Left wing crime prevention

Question 1

What does the left wing believe causes crime?

Answer 1

• The social structure like inequality, deprivation, and social exclusion.
• The system creates situations which may lead individuals to crime.
• Deviance could be a reaction to deprivation, labelling, unequal treatment, or an act of resistance.
• ‘Crime’ is enforced and defined by those in power.

Question 2

What does the left wing believe will prevent crime?

Answer 2

• Long term, focusing on structural changes. This may include:
• Reducing income inequalities- more redistributive tax, raising minimum wage, increasing benefits.
• Raising living standards- affordable housing, leisure facilities.
• Reducing unemployment
• Improving education - compensatory educational schemes.

Question 3

What types of punishment does the left focus on?

Answer 3

Rehabilitation
Restorative justice

Question 4

What is the aim of rehabilitation?

Answer 4

• Braithwaite: Two types of ‘shaming’. Reintegrative shaming is adopted by the left, focusing on their behaviour. E.g., “you did a bad thing”.
• This reaffirms their membership of a law-abiding society, encouraging remorse.
• Helps them address issues which caused the offending and recognise the damage on the victim and wider community. This may encourage communal sentencing like unpaid work.
• This creates lower reoffending rates than custodial sentences as it addresses the causes.

Question 5

What does restorative justice relate to?

Answer 5

The square of crime, which looks at the impact of offending on the victim, community, and offender themselves.

Question 6

What is Restorative Justice?

Answer 6

• Approach which encourages the ‘square of crime’ (Matthews & Young) by recognising the impact on the victim, community, and the offender.
• Both the victim and offender may benefit through RJ by encouraging responsibility, and many RJ programmes have shown high rates of victim satisfaction and offender accountability.
• Braithwaite: “Because the crime hurts, justice should heal”. Has been applied to both minor and major crimes. Can have a say in what happens to offender in minor, and in major, they can explain the impact it has had on their life.

Question 7

What type of shaming is adopted by the left through rehabilitation?

Answer 7

Reintegrative shaming

Question 8

What left realists focus on control?

Answer 8

Lea & Young

Question 9

What two factors does the left emphasise when discussing control?

Answer 9

Policing
Multi-agency working

Question 10

What do Lea & Young say about policing? (control)

Answer 10

• The public lack confidence in the police, believing it is prejudiced stemming from a drift which is seen towards ‘military style’ policing which has encouraged less cooperation, catalysing more military policing.
• They argue the relationship between the police and community needs to be improved by ‘minimal policing’ characterised by trust and cooperation.
• ‘Over policing’ of minor crimes like delinquency and ‘under policing’ of crimes like domestic violence, racially motivated crime, and white collar has contributed to this.

Question 11

What crimes are over policed and under policed according to Lea & Young?

Answer 11

• Over policed: delinquency
• Under policed: domestic violence, white collar crime, racially motivated crime

Question 12

What is ‘Multi-agency working’?

Answer 12

Corporation between agencies in society such as the police, social services, media, religion, schools and education which effect individual behaviour.

Question 13

What does Multi-agency working play a part in improving? (Control)

Answer 13

A person’s ‘moral context’.

Question 14

What do Lea & Young say about multi-agency working? (Control)

Answer 14

• It promotes the cooperation between agencies in society which effect individual behaviour.
• The media, schools, community groups, and the family have a role in improving the ‘moral context’ in which crime is committed.
• Lea & Young argue for a more co-ordinated approach between these agencies, including more communication regarding those ‘at risk’.

Question 15

How can left wing views on crime prevention be criticised?

Answer 15

• Murray: Long term crime prevention is argued to be unrealistic and ineffective in practise. US attempted such policies in the 60s/70s like pre-school socialisation programmes, but such they were ‘notorious failures’ which failed to produce long term results. The long-term nature means they are also unlikely to be funded by the gov for long periods.
• RJ relies on cooperation, and when this isn’t happening, a formal justice system would be necessary still.
• Shapland, however, found that in the 2001, there was a gov funded programme into RJ which shown that a majority of victims chose to cooperate in face-to-face meetings, and 85% were satisfied. Also a significant decrease in reoffending.
• Many see it as a ‘soft option’ when the public are often more supportive of longer sentences and a retributive approach to punishment.