Sociology-crime-realist theories of crime

Question 1

How does right realism see crime?

Answer 1

Right realism sees crime, especially street crime, as a real and growing problem that destroys communities, undermines social cohesion and threatens society’s work ethic. The right realist approach to crime has been very influential in the UK, the USA and elsewhere. For example, its main theorist, Wilson, was special adviser on crime to President Reagan, and it has provided the justification for widely adopted policies such as ‘zero tolerance’ of street crime and disorder

Question 2

What do right realist crimes correspond with?

Answer 2

Correspond closely with those of neo-conservative governments during the 1970s and 1980s. Eg policy-makers argued that ‘nothing works’-criminologists had produced many theories of crime, but no workable solutions to curb the rising crime rate. This led to shift in official thinking, away from search for causes of crime and towards search for practical crime control measures. It also dovetailed with the US and UK governments’ tough stance towards offenders and their view that the best way to reduce crime was through control and punishment, rather than rehabilitating offenders or tackling causes of crime such as poverty

Question 3

What does right realism reflect?

Answer 3

It reflects this political climate. Right realists criticise other theories for failing to offer any practical solutions to the problem of rising crime. Also regard theories such as labelling and critical criminology as too sympathetic to the criminal and too hostile to the forces of law and order. Right realists are less concerned to provide what they see as realistic solutions. However, although their main emphasis is on crime reduction strategies, they do offer an explanation of causes of crime

Question 4

What do right realists believe about Marxist views?

Answer 4

Reject the idea put forward by Marxists and others that structural or economic factors such as poverty and inequality are the cause of crime. Eg, against the Marxist view, they point out that the old tend to be poor yet they have a very low crime rate

Question 5

What do right realists see as the causes of crime?

Answer 5

Crime is the product of three factors: individual biological differences, inadequate socialisation and the individual’s rational choice to offend

Question 6

What theory do Wilson and Herrnstein put forward?

Answer 6

They put forward a biosocial theory of criminal behaviour. In their view, crime is caused by a combination of biological and social factors

Question 7

How can biological differences affect crime?

Answer 7

Biological differences between individuals make some people innately more strongly predisposed to commit crime than others. Eg, personality traits such as aggressiveness, extroversion, risk taking and low impulse control put some people at greater risk of offending. Similarly Herrnstein and Murray argue that the main cause of crime is low intelligence, which they also see as biologically determined

Question 8

How can socialisation affect crime rates?

Answer 8

While biology may increase the chances of an individual offending, effective socialisation decreases the risk, since it involves learning self-control and internalising more values of right and wrong. For right realists, the best agency of socialisation is the nuclear family

Question 9

What does Murray argue is a reason for why the crime rate is increasing?

Answer 9

It is increasing because of a growing underclass or ‘new rabble’ who are defined by their deviant behaviour and who fail to socialise their children properly. According to Murray, the underclass is growing in both the USA and the UK as a result of welfare dependency

Question 10

What does Murray say about the welfare state?

Answer 10

The welfare state’s ‘generous revolution’ since the 1960s allows increasing numbers of people to become dependent on the state. It has led to the decline of marriage and the growth of lone parent families, because women and children can live off benefits. This also means that men no longer have to take responsibility for supporting their families, so they no longer need to work

Question 11

What does Murray say about lone mothers?

Answer 11

Lone mothers are ineffective socialisation agents, especially for boys. Absent fathers mean that boys lack paternal discipline and appropriate male role models. As a result, young males turn to other, often delinquent, role models on the street and gain status through crime rather than supporting their families through a steady job

Question 12

What does Bennett et al argue?

Answer 12

Crime is the result of growing up surrounded by deviant, delinquent, and criminal adults in a practically perfect criminogenic environment-that is, [one] that seems almost consciously designed to produce vicious, predatory unrepentant street criminals’

Question 13

What is an important element in the right realist view of crime?

Answer 13

Rational choice theory, which assumes that individuals have free will and the power of reason. Rational choice theorists such as Clarke argue that the decision to commit crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the likely consequences. If the perceived rewards of crime outweigh the perceived costs, or if the rewards of crime appear to be greater than those of non-criminal behaviour, then people will be likely to offend

Question 14

What do right realists argue about rational choice theory and society?

Answer 14

That the perceived costs of crime are low and this is why he crime rate has increased. In their view, there is often little risk of being caught and punishments are in any case lenient-Wilson explains this too

Question 15

What is a similar idea to rational choice theory?

