left and right realism

Question 1

what are the right realists causes of crime

Answer 1

clarke- rational choice cost v benefit
murray- socialisation

socilaisation as a cause of crime helps to explain why some groups in society such as black men commit more crime as a disporotpoonate amount of balck famiies are headed by a single mother which in murray’s view leads to socialsiation into deviant norms and values which causes crime later in life + more likely to join gangs due to lack of fatherly figure at home

this rationalises tougher policing of predominantly black areas and tougher sentencing as murray argues they are the ones commitign crimes so need to be dealt with better

Question 2

issues with the right realist view of socialisation causing crime

Answer 2

overall deterministic making huge presuptions about people’s socialisation based on their race

failing to explain white collar crimes such as bernie madoff’s 65 billion $ ponsi scheme

also doenst explain non nutilitarian crimes such as assult as there is no benefit to these assaults crimes

Question 3

2 right realist solutions to crime

Answer 3

• zero tolerance policy and target hardening

Question 4

explanation of the right realist solutions of crime

Answer 4

• zero-tolerance policy such as the broken window theory by Wilson and Kelling argues that if areas are kept clean and there is no sign of deterioration people are less likely to commit a crime
  ex in the 90s new york adopted zero-tolerance policing and the crime rate decreased significantly by keeping subway trains clean form grafitti for example
• target harening- clarke: situational crime prevention approach to reduce opportunity or ease for people to commit crimes
  for example CCTV or motion sensor lights are going to hinder the criminals cost v benefit analysis of the crime and not commit it

Question 5

criticisms of the right realist view of crime prevention

Answer 5

both approaches dont deal with the root causes of crime such as education and crime and rather just prevents it from happening
not taking into consideration the displacement effect that this has on criminals which will lead them to committing crime elsewhere so not reducing the amount of crime happening

Question 6

left realist view on causes of crime

Answer 6

lea and young- relative deprivation
media and advertisement lead to people having false needs and ideas they need tangible items in order to feel successful and therefore commit crimes
ex. keeping up with the Kardashians

however its the mix of relative deprivation and individualism that is a lethal mix that leads to crime as when someone doesn’t have strong links to family or community they are more likely to commit crimes based on relative deprivation as they have less to loose

similarly marginaisation of groups in society makes them more likely to join deviant subcultures

Question 7

criticsm of the left realist view on crime

Answer 7

ignore crimes of the rich

ex. bernie madoff

Question 8

left realist solutions to crime

Answer 8

• policing:
  kinglet et al argues that there has been a breakdown in concencus policing where the public inform the police for crimes due to growing distrust of police dn the corrupt nature of the institution

this needs to be changed through a multi agrent approach such as local councils housing and school to tackle crime

but overall its inequality that needs to be tackled in order to reduce crime

• change this through deaing with e root cause sby introducing legislation such as a greater welfare state and tougher policing and sentencing with more focus on victims inorder to deterr and prevent people from committing crimes

Question 9

criticisms with the left realist soloutions to crime

Answer 9

• the UK has a generous welfare state and crime rates are still high
• tougher legislation and policing has been introduced such as ASBOS which have led to peoel being punished for halmess things such as wearing a singuar glove which further breaks down concencus policing

Question 10

biological causes of crime

Answer 10

wilson and hernstein argue that crime is vause by biologys differences which naturally pre-dispose people to crime
ex being angery, impuslive and even having low intelligence

Question 11

contradiction of the right realist cuases to crime

Answer 11

rational choice threty comepey contraditc wilson and hensriten stheory of bilogicla didfferences, as poeple with low intellegince arubly dont have ther ational to make a cost v beneift analysis of weather a crime is going to be easy to commits

Question 12

realist essay plan

Answer 12

p1- RR biologicla and socialisaion

p2- RR rational choice

p3- LR causes of crime comparing to RR

p4- RR solution to crime

p5- LR solutions to crime comparing to RR and what they are missing on poverty