Topic 6a: Left Realist explanations of crime Flashcards
the work of Jock Young et al: relative deprivation, subculture, marginalisation
Relative deprivation
Left Realism is associated with Young, Lea and Matthews. The Left Realist explanation of crime has three key concepts:Relative deprivation, Subculture, Marginalisation
Relative deprivation
Lea and Young - A group experiences relative deprivation when it feels deprived in comparison to other similar groups or when its expectations are not met. In modern societies, the media stress the importance of economic success. All individuals are exposed to values that suggest that people should aspire to middle-class lifestyles and patterns of consumption. Merton, Lea and Young argue that rising crime is partly the result of rising expectations for high standards of living, combined with restricted opportunities to achieve this success because of unemployment.
the work of Jock Young et al: relative deprivation, subculture, marginalisation
Marginalisation
Marginalisation refers to the situation where certain groups in the population are more likely than others to suffer economic, social and political deprivation. The first two of these elements of deprivation are fairly well known - young people living ‘in inner cities and social housing estates are likely to suffer from higher levels of deprivation than those from more affluent areas. The third element - political marginalisation - refers to the fact that there is no way for them to influence decision makers and thus they feel powerless.
the work of Jock Young et al: relative deprivation, subculture, marginalisation
eval
Hughes (1991) argues that it fails to explain the real causes of street crime. Left Realists have not gathered empirical data about offenders’ motives. He also attacks Left Realism for its reliance on sub -cultural theory which has been heavily criticised (Matza)
Jones (1998) argues that Left Realism fails to experience why some people who experience relative deprivation turn to crime while others do not. He also identifies flaws in the emphasis on victims. They take accounts of victims’ fear of crime at face value and never ask their views about the causes of crime.
Military-style policing - kinsey et al
Because of their heavy-handed approach, local communities will not give the police information. Lacking the information that is necessary to solve crime, the police resort to new policing methods. They drift towards what Kinsey et al. call military policing. Without the support of the community, the police have to resort to tactics such as stopping and searching large numbers of people in an area or using surveillance technology to find suspects. This can lead to major social disturbances.
Military-style policing - kinsey et al 2
Kinsey et al. argue the key to police success lies in improving relationships with the community so that the flow of information on which the police rely increases. To achieve this, they propose that minimal policing should be used. they think that the police and the state devote too much of their time and energy to dealing with certain types of crime (drug dealing in inner city areas), and not enough to others. This ‘approach’ to policing distorts the statistics as to the true nature of crime.
Tarling
Military-style policing - kinsey et al eval
- argue It is not surprising that there is a lot of policing in inner city areas as these are the places where there is most violent crime, fear of crime and social disorder. The police are protecting the public and responding to public concerns.
- The police have worked hard at improving their approach to policing inner city areas, especially after the McPherson Report into the Stephen Lawrence murder where the police were accused of institutional racism. For example, more officers from minority ethnic backgrounds have been recruited
Individualism, social exclusion and late modernity - young 1
Young argues we are now living in a stage of late modern society, where instability, insecurity and exclusion make the problem of crime worse. The result of the trend towards exclusion is that the amounts and types of crime are changing in late modern society.
Firstly crime is more widespread and is found increasingly throughout the social structure, not just at the bottom of it. It’s also nastier with increase in hate crimes, often the result of relative deprivation downwards, for example attacks against asylum seekers.
Individualism, social exclusion and late modernity - young 2
Reactions to crime by the public and state are also changing. With late modernity society becomes more diverse and there’s 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, along with rising crime, makes the public more intolerant and leads to demands for harsher formal controls by the state and increased criminalisation of unacceptable behaviour. Late modern society is thus a high crime society with a low tolerance of crime.
Individualism, social exclusion and late modernity - young eval
- Despite Young’s dire predictions, the crime rate is falling according to both official statistics and the CSEW.
- Divorce rates are decreasing, suggesting there may have been something of a reduction in social breakdown.
- Ruggiero (1992) argues that Left Realists have neglected corporate and organised crime and that this type of crime cannot really be understood within the framework of their theory.
Intro
During the 1980’s Marxist and interactionist approaches were criticized for ignoring the fact that crime was actually a problem for many people and that crime rates were increasing. This lead to the creation of realist approaches. Left Realists differ from Marxists in that they do use official statistics to shape their responses to crime. They are also interested in shaping policies to tackle and solve crime problems and focus on the impact of crimes on individual victims and communities.
Conclusion
Left Realism and subcultural theory
