Left Realism Flashcards
Fear of crime…
Left Realists such as Lea and Young aim to explain street crime committed by black and white youth in urban areas.
Their victim survey of inner city London suggested that working-class and black people, especially elderly women, have a realistic fear of street crime committed by young people because they reported they are often the victims of such crime.
Left realists vs Marxists…
Like Marxists, Left Realists see society as an unequal capitalist one. However, unlike Marxists, Left Realists are reformists in that they believe in gradual social change.
They believe that we need to develop explanations of crime grounded in real experience that will lead to practical strategies for reducing it.
Lea and Young are very critical of other theories of crime because they do not take the problem of street crime committed by young people in the inner city seriously.
Not just victims…
Left Realists criticise labelling theory because it sees working-class young criminals as the victims of discriminatory labelling by agents of social control such as the police.
Lea and Young agree that police institutional racism probably exists but also point out that their victim survey suggests that young working-class males and, in some areas of London, young African-Caribbeans, do commit most crime. The victims of such crime are often young, Black and working-class themselves.
Left realists are critical of Instrumental Marxists…
Left Realists are critical of traditional Marxists because Left Realists believe these sociologists over-emphasise the crimes of the powerful.
Lea and Young agree that white collar and corporate crime is under-detected and therefore under-punished but point out that it does not negatively impact on ordinary people’s lives in the same way as mugging or burglary.
Lea and Young also believe that it is too simplistic to suggest that poverty is responsible for crime in the inner city.
Left realists are critical of neo-Marxists…
Left Realists are critical of neo-Marxism because it romanticises working-class criminals as modern-day Robin Hoods, stealing from the rich as an act of political resistance to capitalism.
Left realists point out that the rich are rarely the victims of criminals – it is the poor who mainly suffer at the hands of young working-class criminals.
A real increase…
Left Realists note that theories like Marxism and labelling theory suggest that the increase in crime in recent years is not real – that it is a social construction – manufactured by the government and the police.
Lea and Young point out that the increase is too great to be explained in this way and that the increase in crime is very real.
More people are reporting crime because they are falling victim to it. Victim surveys such as the British Crime Survey support this observation.
Lea and Young’s 3 key concepts…
Lea and Young’s explanation of why working-class and African-Caribbean young people commit crime revolves around three key concepts:
1) Relative deprivation
2) Marginalisation
3) Subcultures
Relative deprivation…
They argue that crime is partly caused by feelings of ‘relative deprivation’ – this refers to how deprived someone feels in relation to others, or compared with their own expectations.
This can lead to crime when people feel resentment that others have more than them and that this is unfair.
We are richer but have an increased crime rate…
Lea and Young note that society today is both more prosperous yet more crime-ridden. Although people are better off, they are now more aware of their relative deprivation because of media and advertising, which raise everyone’s expectations for material possessions.
Those who cannot afford them may resort to crime in order to obtain such possessions.
Left realism argues that working-class youth feels relatively deprived compared with middle-class youth, whilst African-Caribbean youth compares itself with white youth with regard to life-chances and opportunities such as living standards, access to consumer goods, income etc.
These groups may feel that they are relatively worse-off through no fault of their own, e.g. young blacks may feel that racism is holding them back.
Does everyone in relative deprivation turn to crime?…
However relative deprivation does not necessarily lead to crime. It is only when it is combined with individualism a concern with the self and one’s own individual rights, rather than those of the group that it causes crime by encouraging the pursuit of self-interest at the expense of others.
However, Left Realists argue that individualism is on the increase because of the mass media’s emphasis on materialism, celebrity etc.
Left realists argue that this individualism is causing the disintegration of families and communities by undermining the values of mutual support and selflessness on which they are based.
This has weakened the informal controls that such groups exercise over individuals, creating a spiral of increasing anti-social behaviour, aggression and crime.
Marginalisation…
Left realists argue that in addition to feeling relatively deprived, young people often feel marginalised (i.e. they feel they have little or no power to change their situation) and consequently they feel frustrated and angry.
Negative treatment by the police and the authorities may result in further feelings of hostility and resentment towards mainstream society which may spill over into confrontation with authority.
Subcultures…
A significant minority of those who feel relatively deprived and marginalised (but not all) may look to form or join subcultures to help them cope with their feelings of frustration.
This idea is not dissimilar to the ideas of Merton and Cohen in that these feelings of relative deprivation and marginalisation are often the result of blocked opportunities and status frustration.
Criminal or deviant subcultural responses - gang responses - are a form of innovation in that working-class and black youth may react and adapt by becoming involved in criminal activities such as drug-pushing and joy-riding and street crimes such as mugging.
Solutions…
> Improve policing and control
> Deal with structural issues
Policing…
Left realists argue that police approaches to particular communities and towards young people need to radically change.
This is because police tactics, especially in the inner city, have often alienated and angered the local population, especially ethnic minorities and the young.
This is because policing has been too reliant on military-style policing, i.e. swamping areas with officers who disproportionately stop and search young people, particularly Black people.
The police are seen by local communities as too keen to focus on minor drug offences and less keen to investigate racist attacks and domestic violence.
This has led to local communities accusing the police of institutional racism and victimisation, and has led to such communities withdrawing their cooperation in the fight against crime.
Assistance of local communities…
Lea and Young argue that crime can only be reduced with the assistance of local communities. They recommend that local police forces should be more accountable to local communities.
Crime control cannot be left to the police alone Lea and Young argue that the police need to regain the confidence of local communities so that local people feel comfortable providing them with information about crime.