Answer 15

Felson’s routine activity theory. Felson argues that for a crime to occur, there must be a motivated offender, a suitable target and the absence of a ‘capable guardian’. Offenders are assumed to act rationally so that the presence of a guardian is likely to deter them

Question 16

What are criticisms of the right realist explanation of the causes of crime?

Answer 16

Ignores wider structural causes such as poverty. 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. Its view of criminals as rational actors freely choosing crime conflicts with its claim that their behaviour is determined by their biology and socialisation-it also over-emphasises biological factors (according to Lilly et al, IQ differences account for less than 3% of the differences in offending)

Question 17

What do right realists believe about tackling crime?

Answer 17

Do not believe it is fruitful to try to deal with the causes of crime (eg biological/socialisation differences) as these cannot easily be changed. Instead they seek practical measures to make crime less attractive. Their main focus is on control, containment and punishment of offenders rather than eliminating the underlying causes of offending or rehabilitating them

Question 18

What do right realists believe about crime prevention policies?

Answer 18

Crime prevention policies should reduce the rewards and increase the costs of crime to the offender, eg by ‘target hardening’, greater use of prison and ensuring punishments follow soon after the offence to maximise their deterrent effect

Question 19

What does Wilson and Kelling’s article argue?

Answer 19

Their article, Broken Windows, argues that it is essential to maintain the orderly character of neighbourhoods to prevent crime talking hold. Any sign of deterioration, such as graffiti or vandalism, must be dealt with immediately

Question 20

What policy do Wilson and Kelling’s advocate?

Answer 20

They advocate a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards undesirable behaviour such as prostitution, begging and drunkenness. The police should focus on controlling the streets so that law-abiding citizens feel safe. Supporters of zero tolerance policing claim that it achieved huge reductions in crime after it was introduced in New York

Question 21

What does Young say about zero tolerance policing?

Answer 21

Although it was widely applauded for reducing crime when first introduced in New York, Young argues its ‘success’ was a myth peddled by politicians police keen to take credit for falling crime. The crime rate in New York had actually been falling since 1985-nine years before zero tolerance-and was falling in other US and foreign cities that didn’t have zero tolerance policies

Question 22

What does Young argue police need to do?

Answer 22

Police need arrests to justify their existence, and New York’s shortage of serious crime led police there to ‘define deviance up’. They took to arresting people for minor acts that had previously fallen outside of their ‘net’, re-labelling them now as worth of punishment. After zero tolerance was introduced (1994), police and politicians wrongly claimed that cracking down on these minor crimes had been the cause of the decline. In fact, the ‘success’ of zero tolerance was just a product of the police’s way of coping with a decline that had already occured

Question 23

What are the other criticisms of zero tolerance?

Answer 23

It is preoccupied with petty street crime and ignores corporate crime, which is more costly and harmful. It gives police free rein to discriminate against minorities, youth, the homeless etc. It overemphasises control of disorder, rather than tackling the causes of neighbourhood decline such as lack of investment. Zero tolerance and target hardening just lead to displacement of crime to other areas

Question 24

What is left realism?

Answer 24

developed during the 1980s and 1990s. Like Marxists, left realists see society as an unequal capitalist one. However, unlike Marxists, left realists are reformist rather than revolutionary socialists: they believe in gradual change rather than the violent overthrow of capitalism as the way to achieve greater equality. They believe we need explanations of crime that will lead to practical strategies for reducing it now, rather than waiting for a revolution and a classless society to abolish crime

Question 25

What is the central idea behind left realism?

Answer 25

That crime is a real problem, and one that particularly affects the disadvantaged groups who are its main victims. They accuse other sociologists of not taking crime seriously

Question 26

How do left realists criticise marxists?

Answer 26

Marxists have concentrated on crimes of the powerful, such as corporate crime. Left realists agree this is important but they argue that it neglects working class crime and its effects

Question 27

How do left realists criticise neo-marxists?

Answer 27

Romanticise working class criminals as latter-day Robin Hoods, stealing from the rich as an act of political resistance to capitalism. Left realists point out that in fact working class criminals mostly victimise other working class people, not the rich

Question 28

How do left realists criticise labelling theorists?

Answer 28

see working class criminals as the victims of discriminatory labelling by social control agents. Left realists argue this approach neglects the real victims-working class people who suffer at the hands of criminals

Question 29

How is ‘aetiological crisis’ part of left realisms view of crime?

