Right realist

• Right realism (RR)


  Sees crime, especially street crime, as a growing problem
• Right realists (RRs)


  • Believe other theories have failed to solve the problem of crime
  • Regard labelling theory and critical criminology as too sympathetic to the criminal and hostile to the police and courts
• Practical solutions (RRs)


  • Mainly concerned with practical solutions to reduce crime
  • In their view, the best way to do so is through control and punishment, rather than by rehabilitating offenders or tackling causes such as poverty
• Causes of crime (RRS)

  • Biological differences
  • Inadequate socialisation and the underclass
  • Rational choice to offend
• Biological differences


  • Crime is caused by a combination of biological and social factors
  • Biological differences between individuals make some people innately predisposed to commit crime, due to personality traits such as aggressiveness, risk-taking or low intelligence, which RRS see as biologically determined
• The underclass


  • Effective socialisation decreases the risk of offending by teaching self-control and correct values
  • The nuclear family is the best agency of socialisation
  • The welfare state is undermining the nuclear family, creating welfare dependency and encouraging the growth of an underclass who fail to socialise their children properly
  • Generous welfare provision has led to the growth of benefit-dependent lone parent families, since men no longer need to take responsibility for supporting their families
  • Absent fathers mean that boys lack discipline and an appropriate role model, so they turn to delinquent role models in street gangs and gain status through crime rather than through supporting their families
• Rational choice theory


  • Assumes individuals are rational beings with free will
  • Deciding to commit crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the consequences
  • If the rewards of crime appear to outweigh the costs, then people will be more likely to offend
  • The crime rate is high because the perceived costs are low, e.g. risk of being caught and lenient punishments
• Routine activity theory


  • For crime to occur, there must be a motivated offender, a suitable target (victim or property) and the absence of a 'capable guardian' (e.g. policeman or neighbour)
  • Offenders act rationally, so the presence of a guardian is likely to deter them
• Solutions to crime (RRS)


  • Pointless trying to tackle the underlying causes of crime (biological and socialisation differences) since these are hard to change
  • Instead, they focus on the control and punishment of offenders
• Wilson and Kelling's 'broken windows' theory

  • We must keep neighbourhoods orderly to prevent crime taking hold
  • Any sign of deterioration, e.g. graffiti, must be dealt with immediately
  • Advocate 'zero tolerance' policing (ZTP)
  • The police should focus on controlling the streets so law-abiding citizens feel safe
• Crime prevention policies (RRS)

  • Reduce the rewards of crime and increase its costs
  • e.g. "target hardening', more use of prison
• RRS ignore structural causes of crime, e.g. poverty
• RRS are concerned almost solely with street crime, ignoring corporate crime, which is more costly and harmful to the public
• RRS over-emphasise control of disorderly neighbourhoods, ignoring underlying causes of neighbourhood decline
• Young (2011) argues that crime was already falling before ZTP came in, and police then boosted their arrest rate by 'defining deviance up' - arresting people for minor deviant acts
• Biological differences

  Biological and social factors that can increase the risk of offending, such as impulsive control issues
• Biological factors


  May increase the offending risk, but socialisation brings it down because we learn self-control and norms of right and wrong
• Right realists argue the traditional family socialises the best
• Welfare dependency


  Causes a decline in marriage and rise of independent lone mothers and unemployed men that don't support their family
• Lone mothers


  Don't socialise their children properly, so children have no male role models and become street criminals
• Crime is a real problem in society that destroys communities and undermines social cohesion
• Right realists aren't concerned with the causes of crime, they want drastic solutions to it
• Right realist views align with 1970/80s neo-conservative governments
• Rational choice theory


  Assumes individuals have free will and power of reason when making decisions
• Routine activity theory


  For a crime to happen there must be a motivated offender, a suitable target, and a capable guardian (e.g. the police)
• Right realists believe the costs of crime are too small, which is why crime rates have gone up
• Right realist explanations ignore wider structural factors like poverty, overcompensate offenders' rationality, and contradict themselves
• Right realists believe it's a waste of time finding causes of crime, we need practical action that makes crime unattractive
• Zero tolerance policy


  The police need to focus on controlling the streets so law-abiding people feel safe, and signs of deterioration (crime) need to be dealt with immediately by harsh punishment
• Criticisms of zero tolerance policy: it's a myth, it enables police discrimination, it ignores more harmful crimes, and it leads to crime displacement