Left Realist Theories of Crime Flashcards
1
Q
Who was Left Realism developed by?
A
- Left Realism was developed by Jock Young, John Lea and Roger Mathews as a response to Right Realism
2
Q
What is Left Realism related to?
A
- Left Realism is related to Marxism and the New Criminology but focuses on practical ways of solving crime as it states that these are too idealistic and have unrealistic ideas
3
Q
What are Left Realist’s main views?
A
- They are opposed to the inequality of capitalism
- They are reformists and believe in a gradual change rather than a violent overthrow
4
Q
What do Left Realists believe about crime?
A
- They see crime as a problem that affects disadvantaged groups who are its victims such as working class people
- Young states there has been an increase in working class crime since the 1950’s
4
Q
What has working class crime led to?
A
- This has led to an aetiological crisis which is a lack of explanation for why this is happening
5
Q
What do Left Realists believe about statistics?
A
- Left Realists disagree with crime statistics being socially constructed as they argue the increase in working class crime is real as there are more people reporting that they are victims of crime
6
Q
What do Left Realists believe about victims of crime?
A
- Disadvantaged group have a greater fear of crime as it has a greater effect on their lives as they are more likely to be victims
- These groups are less likely to report crime against them as police are often reluctant to deal with these crimes
7
Q
What do Left Realists use to understand the extent of crime?
A
Methodology: They use victim surveys to help understand the extent of crime, local victim surveys show the scale of crime which is greater than official statistics
8
Q
What are Left Realist’s three causes of crime?
A
- Relative Deprivation
- Subculture
- Marginalization
9
Q
What is relative deprivation and how does it explain crime?
A
- Lea and Young argue crime has its roots of deprivation but is not directly responsible
- Built on Runciman’s concept of relative deprivation, this refers to how someone feels in relation to others and compared with their own expectation
- Relative deprivation helps to explain crime in an increasing wealthy society as the media and advertising has raised everyone’s expectations of material possessions
- There is more pressure to keep up with everyone else which creates higher crime rates
10
Q
What is support for relative deprivation?
A
- A media saturated society promotes cultural inclusion and economic exclusion, this means working class have access to the media’s materialistic and consumerist messages. However, they are economically excluded as they cannot achieve these goals
- There are now more hateful crimes towards the relative deprivation downwards which is racist attacks to people who struggle
11
Q
What is a subculture and how does it cause crime?
A
- Subcultures are a group collective response to relative deprivation, they develop Cohen’s status frustration to explain how they emerge
- There are many different subcultures but do not all result in crime
- Subcultures still subscribe to the mainstream values of material wealth but lack legitimate opportunities which helps explain why they commit crime
12
Q
What is support for subculture?
A
- There is now more diverse society which means there is less consensus to right and wrong meaning reaction to crime has become harsher
13
Q
What is marginalisation and how does it cause crime?
A
- People lack the power or resources to fully participate in society, these marginalized groups lack clear goals and organization to represent them
- People who work have clear goals and organizations to represent them, such as money and unions
- However, unemployed youth are marginalized as they have no specific goals or organization, this then results in resentment and frustration, because they have no way to access this or express it, they revert to violence
14
Q
What is support for marginalisation?
A
- There has been an increased de-industrialization meaning there is a loss of unskilled jobs and increased unemployment which has had a big impact on young people
15
Q
What does Young argue about Late Modernity?
A
- There has been an increase in insecurity and exclusion due to de-industrialization which means there is a bigger inequality between the rich and poor which encourages individualism and relative deprivation
- Cultural inclusion is the media saturated society which means everyone has access to the materialistic cultural messages
- Economic exclusion means the poor are denied opportunities to better themselves
- People at the bottom of the class structure face social and economic exclusion which means they cannot afford to buy products that a consumer society pushes them to buy which creates a bulimic society
- They spend lots on expensive consumer lifestyles so has raised expectations which causes frustration resulting in crime
16
Q
What is an evaluation of Left Realism?
A
- Turns criminals into victims as they commit crime due to structural factors and inequalities
- Assumes everyone follows the same value consensus and the same goal
- Deprivation cannot explain all crime as it fails to explain white collar crime
- Only focusses on inner city crime and an unrepresentative view
17
Q
What solutions do Left Realists offer?
A
- Left Realist offer the solution of Social and Community Crime Prevention Strategies which focus on individual offenders and the social context which encourages crime
18
Q
What do ways do Left Realists suggest to tackle structural causes of crime?
A
- Intervention
- Improving Policing
19
Q
How will intervention reduce crime?
A
- Identify groups who are at risk of committing and attempt to limit offending
20
Q
What is an example of intervention?
A
Eg. Perry Pre School =
- Groups of children were offered intellectual enrichment programmers to help them which is received weekly, this showed significant differences in the groups with lower arrests
21
Q
What did Young and Matthews argue about intervention?
A
- Intervention focusses on community based strategies such as improving leisure facilities
- Young and Matthews argue that improving leisure facilities, improve housing estates, raising the living standard and reducing employment. These are immediate measures to be taken
22
Q
How will improving policing reduce crime?
A
- Improve policing will reduce crime
- Public confidence in the police has declined, if this relationship breaks down then victims are less likely to come forward.
23
Q
What is military policing?
A
- There is a movement towards military policing which means they can resort to using tactics such stop and search or surveillance, this then alienates people in the community making everyone feel like a criminal, this results in a decline of trust
24
What approach must crime control take?
- Crime control cannot be left to the police alone and they must take a multi-agency approach involving others such as social services and schools
- Policing must be accountable and deal with local concerns, they must concentrate on improving relationships with the community and understanding what they feel is a concern.
25
How has government policy influence Left Realism?
- They have been influenced by New Labor’s toughness on the cause of crime
- They had a firm approach to policing hate crimes, sexual assault and ASBO’s which Left Realist utilize when wanting to protect vulnerable groups from crime
- Young argues that they failed to recreate the golden age of the 1950’s as it did not create a sense of community, they focus too much on crime rather than the cause
26
What is a contemporary example of distrust of the police?
Defund the Police
