Subjective definitions
  • Flexibility - net is constantly widened to generate an almost endless number of infringements
• Left realism - policing and control


  • The public must become more involved in determining the police's priorities and style of policing
  • Military policing - police rely on public info, but as people now distrust them , they have to rely on tactics like swamping an area or stop and searching, which often alienates or targets minorities
• Left realism - government policy

  • Share similar ideas to New Labour and support their aims to protect vulnerable groups
  • Counter - Young calls these poor attempts at recreating the 1950s - 60s 'golden age' as it didn't lead to secure and permanent jobs
• Left realism - criticisms

  • Henry and Milovanovic - fails to explain crimes of the powerful
  • Interactionalists - fails to explain offender's motives due to reliance of quantitative data
  • Assumes value consensus
  • Assumes all those deprived will commit
• Comparing Right and left realism

  • Both see crime as a real problem and fear of crime as rational
  • Are on different ends of the political spectrum
  • RR - blame individuals lack of self control
  • LR - blame structural inequalities
  • RR - fix it with social order and tough stance against crime
  • LR - fix it with justice and democratic policing