Crime & Deviance: Realist theories of cime

Question 1

All realists:

Answer 1

-Argue there’s been an increase in the crime rate, esp street crime.
-Concerned about the widespread fear of crime & the impact of crime on its victims.
-Argue practical policies should be proposed to reduce crime.

Right realists: share NR/neo-conservative political outlook & support policies like ‘get tough’.
Left realists: are socialists & favour different policies for reducing crime.

Question 2

Right realism

Answer 2

-Sees crime as a growing problem destroying communities, undermining social cohesion & threatening society’s work ethic.
-There was a shift from causes of crime to searching for practical control measures.
-They reflect a political climate & criticise theories for lack of political solution.
-Try to enforce punishment and control rather than rehabilitation or tackling causes.

Question 3

Right realism: The causes of crime

Answer 3

Reject idea that structural or economic factors (poverty/inequality) are the cause of crime.
They believe it’s the product of 3 factors: individual biological differences, inadequate socialisation & the individual’s rational choice to offend.

Question 4

The causes of crime: Biological differences

Answer 4

Wilson & Herrnstein say that crime is caused by a combo of biological & social factors.
-These biological differences make people innately more likely to commit crime (ie. aggression, low impulse control).
-Herrnstein & Murray argue that the main cause of crime is low intelligence whcih is also apparently biologically determined.

Question 5

The causes of crime: Socialisation & the underclass

Answer 5

Effective socialisation decreases the risk, due to learning self-control & internalising moral values of right and wrong.
-Murray claims crime rates are increasing due to a growing underclass who fail to socialise kids properly & due to welfare dependancy.
-Murray says the welfare states ‘generous revolution’ allows increasing numbers of people to become dependent on the state.
-He says lone mothers are ineffective socialisation agents for boys & they lack paternal discipline and role models.
-They therefore turn to crime to gain status (Bennett et all) and join deviant groups.

:( Critics argue there’s no evidence that young people in lone parent families are likelier to commit crime.

Question 6

The causes of crime: Rational choice theory

Answer 6

-Clarke a rational theorist argues that the decision to commit crime is a choice based on rational calculation of the likely consequences.
-If the perceived costs are low & outweigh the benefits, crime rate increases.
-Felson argues for a crime to occur, there must be a motivated offender, a suitable target, & absence of a ‘capable guardian’ so presence makes them act rationally.

Question 7

Broken window theory

Question 8

Criticisms of right realist explanations

Answer 8

-Ignored wider structural causes like poverty.
-Overstates offenders’ rationality & how far they make cost-benefit analysis’ before crime.
-Explains utilitarian crime, but not violent or impulsive crime.
-View of criminals as rational actors freely choosing crime conflicts with view that their behaviour is determined by biology and socialisation.

Question 9

Tackling crime

Answer 9

-Crime prevention policies should reduce the rewards and increase costs of crime to the offender.
-E.g. through target hardening, where a greater use of prison and ensuring punishments follow soon after the offence to maximise their deterrent effect.
-Zero tolerance Wilson & Kelling’s article Broken windows argues it’s essential to maintain the orderly character of neighbourhoods to prevent crime from taking hold & any signs of deterioration (ie. vandalism/graffiti) should be dealt with immediately.
-They advocate this policy towards undesirable behaviour such as prostitution, begging.
-The police should patrol the streets so citizens feel safe.

Question 10

Tackling crime: Zero tolerance - an urban myth?

Answer 10

-First introduced in New York; & was applauded for reducing crime but Young argued its success is overstated and police just want to take credit for falling crime.
-Crime rates in New York had been falling anyway & in other places that didn’t have Zero tolerance policies.
-Young argues police need to arrest to justify their position and they wanted to ’define deviance up’ & arrested people for minor crimes.

Question 11

Criticisms of Zero tolerance

Answer 11

-Preoccupied with petty crime & ignored more harmful corporate crime.
-Gives police free rein to discriminate against minorities, youth, homeless.
-Over-emphasised control of disorder rather than tackling causes of neighbourhood decline, such as lack of investment.
-Zero tolerance & target hardening just lead to displacement of crime in other areas.

Question 12

Left realism

Answer 12

-Developed during the 80s & 90s.
-See society as an unequal capitalist one, however they are reformists and believe in gradual change rather than revolution.
-Believe we need explanations of crime to find practical strategies for reducing it.

