left realism

• left realism


  • links to new labour policies, marxism, left-leaning approach
  • suggest crime is due to inequalities created by a capitalist society
  • believe both practical and long term changes are needed for a more equal, caring society
  • believe In gradual change rather than violent overthrow of capitalism
• Tony Blair - new labour government 


  • led new labour 1997-2010
  • wanted more youth work, rehab
  • argues harsher longer sentences are not enough
  • influenced by left realist approaches
  • firmer approach to policing hate crimes, sexual assaults, domestic violence
  • implemented ASBOs
  • new deal - aimed to support unemployed youth
• lea and young


  left realists

  Relative deprivation, marginalisation and subculture
• relative deprivation


  • A perception by an individual that he or she is not doing well economically in comparison to others
  • how deprived someone feels in relation to others
  • leads to crime as they resent others who have access to material goods
  • resort to illegitimate means
  • e.g utilitarian crimes e.g theft, robbery, fraud
• subculture


  • A group of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations form as a solution to relative deprivation
  • various types of subcultures form among wc who begin to find offending behaviour as normal
  • links to Cloward and Ohlin & cohen
  • e.g organised crime gangs
• tackling social inequalities


  understand the victims of crime, why they commit it and how they can be helped

  lea and young acknowledge most victims of crime are poor or wc
• causes of crime

  • relative deprivation
  • marginalisation
  • subcultures
• left realist solutions

  • policing
  • multi agency approach
  • tackling structural causes
  • emphasis Social and Community Crime Prevention strategies which focus on individual offenders and the social context which encourages them to commit crime.
• young - individualism + relative deprivation

  • individualism - a concern with the self and one’s own individual rights, rather than those of the group. It causes crime by encouraging the pursuit of self-interest at the expense of others.
  • argues individualism and relative deprivation causes crime
  • individualism is causing the disintegration of families and communities by undermining the values of mutual support
• marginalisation

  • Marginalised groups have minimal representation in society and express frustrations through violent and aggressive means
  • role of the media, government and social institutions impact the marginalisation of groups, feeling left or or behind
  • treatment of a person, group, or concept as insignificant 
  • usually ethnic minorities groups or underclass
• young - marginalisation

  • argues the unemployed youth are often marginalised
  • have no clear goals - leads to frustration and resentment
  • they express their frustration through criminal means such as violence and rioting.
• young - late modernity

  • 1950s - 1960s represented the ‘Golden Age’ of modern capitalist society - employment, low divorce rates
  • now living in the stage of late modern society, where instability, insecurity and exclusion make the problem of crime worse.
  • argues the greater inequality between rich and poor led to encouraging individualism, increasing relative deprivation
• young - cultural inclusion and economic exclusion

  • cultural inclusion - Media-saturated late modern society promotes cultural inclusion e.g everyone has access to medias messages on consumerism
  • economic exclusion - greater emphasis on leisure, personal consumption and immediate gratification - not all can achieve
• young - etiological crisis

  • left realists recognise that from 1950's, there was an increase in crime, especially working class crime
  • led to an aetiological crisis – a crisis in explanation – for theories of crime.
  • critical crim and labelling - argue increase in crime was not real - just the result of increased tendency to label the poor
  • left realists - argue that the increase was too great to be explained in this way and was real
• young - second aetiological crisis

  • since the mid-1990s the crime rate has fallen substantially.
  • This is a problem for realist explanations, because it suggests that crime is no longer the major threat they had originally claimed.
  • However, as Young notes, because crime is a social construction, it may continue to be seen as a problem.
• Crime Survey for England and Wales (2019) found 81% thought crime had risen, not fallen, in the last ten years.
• policing

  • police must be more involved in local communities and deal with local concerns
  • stop and search tactics cause conflict
  • therefore, police need to build rapport with communities
  • e.g investigate more racist attacks, domestic violence
• multi-agency approach

  • police need to work with other agencies to control crime
  • involve agencies such as local councils’ social services, housing departments, schools and leisure services, as well as voluntary organisations and victim support, and the public.
• tackling structural causes

  • causes of crime lie in the unequal structure of society and major structural changes are needed if we want to reduce crime
  • e.g tackle discrimination, provide decent jobs for everyone, and improve housing and community facilities
  • become more tolerant of diversity and cease stereotyping whole groups as criminal.
• criticisms of new labour government

  • left realists say it was a poor attempt to recreate golden age of society
  • new deal - did not lead to secure employment
  • ASBOs - changed to CBOs as it did not recreate a sense of community
• Left realists are reformist socialists. 
• criticisms of left realism

  • Marxists argue that it fails to explain corporate crime, which is much more harmful.
  • Interactionists argue that, because left realists rely on quantitative data from victim surveys, they cannot explain offenders’ motives.
  • Their use of subcultural theory means left realists assume that value consensus exists and that crime only occurs when this breaks down.
  • not all who experience relative deprivation commit crime
  • focuses on crime in inner-cities - unrepresentative
• left realists use evidence based on official statistics/ victim surveys such as Crime survey for England and Wales, British Crime survey, local surveys
• Pryce - Bristol black community

  • identified several subcultures within Bristol’s Black community.
  • These included the ‘saints’ or Pentecostal churchgoers, a hard-working, law-abiding group whose collective self-help aided them in coping with life in a racist society.