Realist explanations of crime LT6

Question 1

Realist view on crime and deviance

Answer 1

largely accept official statistics on crime

They seek to explain the real problem of rising crime level

Reject social construction of crime

Question 2

What do left realists focus on ?

Answer 2

The structural causes of crime

Question 3

What are the structural causes of crime according to left realists ?

Answer 3

1. Marginalisation
2. Relative deprivation
3. Subcultures
4. Late modernity and exclusion

Question 4

Who talks about structural causes ?

Answer 4

Young

Question 5

Marginalisation

Answer 5

argue in late modern society growing numbers of working class and black youths are finding themselves marginalised, or economically/socially excluded because of insecurity and family instability

Question 6

what do left realists say about marginalisation?

Answer 6

een as a underlying pressure for crime and deviance amongst the powerless

However, stress that it is not itself a direct cause of crime

Question 7

Relative deprivation

Answer 7

argues crime is likely to follow when individuals feel relatively deprived. The marginalised feel worse off than other groups and feel social injustice

Question 8

Why have feelings of relative deprivation increased ?

Answer 8

late mordern society has created expectation regarding consumption/cultural inclusion have increased due to media pressure

Question 9

However point relative deprivation

Answer 9

Young: relative deprivation alone does not lead to crime. Most likely to occur when coupled with individualism

Question 10

why do subcultures emerge?

Answer 10

response to both marginalisation and relative deprivation

Question 11

how do subcultures influence individual?

Answer 11

allows individuals to feel socially included and facilitate crime by making behaviour seem acceptable

Question 12

what does Young say about subcultures?

Answer 12

there is an increasing variety of subcultures exist and shape the type of deviant behaviour

Question 13

What is late modern society characterised by?

Answer 13

Risk, Instability and insecurity, crime appears worse

Question 14

Right realism view on causes of crime

Answer 14

largely blame the individual/deviant. They see inadequate social control as the key to understanding the growth in crime

Question 15

Factors right realists look into

Answer 15

• biological differences
• socialisation of the underclass
• Rational choice and opportunity
• Breakdown of social order

Question 16

Wilson & Hernstein

Answer 16

believe crime is caused by a combination of biological and social factors

Question 17

what biological factors lead to crime?

Answer 17

aggressiveness, extroversion, risk taking and low IQ

Question 18

What decreases the risk for individuals to commit crime?

Answer 18

Effective socialisation decreases the risk since it involves learning self control and internalising the moral values of right and wrong

Question 19

What do right realists believe is the best agency of socialisation?

Answer 19

Nuclear family

Question 20

Murray

Answer 20

growth in the underclass is a key cause of crime

Question 21

What does Murray believe about single parent family’s?

Answer 21

fatherless single parent families are inadequately socialised as they lack a male authority figure

Question 22

what agencies of socialisation do right realists believe have declined in effectiveness?

Answer 22

school and religion

Question 23

Clarke: Rational choice

Answer 23

crime can be understood as a rational choice, based on calculation of the likely consequences

Benefits outweigh the costs

Question 24

who is does Clarke argue that crime attracts?

Answer 24

Juvenile offenders because of lenient criminal justice system

Question 25

Clarke: opportunity

Answer 25

Crime is linked to situation in which deviants fins themselves in

E.g. no window locks

Question 26

Wilson

Answer 26

suggests that crime is linked to a breakdown in social order with a sense of loss in community’s and informal social control