'Crime is a real problem that must be taken seriously by criminologists.' Discuss
OPTION 2
'Crime is a real problem that must be taken seriously by criminologists.' Discuss.
Taking crime seriously is a concept that needs to be addressed by the government and political agencies in order to combat crime and to admit that for the most of society crime is a real problem that needs serious attention. I will in this essay discuss the central argument and key tenets of realist criminology; those of the right and left realism are used to explain the demand that we take crime seriously. I will examine the strengths and weaknesses of each theory using various criminologists to illustrate my arguments.
Both left and right realism are concerned with building practical responses to crimes which are of public concern, predatory crimes such as violence, street crime and burglary, with this they advocate effective measures that could be used to control crime and the containment of crime and to establish policies in order to reduce crime. They are aware of the crimes of the powerful who are bypassed by the criminal justice system, but they are not concerned with these crimes. Realist theories seek to change the crime situation by immediate interventions, and they believe the criminal justice system needs to be reformed in order to be effective. Realism does not completely dispel the public stereotypes of crime or the fear society has regarding crime.
Criminologists in the past have commented that criminality is a voluntary course of action chosen by the individual who is said to have come from poor social conditions and social reform was the only solution to reducing the crime rate, this was implemented in the 60's and 70's with the notion that this would reduce crime, in reality the opposite happened, the crime rate soared.
Right Realism emerged in the early 1980's and was introduced as a critique of the theories used previously such as the labelling theory and the conservative theory, they were introduced by James Wilson (2003) in his discussion on Deterrence, he talks of the criminal justice system and how by sending more people to prison with harsher sentences is not the answer to controlling crime, these kinds of deterrents have been tried and tested and still according to official figures the crime rates are ever increasing. The criminal justice system needs to be reformed in order to increase the chances of the criminal being caught and to set appropriate punishments for those that are.
Right realism has similar tenets to the Marxism theory whereby the offender has the free-will and individual choice to commit a crime; it is primarily concerned with the control and prevention of criminal behaviour. Right realism sees that official statistics show the true reality of crime and the publics concerns regarding crime.
Informal policing can be seen as a way forward in deterring crime because they involve policing by the community in which you live, but before this can emerge communities need to be re-established for a sense of social order which has to be maintained by the police with the co-operation of the community. Personal responsibility and self control is what is seen as the best way forward to building a better response to the problems of crime. Informal social control would allow the general public to be able to police their own communities and for the police who ...
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Informal policing can be seen as a way forward in deterring crime because they involve policing by the community in which you live, but before this can emerge communities need to be re-established for a sense of social order which has to be maintained by the police with the co-operation of the community. Personal responsibility and self control is what is seen as the best way forward to building a better response to the problems of crime. Informal social control would allow the general public to be able to police their own communities and for the police who are normally dependent on the public for reporting criminal events to strengthen the police and public bond.
Ronald Clarke (2003) with other sociologists precluded that crime prevention should be based on the understanding of the causes of crime. Clarke picks up on 3 features that could be advantageous to crime prevention, the first being that focus is now directed more on the actual criminal event and what took place. Secondly explanations need to be established to separate the categories of crime. Thirdly more significance is now directed to the offender's lifestyle and the circumstances of the criminal act.
Wilson with other criminologists previously tried to discover what criminals look for when they commit a crime. There are incentives and rewards that satisfy a criminal's interest, the offender is not concerned that their behaviour is immoral, they lack self control and only see immediate gratification.
Situational crime was researched looking at the area, situation and ways to prevent the crime from occurring by reducing opportunities for offending and increasing the chances of offenders being caught.
Manipulating opportunities, creating better surveillance making it harder for the criminal to commit an actual crime can only be seen as a good way of protecting ones valuable items, but on the other hand the 'Big Brother' surveillance can be seen as an infringement of ones civil liberties.
Objections will obviously prevail as in every theory, the major one in this tenet is the cost and of whom this would be directed at, would it be the public through their taxes and community charges or would the government foot the bill?
Conservative theories believe the effective way of attacking crime is from the roots by reducing inequalities of wealth, class and education, also many criminologists agree with the notion that society would be best if they themselves deal with the punishment of offenders instead of the criminal justice system.
Another criticism is that of opportunistic crime, mostly criminals are law-abiding citizens like everyone else, they do not depend solely on illegal proceeds, these crimes are not planned, but if an opportunity arises for example an unlocked car or an untended bag they would grasp the opportunity and commit a crime. This situational crime has been ignored and devalued, and the theory of 'dispositional' crime whereby biological, physiological and sociological theories concentrate on the individual being born a criminal or acquiring criminal behaviours are always being brought to the forefront.
