Realism

• The Realist Approach is concerned by rising crime figures. It claims that other theories have been inefficient in tackling these problems.
• Left realism = Labour governments
• Left developed during 80s and 90s
• Left realists see society as being an unequal, capitalist one. But, they believe in gradual change, not violent revolution.
• Lea and Young (1984) provided three explanations of crime under left realist ideology.
• L&Y - relative deprivation - how bad someone feels in comparison to someone else. Cuts in benefits etc. are in contradiction to the media advertising expensive goods.
• Some well off individuals might even discriminate against those that are worse off due to relative deprivation.
• L&Y also proposed subcultures as criminals' solutions to relative deprivation. They share society's materialistic goals but they resort to crime because their opportunities are blocked.
• Instead of all subcultures turning to crime, some may resort to religion.
• According to Lea and Young, marginalised groups are ones that lack organisations to represent their interests. They lack clearly defined goals.
• Lee and Young state that to fully understand and be able to tackle crime, we must look at 4 different elements, which have been called the square of crime. State, informal control, offender, victim.
• Left strength: draws attention to the importance of poverty, inequality, relative deprivation as the underlying structural causes of crime.
• Left strength: draws attention to effects of street crime on victims from deprived groups
• Left limitation: Henry and Milovanovic argue that left realism accepts the authorities' definition of crime: neglecting white collar crimes and crimes against the poor.
• Left limitation: not everyone who experiences relative deprivation or marginalisation resorts to crime
• Left limitation: focus on high crime, inner city areas gives an unrepresentative view, and makes crime seem far worse than it actually is.
• Right realism sees punishment as the way to solve crime, not rehabilitation. They suggest 3 causes of crime: biological differences, inadequate socialisation, individuals' rational choice to offend.
• RR

  BIOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES

  According to Wilson & Herrnstein (1985), biological differences make some individuals more likely to commit crime. Some characteristics such as aggressiveness and low intelligence, are innate.
• Right realists see the nuclear family as the best agency of socialisation. According to Murray, this is under threat from generous welfare benefits.
• Murray argues that welfare benefits are creating a dependent and unproductive underclass, where young males have no male role models.
• Rational choice theory (RCT): we have free will when we choose to commit a crime. It argues that crime rates are high because crime costs are low.
• Felson agreed with RCT, saying that there must be 3 components for a crime to occur; a motivated offender, a suitable target and the absence of a capable guardian
• RR strength: Rettig gave students a scenario of an opportunity to commit a crime. He found the degree of punishment impacted the temptation.
• RR strength: Feldman found that people make rational decisions.
• RR strength: Bennett and Wright interviewed convicted burglars. Found that risk was the most important factor in deciding if they committed the crime.
• RR strength: explains some opportunistic, petty crimes such as theft.
• RR limitation: Rettig and Feldman's studies were experiments - lack ecological validity?
• RR limitation: Bennett and Wright studied unsuccessful burglars. What about successful burglars?
• RR limitation: not all crimes are committed rationally - some violent crimes are impulsive
• Left realists demand major structural changes to tackle discrimination, inequality of opportunity and unfairness of rewards, reducing relative deprivation.
• Left realists suggest that the police should allow the public to choose their priorities, to boost support.
• Left realists encourage the multi agency approach, where many institutions are used to control crime. No Knives, Better Lives, uses schools, for example.
• Labour policies such as 'Communities that Care' programme that gave extra funding to deprived communities, hoping to be tough on the causes of crime.
• Many forces now make cannabis possession a low priority crime, and have focused more on hate crime and domestic abuse.
• Right realists want to increase risk of criminal behaviour. For example, more street lights.
• Edgework theory: the idea that crime is rational and a rejection of institutions.
• Situation Crime Prevention (SCP) - this would involve locking cars, increasing security etc.
• SCP is limited because of displacement theory. Criminals might just move somewhere else. This can lead to the vulnerable being targeted.
• Environmental crime prevention / zero tolerance policing - fix broken windows through zero tolerance.
• After ZTP (zero tolerance policing) was introduced in New York in the 1990s, crime fell. This might not have been related though, as other US cities that had not employed ZTP also saw a decrease.