right realist solutions to crime Flashcards
intro
Right Realists emphasise the individual – they note that people choose to commit crime because the benefits of crime outweigh the costs. Society therefore needs to look at ways of increasing the costs of crime.
point 1
Situational crime prevention refers to Right Realist measures aimed at reducing opportunities for crime. It is focused on encouraging potential victims to ‘design out’ crime by making themselves ‘harder targets’ by investing in more security and surveillance and therefore increasing the risk of the criminal being caught and deterring criminality by reducing the opportunity for crime.
evidence 1
There is some evidence that car manufacturers’ investment in satellite technology, computerised locking systems and disabling devices has reduced the level of car theft in the UK. It is also argued that increased surveillance in shops via CCTV or security guards and store detectives increases the likelihood of shoplifters being caught.
furthermore 1
Tarling found 65% of police resources are devoted to patrolling public space, particularly poorer areas. Tarling believed this led to prison population being 55% unemployed and 87% male.
eval 1
Felson and Clarke argue that SCP strategies displace crime rather than reduce it. Criminals simply move to where targets are softer. For example, a crackdown on subway robberies in New York merely displaced them to the streets above. Marxists and Left Realists argue that SCP ignores the root causes of crime such as poverty and inequality. Marxists note that SCP often creates a new type of social inequality – the poor are the main victims of crime because the middle-class can afford to invest in making themselves harder targets and therefore design crime out of their lives.
point 2
Wilson argues that crime is caused by anti-social behaviour. If these behaviours are tolerated, areas deteriorate as a sense of ‘anything goes’ develops.
Evidence 2
Wilson proposes a number of environmental solutions:
Any sign of environmental decline such as broken windows, must be tackled immediately otherwise neighbourhood deterioration will follow. All public housing building should not exceed three floors and all residents should be encouraged to take responsibility for communal space in order to protect it from outsiders. The police should aggressively tackle all types of crime and disorder rather than reacting only to serious crime. For example in New York to tackle crime Between 1993 and 1996 this tactic was used and all types of crime declined dramatically.
furthermore 2
Kelling and Wilson spell out how to avoid the collapse of community as a consequence of criminality. They believe that it is crucial to try to maintain the character of neighbourhoods and prevent them from deteriorating. If incivilities such as rudeness and rowdiness on the streets go unchallenged; then problems will quickly grow and unruly youths will start hanging around on the streets, and law-abiding citizens will become afraid to go out.
eval 2
Matthews found little evidence that tolerating broken windows and public incivilities led to an increase in crime. Matthews argued the level of incivility was determined by the level of crime, and not the other way round.
Jones believes factors such as lack of investment are far more important in determining whether a neighbourhood declines. He argues that the approach would lead to an unfair criminal justice system. The police would concentrate their attention on minor offenders instead of more serious ones. He also argues Wilson ignores issues of class, ethnicity and gender, fail to consider the role of inequality and unemployment in causing crime, and neglect white-collar and corporate crimes.
point 3
Retributive justice refers to the punishment fitting the crime. Right Realists argue that criminals should be punished by being excluded from society, i.e. by being incarcerated in prison. The emphasis is also on deterring people from committing crime. Right-wing politicians often support the return of capital punishment too.
evidence 3
In the USA, the policy of ‘three strikes and you are out’ is a good example of retributive justice. Right Realists are critical of the UK justice system because they argue that the costs of crime in terms of prison sentences are too low. They argue that the costs of crime in terms of the chances of being caught and in terms of more effective punishment need to be increased so that they outweigh the benefits of crime.
furthermore 3
The Right Realist position suggests prison works because it deters many potential offenders away from crime while taking as many persistent and serious offenders as possible out of circulation. Governments in the last 20 years have generally adopted a more punitive approach to crime and this has resulted in the prison population rising from approximately 60,000 in 1997 to 84,000 in 2010.
eval 3
Garland notes that this approach, although still popular, is increasingly undermined by the fact that more than 60% of those sent to prison re-offend.
There are high rates of recidivism (repeat offenders) which suggests that prison does not deter. Two-thirds of released prisoners re-offend as do 71% of juvenile offenders within two years of release. Prison is not changing the behaviour of repeat offenders.
Many people are being imprisoned for relatively minor offences for which community punishments may be more suitable, Matthews suggests that up to 50% of the prison population have committed minor offences for which prison is inappropriate and possibly damaging.
conclusion
In conclusion right realists want to reduce crime by making it a bigger risk by increasing it’s costs are making it harder to commit. Another example of this is military style policing, this includes police carrying more guns, being allowed to take fingerprints and being able to stop and search people for no reason.
