New right*

• The New Right - Crime

  • believe all recorded statistics must be true
  • laws benefit society
  • the police represent all of society
  • criminals as the “underclass” - most deprived in society
• Murray (1984) - The underclass (social class) - The New Right

  • intervention of the government to help certain groups has led to a dependency culture
  • poor people given no motivation to better themselves
  • people separated at the bottom of society
  • drain on taxpayers
  • poorly socialise their children, leading to education underachievement and crime
  • poor living condition, unemployed men, drunkenness, uneducated children, and deviant children
  • unwillingness among youths to take jobs
• Evaluation of Murray

  • ignored economic divisions that led to the creation of the underclass
  • blamed the victims of the system
  • assumes all working class lack desire to earn
• Murray - The Underclass (1989)

  • long-term unemployment leads to a dependency culture on welfare systems
  • the underclass lack work ethic and family values
  • children with single-parents are more likely to be criminals due to instability in the home
  • cultural transmission, family cycle of underclass (if your dad is on benefits, you will be too in adulthood)
• Murray's Underclass

  • too easy to be lazy
  • condemns the increase of single mothers
  • girls without fathers get pregnant at an early age
  • young men are unemployed due to their lack of punctuality
• Criticisms of Murray

  • ageism
  • ignores single mother, middle class families
  • more likely for children with single fathers to turn to crime, not maternal nurture
  • sexism
  • lacks statistics
  • ignores the laziness of the rich who are born into money
• Murray and Hernstein (1994) - the bell curve

  • there is a significant relationship between crime and IQ
  • most criminals have low IQ
• Young (2003) - Criticisms of Murray and Hernstein

  • overemphasis on IQ
  • ignores social factors causing crime, eg. poverty
  • intelligence as innate is naïve
• Murray (1980s) - the Black Underclass (new right)

  • the welfare system is too generous and discourages work
  • Black single mothers never marry
  • young black men who lack fathers never had positive roles models and they grew up to be dependent on benefits