Answer 29

Part of left realists’ project of taking crime seriously is to recognise that, from 1950s on, there was real increase in crime, especially working-class crime. Young argues this led to an aetiological crisis-a crisis in explanation-for theories of crime. Eg, critical criminology and labelling theory tend to deny that the increase was real. Instead argue it was just result of increased reporting or increased tendency to label poor. The increase in stats was a social construction, not reality

Question 30

What do left realists argue about how crime can be explained?

Answer 30

The increase in crime was too great to be explained as just an increase in reports, and the increase was real: more people were reporting crime because more people were actually falling victim to crime. As evidence, they cite victim surveys such as the British Crime Survey, and many local surveys

Question 31

What is ‘taking crime seriously’?

Answer 31

It involves recognising who is most affected by crime. Local victim surveys show that the scale of the problem is even greater than that shown by official statistics. They also show that disadvantaged groups have a greater risk of becoming victims, especially of burglar, street crime and violence. Eg unskilled workers are twice as likely to be burgled as other people. Therefore disadvantaged groups have greater fear of crime and has greater effect on their lives, eg fear of attack may prevent women from going out at night. At same time, these groups are less likely to report crimes against them and police are often reluctant to deal with crimes such as domestic violence/rape/racist attacks

Question 32

What is the second part of the left realist project to take crime seriously involve?

Answer 32

Involves explaining the rise in crime from the 1950s on. Lea and Young identify three related causes of crime: relative deprivation, subculture and marginalisation

Question 33

What do Lea and Young believe about deprivation?

Answer 33

They see crime as having roots in deprivation. However, deprivation in itself is not directly responsible for crime. Eg poverty was widespread in the 1930s, yet crime rates were low. By contrast, since the 1950s, living standards have risen, but so too has the crime rate

Question 34

What do left realists draw on to explain the link between deprivation and crime?

Answer 34

Runciman’s concept of relative deprivation. This refers to how deprived someone feels in relation to others, or compared with their own expectations. This can lead to crime when people resent others unfairly having more and resort to crime to obtain what they feel they are entitled to

Question 35

Why do Lea and Young say that there is a paradox in today’s society?

Answer 35

They explain the paradox that today’s society is both more prosperous and more crime-ridden. Although people are better off, they are now more aware of relative deprivation due to the media and advertising, which raise everyone’s expectations for material possessions. Those who cannot afford them may resort to crime instead

Question 36

What does Young say about relative deprivation as a cause of crime?

Answer 36

That relative deprivation alone does not necessarily lead to crime. ‘The lethal combination is relative deprivation and individualism’. Individualism is a concern with the self and one’s own individual rights, rather than those of the group. It causes crime by encouraging the pursuit of self-interest at the expense of others

Question 37

What do left realists believe about the effect of individualism?

Answer 37

Increasing individualism is causing the disintegration of families and communities by undermining the values of mutual support and selflessness on which they are based. This weakens the informal controls that such groups exercise over individuals, creating a spiral of increasing anti-social behaviour, aggression and crime

Question 38

Where does the left realist view of criminal subculture come from?

Answer 38

The left realist view of criminal subcultures owes much to Merton, Cohen and Cloward and Ohlin, especially their concepts of blocked opportunity and subcultures as a group’s reaction to the failure to achieve mainstream goals. Thus for left realists, a subculture is a group’s collective solution to the problem of relative deprivation

Question 39

How can different groups affect the influence of subculture on crime?

Answer 39

Different groups may produce different subcultural solutions to the problem of blocked opportunities/failure to achieve mainstream goals. Some may turn to crime to close the ‘deprivation gap’, while others may find that religion offers them spiritual comfort, and what Weber calls a ‘theodicy of disprivilege’-an explanation for their disadvantage

Question 40

What are religious subcultures?

Answer 40

Religious subcultures may encourage conformity. Within the African Caribbean community in Bristol, Pryce identified a variety of subcultures, including hustlers, Rastafarians, ‘saints’ (Pentecostal churchgoers) and working-class ‘respectables’

Question 41

How do left realists describe criminal subcultures?

Answer 41

Criminal subcultures still subscribe to the values and goals of mainstream society, such as materialism and consumerism. Eg Young notes that there are ghettos in the USA where there is ‘full immersion in the American Dream: a culture hooked on Gucci, BMW, Nikes’. However, opportunities to achieve these goals legitimately are blocked, so they resort to street crime instead

Question 42

What are marginalised groups?

