control and prevention of crime Flashcards
left wing theories of crime
marxists, Left realists, Labelling theorists
Marxists on control and prevention of crime
causes: inequality, poverty, criminogenic culture
soloution: politicions should make structural adjustments to the organisation of capitalist society aimed at: reducing poverty, improving quality of life, building communities - same as tight relists
Left realists on control and prenention of crime
causes: relative deprevation, marginalisation
Soloution: Stopping instituionalisaion racism in CJS especially in the Stop and Search racist profiling there were 24.5 stop and searches for every 1,000 black people, and 5.9 for every 1,000 white people, legislation to raise minimum wage to avoid dependancy on benefits reducing inequalities in wealth, buisness encouragement to invest in poorer urban communities to create jobs
Labelling theory on control and prevention of crime
Braithwaite (2002) societies have lower crime rates if they communicate about crime effectively.
Causes: labelling people as criminals making it more difficult for them to intergrate back into society increasing potential for reoffenting (SFP)
Soloution: Reform CJS introducing forms of restorative forms of justice, monitor sentancing so that gender class, ethnic bais is minimised.
train those in the CJS to treat everyone equally getting rid of discrimanitive profiling
support for left wing veiw on crime
left realists agree with right realists that communities need to work together to effectively combat police.
A review of restorative justice schemes currently operating in the UK by Shaplaand (2008) found that offenders who had been through the process were less likely to reoffend.
critism of left wing view on crime
if structral changes are implemented it would be extremely costly and take decades to have any effect
it isnt clear how caring, compassionate capitalism can occur
right soloutionists view con control and prevention
right realists, environmental crime prevention
Right realists ideas on crontrolling Crime Murray (1996)
causes of crime- immoral, idle underclass unwilling to work and overly dependant on an overgenrous welfare state
Soloution: members of the underclass should be weaned off benefits through reducing benefits and introducing penalties forcing people to look for jobs
right realists ideas on controlling crime Cornish and Clarke (1986)
Causes - the benefits of crime outweigh the costs of crime. Felson (1998) the decline of community controls are one of the reasons the benefits of crime outweigh the costs of crime.
Soloution: situational crime prevention: Target Hardneing. increased surveilance, environmeltal managment
Environmental Crime Prevention approach - Wilson and Kelling (1982)
any sign of environmental decline e.g. broken windows must be tackled immidietly,
police should have zero tolerance and aggressivley tackle all types of crime and disorder, parents should be punished if children are devient, curfews imposed for particular age groups, communities should be more proactive in chasing out those who commit criminal or delinquent behaviour in the neighbourhoods
critisms of right soloutionists
- Marxists +left realists aregue SCP schemes ignore the root causes of crime e.g. poverty
- not all sections in society can afford to remove crime from their lives. Shover (1991) argues the SCP is expenive creating further social inequality
- SCP stratagies displace rather than reduce crime. Chaiken (1974) found that zero tolerance policies on NY subway displaced crime onto the streets
- Lyang (1990) augues some young offenders seek thrils of gambling with the risk of being caught
