Left Realist View of C&D Flashcards
Why is it called the ‘realist’ view?
They look at ‘realistic’ ways to solve real issues relating to crime and deviance that affect real people
What do realist theorist think of other theories?
They do not put enough focus on or recognise the victim
Left Realists and Statistics
- Are not as critical of crime statistics as other theorists
- believe that crime statistics do reflect typical criminals - young w/c and disproportionately black - this is because these groups are the most deprived
- Do not approve of how crime statistics generate fear of these people (link to Stuart Hall’s ‘Black Mugger and Cohen’s ‘folk devils’ and ‘moral panics’)
Left Realist views on prison
Critical of views that claim longer prison sentences and harsher prison environments as the solution to crime.
IT DOESN’T SOLVE THE ROOT PROBLEM
What do Left Realists believe the solution to crime is?
- Better community relations - between those in society and between society and the police
- Less deprivation
- more opportunities
- Making a stronger community that makes people feel as though they belong
Lea and Young
the causes of utilitarian crime (which statistics show is the most common crime and so is the real issue that needs to be solved) are:
- subculture
- Marginalisation
- Relative deprivation
Lea and Young
(Subculture)
- The subculture of young Blacks is vastly different from their parents who largely accept their marginalised position in society
- subculture of black youths = high material expectations and aspirations - money & status symbols like flash cars
- Because of the enmeshed values of material consumption, style and wealth in w/c black youth subculture is the reason they engage in criminal & deviant activities - they suffer from blocked opportunities which prevent them from achieving the material aspiration in their culture (link to A.Cohen status frustration and Merton strain theory)
Lea and Young
(Relative Deprivation)
- Frustration from disparity of material expectations and reality of lifestyle create feelings of relative deprivation
- The reality for w/c black youths = a choice between unemployment, training schemes or ‘white man’s shit work’ (Stuart Hall)
- they feel unfairly denied the ‘glittering prizes’ of life that others receive - this leads to them finding strategies to get them that include criminal and deviant activities
Lea and Young
(Marginalisation)
- white and black w/c youth often find themselves alienated by schools, unemployment, low wages, the police etc through marginalisation.
- young black males face marginalisation through prejudice and harassment EG military policing (stop and search)
- this may be the ‘staw that breaks the camel’s back’ and cause them to retaliate through criminal and deviant means in order to ‘get their own back’ or feel seen.
The Square of crime
the left realists believe that there are 4 factors that need to be considered in order to understand crime
these are:
1. the state & state agencies - the way the police deal with crime will have an effect on crime, military policing targeting w/c black youths increasing their frustration etc
- The offender - why do people offend?
- informal control (society welfare/ infrastructure) - crime can be tackled by looking at society and providing better job prospects and housing as this generates a sense of community (link to Hirschi)
- The Victim - we need to understand why someone is more likely to be a victim and why people don’t report crime
Perry School Project
- 1940s Longitudinal study
- took a group of pre-school children and gave 1/2 a free high quality pre-school education lots of family support and frequent home visits - the other 1/2 had an ordinary pre-school education
- tracked these individuals during their lives
- those with the higher quality pre-school education and support were involved in less crime and deviance
- this proves that LR ideology that tackling inequality will reduce crime is correct.
HOWEVER this is expensive and takes a long time to reap any rewards.
