Left realist explanations for crime and deviance

Question 1

what are the four Left realist explanations for C&D?

Answer 1

relative deprivation
subcultures
marginalisation
late modernity, exclusion and crime( Lea & Young)

Question 2

relative deprivation:

Answer 2

how deprived someone feels in relation to others

Question 3

RD- why might some result to crime?

Answer 3

they feel that others unfairly have more, so they result to crime of obtain hat the feel entitled to.

Question 4

RD- what do the poor have access to?

Answer 4

The media’s materialistic messages.

Question 5

RD- what do the poor lack?

Answer 5

opportunities to gain the wealth, which fuels the sense of relative deprivation.

Question 6

RD- AO3- Relative deprivation Right realists argue…

Answer 6

Poverty is not the cause of crime.
It is Poor socialisation in families who have been given too much support by the government.

Question 7

RD- AO3- what happens when families are given too much government support?

Answer 7

they do not want to work to create their own wealth. this is passed down to their children. This sense of entitlement and lack of ‘good values’ causes members of the underclass to commit crime.

Question 8

Subcultures:

Answer 8

a group’s solution to the product of relative deprivation (innovators)

Question 9

some subcultures do not resort to:

Answer 9

crime

Question 10

what may subcultures turn to instead of crime?

Answer 10

religion for comfort which may encourage conformity.

Question 11

criminal subcultures:

Answer 11

subscribe to society’s materialistic goals.
opportunities are blocked so they resort to crime.

Question 12

Relative deprivation AO3 support:

Answer 12

RD is similar to Merton’s view of cultural goals and blocked opportunities.

Question 13

Subcultures AO3 support:

Answer 13

Links to Cohen and C&O’s view that subcultures are a reaction to failure to achieve mainstream goals.

Question 14

Marginalisation:

Answer 14

Unemployed youth are marginalised as they have no organisation to support them and no clear goals.

Question 15

What does marginalisation create in unemployed youths?

Answer 15

A sense of powerlessness, resentment and frustration, which is expressed through violent means eg: violence and rioting.

Question 16

Marginalisation: Lea and Young (2002)
Late modern society:

Answer 16

the problem of WC crime is worse because of greater job insecurity, higher unemployment and harsher welfare policies which fuels a sense of marginalisation.

Question 17

Marginalisation: Lea and Young (2002)
what worsens the problem of wc crime?

Answer 17

Marginalisation being combined with the destabilisation of family and community life.

Question 18

Marginalisation: young argues:

Answer 18

late modern society is a high crime society with a low tolerance for crime.

Question 19

AO3: support (reality of street crime)

Answer 19

LR has drawn attention to the reality of street crime and its effects, especially on disadvantaged groups.

Question 20

AO3: accepts the authorities’ definition of crime…

Answer 20

as being street crimes of the poor. this ignores harms done to the poor by the powerful. Marxists argue that it fails to explain corporate crime.