Left Realism Flashcards
Lea and Young - victim survey
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.
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.
Lea and Young - white collar and corporate crime
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.
Lea and Young - relative deprivation
Lea and Young 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.
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.
Lea and Young - community policing
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 re-gain the confidence of local communities so that local people feel comfortable providing them with information about crime.
Hughes - evaluation of Lea and Young
Hughes notes that Left Realism should be valued because Lea & Young have drawn our attention to the brutalising reality of street crimes in the inner city. Unlike other theories, especially Labelling theory and neo-Marxism, Left Realists do not over-romanticise young delinquents and criminals.
