Crime : Wilson

• Wilson questions the view that economic factors such as poverty and unemployment are the cause of crime; he argues that affluence and prosperity may go hand in hand with rising crime rates. Early in the 1960s, the USA began a long period of sustained prosperity with many programmes aimed at the young and poor but crime soared; not just a slight increase but at a faster rate than at any time since the 1930s.
• Wilson and Hernstein argued that rising crime was committed by young men living in large cities and that there were both biological and social factors which cause this. Young men are seen as temperamentally aggressive' which is a biological cause of their criminality; the fact that the number of young men in the population had increased explained the rise in crime. The increase in crime rates since the 1980s since when the population of men has remained constant is explained through social factors.
• The way that young men are socialised has an important effect on their behaviour.

  There is currently a culture of immediate gratification which young men are being socialised into and also a culture of low impulse control. These aspects of culture are producing less successful socialisation for young men leading to higher crime rates. Wilson and Hernstein argue that crime rates will change when there are changes in the costs and benefits of crime are changed.
• Key features of New Right Realism

  • Society if based on value consensus and shared values
  • People are naturally selfish and self-serving
  • Crime can be controlled through stronger community cohesion
  • Crime is a rational and conscious choice
  • Crime will always exist
• Broken Window Thesis and Zero Tolerance

  Wilson and Kellig suggested the broken window thesis - the idea that if 'incivilities' are ignored (such as broken windows, petty crime, vandalism), more serious crime will follow. The minor breaches of disorder weaken the bonds in a community - the way to deal with this is for the law enforcers to have a policy of 'zero tolerance' where all crime and misdemeanour, no matter how trivial, is dealt with to prevent an escalation into more serious crime and anti-social behaviour.
• Critics of this theory suggest that it is lack of investment in a deprived area that cause the minor 'incivilities; in the first place; as the neighbourhood starts to decline, the residents have less respect for it and each other. A policy of zero tolerance would create an atmosphere of interference and harassment from the police, breaking down the community relationships necessary to encourage a law-abiding society.
• Control theory

  The New Right approach is influenced by "control theory" which is based on the idea of the “reasoning criminal" i.e. human actions are seen as the responsibility of the individual and are taken through calculated reasoning about the situations around them i.e. that we are "rational". Following on from this, it is pointed out that the recent fall in crime is due to the policy of "Zero Tolerance" i.e. of the forces of Law and Order clamping down hard on certain crimes so that the risk of getting caught and punished becomes too great (remember Hirschi and social bonds).