Question 13

Tackling crime seriously: Criticisms of other theories

Answer 13

Accuse other sociologists of not taking crime seriously:
-Marxists have concentrated on crimes of the powerful, such as corporate crime. Left realists agree argue that this is important, but argue it neglects W/C and effects.
-Neo-Marxists romanticise W/C criminals as stealing from the rich as an act of political resistance to capitalism. Left Realists point out that W/C criminals mostly victimise other W/C people, not the rich.
-Labelling theorists see W/C criminals as the victims of discriminatory labelling by social control agents. Left Realists argue this approach neglects the real victim (WC who suffer at the hands of criminals).

Question 14

Tackling crime seriously: Aetiological crisis

Answer 14

-Recognition that from the 50s onwards, there’s been an increase in crime, especially W/C.
-Argue that the increase in crime is real and there have been more victims and they cite victim surveys such as British Crime Survey.
-Local crime surveys show that disadvantaged groups have a greater risk of becoming victims (ie. unskilled workers).
-Therefore, disadvantaged groups have a greater fear of crime since it has a larger impact (ie. women may stay home).
-These groups are less likely to report crimes against them and police may be reluctant to deal with them (ie. racist attacks).

Question 15

The causes of crime

Answer 15

Lea and Young 1984 identify 3 causes:
-> Relative deprivation
-> Subcultures
-> Marginalisation

Question 16

Relative deprivation

Answer 16

-Not directly responsible since living standards since 50s have increased, yet crime rate has risen.
-Runciman’s concept of RD says that it refers to how deprived people feel in relation to others.
-Can lead to people resenting others for having more.
-Media and advertising raised people’s expectations for material possessions.
-Young says ‘the lethal combo is relative deprivation & individualism’.
-Individualism causes crime by encouraging the pursuit of self-interest at the expense of others.
-Individualism causes the disintergration of families & communities by undermining selflessness.
-Weakens informal controls that the groups exercise over individuals, leading to anti-social behaviour, aggression and crime.

Question 17

Subculture

Answer 17

-Refers to Cohen, Cloward & Ohlin’s theories that a subculture is a group’s collective solution to the problem of RD.
-Some may turn to crime to close the ‘deprivation gap’ whereas others may find religion offers them spiritual comfort and a theodicy of disprivilege (an explanation for their disadvantage).
-Pryce (1979) identified religious subculture within Bristol’s black community (including saints, church people & a law-abiding group) whose collective self-help aided them in coping with life in a racist society.
-Left realists believe subcultures subscribe to values & goals of mainstream society, such as consumerism & materialism.
-For example, Young notes that there’s neighbourhoods in the USA who fully immerse in the American Dream.

Question 18

Marginalisation

Answer 18

-Marginalised groups lack clear goals & organisations to represent their interests.
-Workers have clear goals (better pay) and often have organisations (trade unions) to put pressure on employers and politicians, so they do not need to resort to violence to achieve goals.
-Young argues, unemployed youth are marginalise and powerless and have no one to represent them, so they express frustration through criminal means such as violence.

Question 19

Late modernity, exclusion & crime

Answer 19

-Since the 70s, insecurity and exclusion have increased.
-De-industrialisation & the loss of unskilled jobs has increased unemployment especially for young and minority ethnic groups.
-This has destabilised family and community life since NR policies hold back welfare spending.

Question 20

Contrast between cultural inclusion & economic exclusion

Answer 20

This is a source of relative deprivation:
-Media-saturated late modern society promotes cultural inclusion: even the poor have access to the media’s materialistic, consumerist cultural messages.
-There’s a greater emphasis on leisure, personal consumption & immediate gratification, leading to higher expectations for the ‘good life’.
-At the same time, despite the ideology of meritocracy, the poor are denied opportunities to gain the ‘glittering prizes of a wealthy society’.

Youngs contrast between cultural inclusion & economic exclusion is similar to Merton’s idea of anomie, that crime is created by setting cultural goals & denying people the opportunity to achieve them legitimately.

Question 21

Relative deprivation becoming generalised

Answer 21

-Widespread resentment towards those who receive undeservedly high rewards (ie. top flight footballers)z
-Also relative deprivation downwards, where the M/C who have to be hardworking/disciplined to succeed in competitive work, resent the underclass, who they stereotype as irresponsible and living off of ‘undeserved’ state handouts.