Answer 42

They lack both clear goals and organisations to represent their interests. Groups such as workers have clear goals (such as better pay and conditions) and often have organisations (such as trade unions) to put pressure on employers and politicians. As such, they have no need to resort to violence. By contrast, unemployed youth are marginalised. They have no organisation to represent them and no clear goals, just a sense of resentment and frustration. Being powerless to use political means to improve their position, they express their frustration through criminal mens such as violence and rioting

Question 43

What does Young argue about the stage of today’s society?

Answer 43

We are now living in the stage of late modern society, where instability, insecurity and exclusion make the problem of crime worse/ He contrasts today’s society (since 1970s) with the period preceding it, arguing the 1950s and 1960s represented the ‘Golden Age’ of modern capitalist society. This was a period of stability, security and social inclusion, with full employment, a fairly comprehensive welfare state, low divorce rates and relatively strong communities. There was general consensus about right and wrong, and lower crime rates

Question 44

How has society changed since the 1970s?

Answer 44

Insecurity and exclusion have increased. De-industrialisation and the loss of unskilled jobs have increased unemployment, especially for young people and ethnic minorities, while many jobs are now short term or low paid. These changes have destabilised family and community life, as have New Right government policies to hold back welfare spending. All this has contributed to increased exclusion of those at the bottom

Question 45

What has happened as a result of greater inequality between rich and poor, and spread of free market values?

Answer 45

It encourages individualism which has increased the sense of relative deprivation. Young also notes the growing contrast between cultural inclusion and economic exclusion as a source of relative deprivation

Question 46

What is the growing contrast between cultural inclusion and economic exclusion as a source of relative deprivation?

Answer 46

Media-saturated late modern society promotes cultural inclusion (even the poor have access to the media’s materialistic, consumerist cultural messages). There is a greater emphasis on leisure, personal consumption and immediate gratification, leading to higher expectations for the ‘good life’. At the same time, despite the ideology of meritocracy, the poor are denied opportunities to gain the ‘glittering prizes of a wealthy society’

Question 47

What is Young’s contrast between cultural inclusion and economic exclusion similar to?

Answer 47

It is similar to Merton’s notion of anomie-that society creates crime by setting cultural goals (material wealth), while denying people the opportunity to achieve them by legitimate means (decent jobs)

Question 48

What is a further trend in late modernity?

Answer 48

For relative deprivation to become generalised throughout society rather than being confined to those at the bottom. This is widespread resentment at the undeservedly high rewards that some receive, whether top-flight footballers, or ‘fat-cat’ bankers. There is also ‘relative deprivation downwards’, where the middle class, who have to be hardworking and disciplined to succeed in an increasingly competitive work environment, resent the stereotypical underclass as idle, irresponsible and hedonistic, living off underserved state handouts

Question 49

What is the result of exclusion due to relative deprivation becoming generalised?

Answer 49

The amount and types of crimes are changing in late modern society. Firstly, crime is found increasingly throughout the social structure, not just at the bottom. It is also nastier, with an increase in ‘hate crimes’-often the result of relative deprivation downwards, as in the case of racist attacks against asylum seekers

Question 50

How are reactions to crime also changing?

Answer 50

Late modern society is more diverse and there is less public consensus on right and wrong, so that the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour becomes blurred. At the same time, informal controls become less effective as families and communities disintegrate. This makes the public more intolerant and leads to demands for harsher penalties and increased criminalisation of unacceptable behaviour. Later modern society is a high-crime society with a low tolerance for crime

Question 51

How does Young explain the falling crime rate?

Answer 51

Points to a ‘second aetiological crisis’ or crisis of explanation/ The first crisis was the failure of existing theories to explain the cause of increases in crime from 1950s to 1960s. However, since mid 1990s crime rate has fallen substantially. This is a problem for realist explanations, because it suggests crime is no longer the major threat they had originally claimed. However, as Young notes, because crime is a social construction, it may continue to be seen as a problem, eg the Crime Survey for England and Wales found that 61% thought crime had risen, not fallen

Question 52

What do crime surveys show about the rising ‘anti-social behaviour rate’?

Answer 52

Crime surveys also show high level of public concern about anti-social behaviour. Young sees this as a result of ‘defining deviance up’. Since 1990s, governments have aimed to control a widening range of behaviour, introducing ASBOs (Anti-Social Behaviour Orders) in 1998 and IPNAs (Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance) in 2015

Question 53

What are several key features of measures such as ASBOs and IPNAs?

