Left and right realism Flashcards
left wing
- focus on power and inequality
- state should intervene to share out wealth
- inequality leads to individuals to commit crime
- Marxist, interactionist, radical crimonology, left realist
right wing
- focus on individual achievement
- equality is not possible or desireable
- functionalist, Right Realist, New Right
Hirschi - control theory
Inidividuals with strong relationships, responsibilities, engaged in social activities, strong sense of morality are leaa likely to commit crime, so those who do not have strong ‘social bonds’ commit crime
attachment - Hirschi
if family care about them then less likely to commit crime as it would go against their expectations
committment - Hirschi
responsibilities that are too good to loose
involvement - Hirschi
people taking part in a community are too busy to consider
belief - Hirschi
subsituting to a common value system, which conflict deviance
New Right - Murray
- poor socialisation leads to criminality
- over generous welfare system leads to fecklessness
- single mothers, illegitimacy
- contraversially linked IQ to criminaliy
evaluating Murray
Gallie - long term unemployment, strong work ethic, no evidence of dependancy
Charleworth - poverty had impact on physical and mental health but did not make people ciminal
Young - sociology of vindictiveness seeking to punish and demean those at bottom of society
realist crimonology
- accept the ‘typical criminal’ shown in stats BUT stats may be innacurate
- challenge traditional theories for bein gtoo ‘idealist’, remote and offering no practical solution
Mathews and Young - realist crimonology
concern about the ‘corrosive effect crime can have on communities, focusing on the lived reality of crime’
Wilson - right realism
challenges Marxist crimonology for being based on ideology rather than facts
long term trends in crime can be accounted for by three factors
- young males are most likely to commit crimes as they are aggressive (the more young men the more crime)
- changes in the benefits and costs of crime at different times due to eg accessibility
- broad social and cultural changes in society reinforced may influence general norms and values
Wilson argues that
the 3 factors are largely uncontrollable, so crime cannot be prevented. He does not think that poverty is the root cause of crime.
He places emphasis on the severity of punishment and more on the stress of certainty of capture
role of environment and community
- maintaining visible order eg police presence discourages deviance, while neglect fosters a culture of disorder, leading to crime
- Wilson and Kelling highlighted how low-level disorder eg public drunkness escalates to serious crime if left unchecked
biological and socialisation factors
- Wilson and Herrnstein argued that criminal tendancies are partly biological and influenced by individual traits like impulsiveness
- proper socialisation, often in nuclear families, can supress these tendancies but inadequate socialisation increases risk
policing in newark
Wilson and Kelling’s - broken window theory
- increased police foot patrols over 5 years made residents feel safer and percieve reduced crime
- officers focused on maintaining order by addressing low-level deviance
broken window phenomenon
Wilson and Kelling’s - broken window theory
- a single broken window signals neglect, inviting further vandalism and deviance
- Zimbado’s experiment showed that an abandoned car in a run-down area was quickly vandalised, while one in a middle-class area remained untouched until a window was deliberately broken, then it was destroyed
implication
Wilson and Kelling’s - broken window theory
- untended behaviour and neglect erode community controls, increasing deviance
- visible police presence and addressing minor disorders help create an orderly environment that deters crime
critisisms of right realism
- focuses heavily on individual blame, social control, and punishment, neglecting broader social causes of crime
- Young argued that deviance and control are interconnected and must be studied together, highlighting the narrow perspective
young - left realism
aims to balance two extremes in crimonology
key arguments of left realism
- street crime - there has been a genuine risk in street crime and public fear surrounding it, which cannot soley be explained by biased policing or moral panics
- impact on victims - fear of crime significantly affects peoples behaviour, particularly women, who often avoid going out after dark
Mathews and young - the square of crime
crime arises from the intersection of 4 elements:
- offender- motivations and actions of criminals
- victim - impact of crime on individuals
- informal control - influence of public opinion, peers, family, and media
- state - role of formal agencies in addressing crime
Lea and Young - law and order
explain crime in terms of three concepts
- relative deprivation
- marginalisation
- subculture
critique of extremes
New right/ right realism: overemphasis media-driven moral panics and excessive policing of certain comunaties