Left realism view of crime

Question 1

What is left realism?

Answer 1

• argues a capitalist society causes crime - links to Marxism
• victims of crime are working class, ethnic minorities and women
• to reduce crime, society needs to be more fair and equal
• argues a communist society is needed and share same norms and values
• considers in dealing with ordinary crime rather than elite crime like Marxism do

Question 2

What are the three causes of crime according to left realist?

Answer 2

• relative deprivation
• subcultures
• marginalisation

Question 3

What is relative deprivation?

Answer 3

How someone feels against others from their own expectations
- despite society has become wealthier since the 1950s, relative deprivation has become centralised through the media advertising unrealistic needs and expectations of material possessions
- pressure in society to have the latest goods causes high crime rates to achieve

Question 4

How does subcultures cause crime?

Answer 4

They are groups within society who are frustrated with relative deprivation (links to strain theory) but lacks legitimate means to achieve these goals and thus commit crime
- devience is a collective response to deprivation and marginalisation

Question 5

What is marginalisation?

Answer 5

• these are groups who lack resources to achieve their goals and organisations to represent their views eg political groups or trade unions
• therefore these people feel excluded from society and have resentment to commit crime

Question 6

Whet are some solutions to prevent crime?

Answer 6

• focus on community and social crime prevention
• improving relationships with the police
• build a sense of community under shared values

Question 7

What are some evaluations of left realism?

Answer 7

✅real life applicability - early interventions have proved to stop crime through the perrry pre school project - helped kids as they grew older, into high school graduates, high levels of employment and helped a significant few arrests

❌costly - lack of funding for these organisations and interventions to stop crime- can cause increase of tax in which society may not be happy with - however if done properly, can serve to be useful in saving thousands for prisons- overfull in prisons in uk

❌only specific in tackling crime within working class- ignores crime within the upperclass (white collar crime) unlike Marxists - doesn’t include strategies to solve elite crime