Answer 53

Blurring the boundaries of crime (so ‘incivilities’ become crimes. Breaching an ASBO is itself a crime, thus ‘manufacturing’ more crime). Subjective definition (anti-social behaviour has no objective definition; it is in they eye of the beholder). Flexibility (ASBOs have been used against people wearing hoodies, making a noise, letting off fireworks, flyposting or begging, and others besides. The subjective definition means the net can be constantly widened to generate an almost endless number of infringements)

Question 54

Despite the falling crime rate, what has happened as a result of measures such as ASBOs and IPNAs?

Answer 54

While the crime rate is going down, governments have created a new ‘crime’ wave-or anti-social behaviour wave-to replace it

Question 55

What is the final part of the left realists’ project?

Answer 55

To devise solutions to the problem of crime. They argue that we must both improve policing and control, and deal with the deeper structural causes of crime

Question 56

What do Kinsey, Lea and Young argue about policing and control?

Answer 56

Police clear-up rates are too low to act as a deterrent to crime and that police sped too little time actually investigating crime. They argue the public must become more involved in determining the police’s priorities and style of policing

Question 57

What is military policing?

Answer 57

Police depend on public to provide them with info about crimes (90% crimes known to police were reported to them by public). However police are losing public support, especially in inner cities and among ethnic minorities and young. As a result, flow of information dries up and police come to rely instead on military policing, such as ‘swamping’ an area and using random stop and search tactics. Alienates communities and results in vicious circle: locals no longer trust police and don’t provide them with information, so police resort to military policing, and so on

Question 58

What do left realists argue about policing?

Answer 58

Policing must be made accountable to local communities and deal with local concerns. Routine beat patrols are ineffective and stop and search tactics cause conflict. Police need to improve relationship with local communities by spending more time investigating crime, changing their priorities (over-police drug crime and under-police racist attacks/domestic violence) and involving public in making policing policy

Question 59

What do left realists argue about crime control?

Answer 59

Crime control cannot be left to the police alone-a multi-agency approach is needed. This would involve agencies such as local councils’ social services, housing departments, schools and leisure services, as well as voluntary organisations and victim support, and the public

Question 60

What do left realists believe about tackling structural causes?

Answer 60

They do not see improved policing and control as the main solution. In their view, the causes of crime lie in the unequal structure of society and major structural changes are needed if we want t o reduce crime. We must deal with inequality of opportunity and the unfairness of rewards, tackle discrimination, provide decent jobs for everyone, and improve housing and community facilities. We must also become more tolerant of diversity and cease stereotyping whole groups as criminal

Question 61

How much have left realists influenced policy?

Answer 61

They have had more influence on government policy than most theorists of crime. In particular, their views have strong similarities with the 1997-2010 New Labour government’s stance of being ‘though on crime, tough on the causes of crime’. Eg New Labour’s firmer approach to policing hate crimes, sexual assaults, domestic violence, along with ASBOs, echoed left realist concerns to protect vulnerable groups from crime and low-level disorder. Similarly, New Labour’s New Deal for unemployed youth and their anti-truanting policies attempted to reverse the exclusion of young people at risk of offending

Question 62

What does Young argue about left realism and government policy?

Answer 62

Regards many of these policies as doomed attempts to recreate ‘Golden Age’ of 1950s. Eg New Deal did not lead to secure, permanent jobs, while ASBOs did not recreate sense of community. Young also criticises record of governments, including New Labour. Argues they have largely just addressed the symptoms, such as anti social behaviour-they have been tougher on crime than on its underlying causes, such as the insecurity, inequality and discrimination that produce relative deprivation and exclusion

Question 63

What are the evaluation points of left realism?

Answer 63

Succeeded in drawing attention to reality of street crimes and its effects. Henry and Milovanovic argue it accepts authorities’ definition of crime as being street crime committed by poor instead of defining it as one of how powerful groups do harm to poor (marxists argue it fails to explain corporate crime which is more harmful). Interactionists argue because left realists rely on quantitative data from victim surveys they cannot explain offenders’ motives. Use of subcultural theory means left realists assume value consensus and crime only occurs when this breaks down. Relative deprivation cannot fully explain crime as not all those who experience it commit crime (theory over-predicts amount of crime). Its focus on high crime inner city areas gives unrepresentative view that over predicts crime

Question 64

How do left and right realism compare?

Answer 64

Similarities and differences between the two. Eg Both see crime as real problem and fear of crime is rational. But come from different ends of political spectrum: right are neo-conservatives, while left realists are reformist socialists. Reflected in how they explain crime (right blame individual lack of self control while left blame structural inequalities). Political differences also reflected in aims and solutions (right priorities social order achieved through tough stance against offenders, while left priorities justice achieved through democratic policing and reforms to create greater equality