Left Realism

Question 1

What do left realists believe in regard to crime?

Answer 1

• We need explanations of crime that will lead to practical reduction strategies

Question 2

What is the aetiological crisis?

Answer 2

A crisis in explanation

Question 3

The causes of crime

Answer 3

Lee and Young:
1. Relative deprivation:
1930’s: poverty was plenty, crime not so much
1950’s: poverty decreased, crime increased
- Runciman: people feel entitled to what other people in their situation have
- Media and advertising make us more aware of our position
2. Subcultures:
- A subculture is a group’s collective solution to the problem of relative deprivation
- Religious subcultures may encourage conformity
- Criminal subcultures still encourage materialism and consumerism
3. Marginalisation:
- Sense of resentment and frustration

Question 4

Late modernity, exclusion and crime

Answer 4

• Young (2002):
  We are living in an unstable, insecure and excluded society compared to the ‘Golden Age’ in the 50’s and 60’s
  There were low divorce rates, high employment…
• Since the 70’s, deindustrialisation and the loss of unskilled jobs have raised unemployment, these changes have destabilised family and community life

Question 5

Describe the growing contrast between cultural inclusion and economic exclusion as a source of relative deprivation

Answer 5

• Media-saturated late modern society promotes culture inclusion, even the poor have access to these messages of materialism and consumerism
• A greater emphasis on leisure, personal consumption and immediate gratification (leads to higher expectations)
• The poor are still denied opportunities

Question 6

The falling crime rate

Answer 6

Young (2011): a second aetiological crisis
- Crime rates are falling which disproves realist explanations, but as crime stats are a social construction, crime is seen to be a problem

Question 7

The rising ‘anti-social behaviour rate’

Answer 7

• Crime surveys show a high level of public concern about anti-social behaviour
• Since the 90’s: ASBO’s and IPNA’s have been introduced

Question 8

What key features do these measures of ASBO’s and IPNA’s include?

Answer 8

1. Blurring the boundaries of crime: incivilities become crimes. Breaching an ASBO is a crime, therefore creates more crime
2. Subjective definition: the definition of anti-social behaviour is in the eye of the beholder
3. Flexibility: The subjective definition means the net can be constantly widened to generate an almost endless number of infringements

Question 9

Left realists and how to tackle crime

Answer 9

1. Policing and control
   a) military policing
   - random stop and searches
   - Routine beat patrols are ineffective and stop and search causes conflict
   b) police need to improve their relationship with the towns to again gain trust and info
   c) a multi-agency approach is needed which involves agencies such as local councils’ social services, housing departments, schools…

Question 10

Left realism and government policy

Answer 10

• 1997-2010 New Labour government
• New Labour introduced more policing against hate crimes, sexual assaults and domestic violence…
• Young: these are doomed attempts to recreate the 1950’s Golden Age

Question 11

Evaluation of left realism

Answer 11

• Henry and Milovanovic (1996): it accepts the authorities’ definition of crime as being street crime committed by the poor
• Interactionists: due to relying on stats they can’t discover offenders’ motives
• Subcultural theory means that left realists argue that crime only occurs when value consensus breaks down
• Overestimate the effects of relative deprivation
• Focuses on high-crime inner city areas which makes it unrepresentative