LEFT REALISM Flashcards
What are the three left realist explanations for crime?
Lea and Young: Relative deprivation
Subcultures
Marginalisation
According to left realists, how does marginalisation cause crime?
Marginalised groups lack both clear goals and organisations to represent their interests.
Groups of workers have clear goals (better pay) and organisations (trade unions). The unemployed youth don’t have those things, they are marginalised, they just have frustration and they express this through criminal acts like violence and riots
According to left realists how are subcultures an explanation for crime?
Some turn to crime to close the deprivation gap.
Criminal subcultures still subscribe to the values and goals of mainstream society but are unable to achieve legitimate opportunities for them, they turn to street crime instead
What is Lea and Young explanation for crime?
Argue that relative deprivation leads to crime because people who are deprived resent others having more material goods than them, thus resorting to illegitimate means to achieve the same level of materials
What are the two ways left realists believe crime should be tackled?
Policing and control
Tackling the structural causes of crime
According to left realists, how will tackling societal structure reduce crime?
The causes of crime lie in the unequal structure of society and major structural changes are needed if we want to reduce crime. We must deal with inequality of opportunity, unfairness of rewards and tackle discrimination. We need to be tolerant of diversity and cease stereotyping of groups
How do left realists belive that policing and control should be exercised to tackle crime?
Policing must be made accountable to local communities and deal with local concerns.
Police need to improve their relationship with local communities, and change their priorities- they over policies minor drug crime and under police racist attacks and domestic violence
Left realists believe that crime control cannot be done with police alone, a multi-agency is needed, what does that mean?
This would involve agencies such as local councils, social services, schools and leisure services, voluntary organisations and victim support, also the public
How can you criticise the left realist perspective?
Interactionalists: left realists rely on quantitative data from victim surveys, they can’t explain offenders motives
Relative deprivation can’t explain everything, not all that experiance it commit crime
Fails to explain corporate crime
Focuses om high-crime inner city areas, makes crime appear worse than it is
