Left realist theories of crime + deviance

• Key ideas of left realism

  • Victims of WC street crime more likely to be WC themselves so criminology should focus on this instead of elite crime
  • 3 causes of WC street crime - relative deprivation, marginalisation + subcultures
  • Solutions should focus on social + community crime prevention, also improving relations between police + local community
• Relative deprivation - explanation

  • Lea + Young - crime has roots in deprivation
  • Explains reason for increase of crime in an increasingly wealthier society
  • Even though most are financially better off, they have a greater feeling of relative deprivation as advertising has made us feel poor as we can't afford everything
• Subcultures - explanation

  • Views subcultures as a group's collective response to relative deprivation
  • Subcultures subscribe to mainstream values of wealth but lack legitimate opportunities to achieve the goals
  • Similar to Cohen's status fustration
• Marginalisation - explanation

  • Marginalised groups lack clear goals to represent their interests
  • They lack power or resources to participate in society
  • Unemployed youth are marginalised - no organisation, no goals - leads to frustration expressed through violence or crime
• Solutions to crime - overview

  • Emphasise social + community crime prevention strategies that focus on individual offenders as well as the social context encouraging them to commit the crime
  • Main solution methods - intervention, community based approaches, improving policing
• Intervention solution - explanation

  • Best known programme - Perry pre school project for disadvantaged black children. 3-4 year olds offered a 2-year intellectual enrichment programme
  • Results found that compared to controls, more had graduated school + made it to full time employment
• Community based approaches solution - explanation

  • Young + Matthews - Improving leisure facilities for the young, improving housing estates, reducing unemployment will cut crime
• Improving policing solution - explanation

  • Policing should be less military-style + more community oriented to regain trust of the public
• Positive evaluations of left realist solutions

  • Better at tackling some root causes than right realists - such as intervening in preventing criminal behaviour before it can start
  • Community prevention measures can save thousands of pounds by turning a potential criminal into an employed tax-payer
• Criticisms of left realist solutions

  • Policies are more expensive + take longer to be more effective than right realist solutions
  • Only tackles WC or inner city crimes, not elite crimes
  • Labels marginalised individuals as potential criminals