Question 22

Impact of RD becoming generalised

Answer 22

-This means that crime is increasingly found within the social structure, not just at the bottom.
-It’s also nastier, with an increase in hate crimes, due to RDD.
-Reactions to crimes are changing, and late modern society is more diverse so there’s less consensus on right and wrong.
-Informal controls become less effective as families and communities disintergrate.
-Makes the public more intolerant and leads to demands for harsher penalties and increased criminalisation of unacceptable behaviour.
-Late modern society is a high-crime society with a low crime tolerance.

Question 23

The falling crime rate

Answer 23

-Young points to a **2nd aetiological crisis’.
-First crisis was failure to explain the causes of increases in crime from the 50s to 90s.
-However, since the 90s, crime rate has fallen substantially.
-This suggests crime is no longer the major threat Realists claim, but Young argues that crime is a social construction so it may continue to be seen as a problem.
-E.g. The Crime Survey for England & Wales (2019) found 81% thought crime had risen, not fallen, in the last 10 years.

Question 24

The rising ‘anti-social behaviour rate’

Answer 24

-Crime surveys also show a high level of public concern about anti-social behaviour. This is called defining deviance up.
-Since the 90s, govts have aimed to control a widening range of behaviour, introducing ASBOs (1998) & IPNAs (2015).
-These measures have several features:
-> Blurring boundaries of crime: so ‘incivilities’ become crimes. Breaching an ASBO is a crime, thus manufacturing more crime.
-> Subjective definition: anti-social behaviour has no objective definition.
-> Flexibility: ASBOs have been used against people wearing hoodies, making noises etc. This subjective definition can mean the net is constantly widened to generate an endless number of infringements.

So, while crime rates have fallen since 90s, anti-social behaviour wave has replaced it.

Question 25

Tackling crime: Policing & control

Answer 25

-Kinsey, Lea & Young 1986 argue that police clear up rates are too low to act as a deterrent to crime & they spend too little time actually investigating crime.
-Military policing: police depend on public (90%) to provide info about crimes. -However, they’re losing support amongst inner cities & minorities so now they rely on military policing and ‘swamping’ an area, stop and searches, which alienates communities who no longer trust police and don’t provide them info.
-Left realists argue policing should be made accountable to local communities and they need to improve their relationship with local communists by spending more time investigating crime and changing their priorities (over-policing drug crime) & involving publicin making public policy.
-Left realists argue that crime control requires a multi-agency approach involving local councils social services, schools etc.

Question 26

Tackling the structural causes

Answer 26

-Left realists say crime lies in the unequal structure of society and major structural changes are needed to reduce crime.
-Must deal with inequality of opportunity & unfairness of rewards, tackle discrimination, provide decent jobs, housing & community facilities.
-Must become more tolerant of diversity & stop typifications.

Question 27

Tackling crime: Left realism & govt policy

Answer 27

-Similar views to New Labour (97-2010) policies of being tough on crime.
-New Labour’s firm approach to policing hate crimes, sexual assaults & DV and ASBOs echoed left-realist concerns to protect vulnerable groups from crime and low-level disorder.
-New Labour’s deal for unemployed youth & anti-truanting policies attempted to reverse the exclusion of young people at risk of offending.
-However, Young regards many of these policies as doomed attempts to recreate the Golden Age of the 50s.
-For example, the New Deal didn’t lead to secure jobs and ASBOs didn’t reinforce community.
-Young criticises the record of govts & argues they address the symptoms such as anti-social behaviour, and have been tougher on crimes than on its underlying causes (ie. inequality, deprivation, discrimination).

Question 28

Criticisms of Left Realism

Answer 28

-Henry & Milovanovic argue that it accepts the authorities definition of crime as being street crime committed by poor instead of defining the problem as being how powerful groups harm the poor. Fails to explain corporate crime.
-Interactionists argue that they rely on quantitative data from victim surveys, not revealing offenders motives.
-Since it’s a structural theory, they assume that value consensus exists & that crime only occurs when this breaks down.
-RD doesn’t mean you WILL commit crime. Over predicts amount of crime.
-Focussed on high-crime inner-city areas which is unrepresentative, and makes crime seem like a bigger issue.

Question 29

Comparing right & left realism

Answer 29

-Both see crime as a real problem, and the fear of it, irrational.
-Both on diff ends of spectrum, right realists are neo-conservatives & left realists are reformist socialists.
-Right blame individual for lack of self control, Left blame inequalities.
-Political differences, where Left prioritise justice through democratic policing and reforms, Right prioritise social order through a tough stance against offenders.