right realism

• Rational choice - Clarke


  Crime is a matter of individual choice - individuals choose to commit crime.

  If the risk of getting caught or the punishment if caught won't be severe, criminals are more likely to commit crime, assuming the reward for doing that crime is high enough.

  Criminals are rational beings in that they weigh up the costs and benefits in order to assess whether a crime is worth committing.

  Clarke argues that crime needed 3 conditions to take place:

  1. Individuals who were motivated to offend

  2. The availability of opportunity & targets

  3. The lack of capable guardians
• Strengths of Rational choice

  Crimes from the 80's suggest that most crime is opportunistic, rather than planned in advance. Therefore if individuals are motivated to commit crimes and encounter easy opportunities to commit them in routine activities of their daily lives, then crime was more likely to occur.
• Weaknesses of Rational choice

  Marxists argue that Right Realism and Rational choice theory focuses on young males and street crimes, ignoring the crimes of the powerful.

  Fails to explain why most individuals choose 'not' to break the law.

  A more detailed explanation is needed for those who do choose the crime option, eg. in high crime neighbourhoods, most residents abide by the law yet the 'opportunities and choices' are there for all.
• Broken Window theory - Wilson

  Wilson - uses the phrase 'broken windows' to stand for all various signs of disorder & lack of concern for others that are found in some neighbourhoods, includes undue noise, graffiti, littering, begging etc.

  Wilson argues that leaving broken windows unrepaired, tolerating aggressive behaviour etc, sends out a signal that no one cares.

  In these neighbourhoods, there is an absence of both formal and informal social control.

  The situation deteriorates 'tipping' the neighbourhood into a spiral of decline. Respectable people move out and the area becomes a magnet for deviants.

  Wilson argues in favour of harsher prison sentences as a solution.
• Strengths of Broken Window theory

  Evidence provide by 2 housing estates - Gardenia and Stonewall.

  Identical estates build at the same time with low crime, seperated by a bypass. Overtime Gardenia 'tipped' which resulted in crime levels being 350% higher than Stonewall.
• Weaknesses of Broken Window theory

  Other factors have helped tackle crime;

  The sharp decline in crime coincided with the end of the crack-cocaine epidemic.

  Improved security technology

  Reduction in lead in the atmosphere may reduce impulsive behaviour.

  Broken windows theory only offers a partial understanding of why crimes occurs and how to tackle the crime problem.

  No evidence linking harsher prison sentences to 'tipping effect' or that it acts as a deterrent - Walklate.

  Broken window theory only offers a partial understanding of why crime occurs and how to tackle the crime problem.
• The Underclass - Murray


  Argues that increasingly generous welfare benefits since the 60's have led to increasing numbers of people to become dependent on the state - this has led to the decline of marriage & the growth of lone parent families, also means men no longer have to take responsibility for supporting their families, so they no longer need to work.

  Argues lone mothers are ineffective agents of socialisation, especially for boys. Absent fathers mean boys lack paternal discipline and appropriate male role models and so turn to delinquent role models on the street to gain status through crime, rather than supporting their families.
• Strengths of The Underclass

  Poor neighbourhoods do seem to marginalised the individuals who live there creating a subclass.

  Poor neighbourhoods often have failing schools, high levels of unemployment, insufficient housing and ultimately higher crime.

  These problems don't occur in affluent suburbs.
• Weakness of The Underclass

  Left realists argue behaviour is caused by the structure of society that marginalises certain groups.

  This is amplified by relative deprivation where individuals are exposed to goods and services, they can't access through the media.

  This leads to some individuals breaking the law as the only way of acquiring the things they desire.
• Crime prevention - Environmental Crime prevention

  Wilson and Kelling - Suggest that disorder & the absence of controls leads to crime & therefore reversing social disorder should lower the rate of crime.

  Regeneration - cleaning areas and fostering informal social control.

  A policy of zero tolerance policing, ASBO's, curfews, street drinking bans, dispersal orders and the 3 strikes rule should be applied.

  Zero Tolerance Policing involves strictly enforcing penalties for relatively minor crimes of anti-social behaviour.
• Strengths of Crime prevention - Environmental Crime prevention

  Evidence provided by the success in New York city in the 80's.

  Applying broken window theory and zero tolerance policies resulted in a 50% reduction of crime and led to New York becoming one of the safest cities to visit.
• Weaknesses of Crime prevention - Environmental Crime prevention

  Marginalised communities are on the receiving end of law enforcement policies, this links to canteen culture - the police have developed distinct working values that include a thirst for cynicism, suspicion, macho values and racism.

  Reiner - States that those who are stopped & searched, questioned in the street, arrested, detained, charged & prosecuted are disproportionately young males, unemployed or casually employed from marginalised backgrounds.
• Crime prevention - Situational Crime Prevention


  Target hardening - making it difficult for offenders to be successful.

  Based on rational choice theory.

  Uses surveillance of the population and target hardening to control and prevent crime, eg. CCTV, alarms on housing.

  Re-shaping the physical environment to 'design out' crime led to a large reduction in crime, eg. replacing the large sinks which homeless used for washing, reduced the number of homeless people hanging around the bus station - Port Authority bus terminal, NYC.
• Strengths of Crime prevention - Situational Crime Prevention

  Evidence for the support and use is that it is relatively cheap and simple to implement.

  Can be used by formal social control agencies and local councils, businesses and private individuals can make their property and possessions harder to steal.
• Weaknesses of Crime prevention - Situational Crime Prevention

  May lead to crime displacement - offenders will respond to target hardening by moving to where targets are softer.

  Chaiken et al - Found that a crackdown on subway robberies in New York merely displaced them to different street challenging the view that target hardening is the solution to the crime problem.
• Crime prevention - Retributive Justice

  Punishment should fit the crime.

  Criminals should be excluded and severely punished by society which will act as a deterrent to others.

  Very popular with Right Wing populist governments - Bukele and El Salvador
• Strengths of Crime prevention - Retributive Justice

  It creates safety for the public.

  Dangerous individuals might never see the light of day, eg. Levi Belfield.

  Makes right realists happy as it punishes the evil underclass and prevents others from committing crime.
• Weaknesses of Crime prevention - Retributive Justice


  Indeterminate sentences are against human rights and are linked to high suicide rates.

  Not cost effective to 'warehouse' prisoners - £49,000 per prisoner, per year.

  Lacks rehabilitation focus like in Left-realists places, eg. Scandinavia.