Right realism and left realism Flashcards
According to right realists, what three factors contribute to crime?
Biological differences
Socilisation and the underclass
Rational choice
Who argues that biological differences contribute to crime?
Right realists
Wilson and Hernstein
How do biologial differences contribute to crime?
Wilson and Hernstein: They argue that some people are biologically disposed to criminal behaviour and that social factors also play a large part
having at least some biological base; for example, personality traits such as aggression, risk taking, and low impulse control are factors.
Wilson and Herrnstein + Similarly Supported by Herrnstein and Murray
Support- The main cause of crime is low intelligence, which they also see as biologically determined.
Right Realism: Causes of Crime: Biological Differences:
Evaluation
X - Tend to over-emphasise biological factors and their contribution towards crime.
Lilly et al criticise the right realist view, for example, as their study showed that IQ differences account for less than 3% of differences in offending, thus indicating that crimes committed are not solely down to biological traits.
Who argues that socilisation and the underclass contribute to crime?
Right realists
Murray
Right Realism: Causes of Crime: Inadequate Socialisation
Murray
Socilisation reduces the risk of crime as it involves self control and learning the morals of society.
Murray: The nuclear family does this best and the rise in lone parent families means that boys lack dicipline.
Inadequate Socialisation: Murray: What has inadequate socialisation resulted in?
Murray believes that what has come from this is the ‘Generous revolution’ where an increasing number of people have become dependent on the state which has further led to the decline of marriage because women and children can live off benefits.
Inadequate Socialisation: how are lone mothers are ineffective socialisation agents?
Due to the lack of a male role model; especially to young boys.
This therefore can often cause young boys to turn to other, often delinquent, role models on the street and gain status through crime rather than through supporting their families through a steady job.
Inadequate Socialisation: Evaluation
X - Marxists - They are concerned only with street crime, and ignore e.g. corporate crime which affects i.e. the public etc.
X - Left Realists - Critical of theory for locating the underlying causes of crime in terms of inadequate social control. They argue that social inequality is a more significant factor.
Right Realism: Causes of Crime: Rational Choice Theory
Outline.
This assumes that criminals have free will and the ability to choose whether to commit a crime.
Who argues that rational choice contributes to crime?
Right realists
Clarke
How does rational choice contribute to crime?
Clarke: People have the choice to commit crime and will do so if the benifits outweigh the punishment
Criminals will be deterred by more police officers and harsher sentences. short sentencing etc, crime rates are rising
Why is Rational Choice theory flawed?
Not all criminals have a choice in whether to commit a crime or not.
Rational Choice Theory: Evaluation
X - It ignores wider structural causes of crime such as poverty, whereby an individual must to commit a crime in order to survive.
X - Some Sociologists - It overstates offenders’ rationality and how far they make cost-benefit calculations before committing a crime. While it may explain some utilitarian crime, it may not explain impulsive or violent crime
Right Realism Analysis: Left Realism
Whilst Right Realists see criminals as making a choice to engage in deviant behaviour, left realism focuses on the impact that relative deprivation and individualism has on communities, which causes them to commit crimes.
Like Right Realists, Left Realists similarly blame increasing social inequalities, however they also see the need for crime control and a need to implement real policies.
Right Realist view on tackling crime
RR - Do not believe it is fruitful to try to deal with the causes of crime.
Instead, their main focus is on the control, containment, and punishment of offenders, rather than eliminating the underlying causes of offending, or rehabilitating them.
How do right realists aim to tackle crime?
By taking measures to make it less attractive
Zero tolerance policy
broken window
target hardening
Who came up with zero tolerance policy?
Wilson and Kelling
Right realists
What is zero tolerance policy/ broken window?
Maintaining the orderly character of neighbourhoods and having no tolerance for vandalism, disorderly behaviour or other crimes. They aim to control the streets so normal people feel safer
How does Young critisize zero tolernace policy?
The sucess of the policy in New York was a myth as crime was already falling. Police would then be preoccupied with smaller and smaller crimes until order was maintained
what is target hardening?
decrease rewards and increase costs of crime. greater use of prison and punishment to maximise their deterrent effect
How is the right realist approach critisized?
Ignores white collar crime
Gives the police opportunity to discriminate against groups such as youth
Overemphasis on control
Zero tolerance policy just leads to crime moving to other areas
Zero Tolerance Policy: Evaluation
X - Zero tolerance of an area just leads to the displacement of crime to other areas. Furthermore, it gives police free-rain to discriminate against minorities, the homeless etc.
X - Left Realists - opposite view to RR - the causes of crime lie in the unequal structure of society and major structural changes are needed if we want to reduce crime.