Charles Murray (1990) in his chapter on the 'Underclass' defines crime as a symptom of declining moral standards. In the 1960's family breakdown, dependency on the welfare state, lack of appropriate child rearing, lack of discipline from parents to children and single parenting all help in the development of the criminal underclass. Economic growth means more expectations for the criminal without the opportunities to obtain them unless it is though crime.
Left realism emerged at the same time as the right; great emphasis was placed on the criminal justice system who decides what preventative measures are used to reduce crime and what punishments are given for the ones that are caught They took their ideas from writers such as Lea and Young and Currie. Left realists reject the idea of 'partial' theories of crime; it also seeks to understand the effect crime has on its victims whom are mainly working class and seeks to discover the social causes of crime, omitted by previous theorists. Left realists are critical of conservative and radical criminology, although a lot of their tenets are similar as they all agree that deprivation and marginalisation are the key causes of crime.
Crime occurs because of economic and political discontent and the absence of economic opportunities for the remedy. Criminals hold conventional values the same as everyone else in society and they have the same desires for material success and status.
Most working class crimes are towards other working class people, the same can be said for black criminals directing their crimes towards other black people, which just goes to show criminals have no political dimension on an individual level.
Marcus Felson (2002) mentions four basic correlations that lacks any specific paradigm but encompasses the whole social trend these are (a) Family life discourages crime (b)Males commit more crime than females (c) 12 to 25 year olds are disproportionate offenders (d) If socioeconomic statuses rises, crime participation will decline.
Left realists see the use of official statistics as a good process of determining the crime problem they are also encouraged to obtain self report studies and victimization reports to back these figures up, although there may be faults with using statistics it can help to show correlations in criminal behaviour. These statistics confirm the highest level of crime occurs within the lower classes of society, and although these statistics may be distorted they represent real concerns to real people.
Left realists advocate that no single factor can account for the range and variety of criminal and deviant behaviour in society, but they do suggest 3 major factors that are always involved in the equation. The first of these factors is that of the criminal being part of a sub-culture, a culture that supports and rationalises their deviant behaviour, there may not be a reason that a crime is committed, for example being unemployed may not mean that one would commit a crime, and not all unemployed are criminals.
The second factor is that of relative deprivation that involves subjective feelings, of one being depraved compared to other people. Deviants may not be poor, but if they feel depraved compared to other people this contributes to deviant behaviour, but not everyone that feels depraved will be criminal natured. And this may be adequate for an explanation of burglary, street crime and theft, but what about murder, sexual crime and domestic violence.
The last factor is of marginalisation, the idea that people realise they have economic problems that need to be resolved, but those in power are doing nothing to address these problems. Male, working class youths are those that are in the highest crime groups either because of political or economic discontent. When all of the three factors are paramount it is more likely that they will result in increased criminal activity.
Official statistics underestimate the levels and class of crime. The police because of ideologies concentrate of working class crime turning a blind eye to corporate and state crimes. Individuals may feel that street crime is more of a problem than it really is because of media coverage rather than the direct experience of experiencing crime themselves.
Another criticism is that Lea and Young try to encompass all types of criminal behaviour as universal and characteristic of all crimes. Different crimes have different causes and offer different incentives.
Crime is a problem that needs to be taken seriously by criminologists and the only way of implementing change is firstly to look at the causes of crime and examine why only certain social categories are represented. The offender is usually on the fringe of the economy, unemployed, missed out on an education and belongs to a minority group, left idealists know that economic deprivation leads to more crime, people act differently according to their lifestyles. Crime occurs because of the lack of conditioning, and people's lack of virtues.
Jock Young (2003) a major writer on crime and deviance talks of relative deprivation and its excess of expectations over opportunities, expectations are now a lot higher than in the 1930's with media increase and people gaining more knowledge they have ideas of what they want and what they can aim for. Although now expectations and opportunities have shifted in opposite directions, relative deprivation has increased and the state are responsible for societies opportunities, people resent the state because of this lack of opportunity which in reality young unemployed individuals will take out their frustrations on other institutions such as the police. For crime to be dealt with on both a macro and a micro level the relationship between the offenders, the victim and the state need to be examined.
The rise in crime has gone hand in hand with economic inequality. We live within a market society; a society that promotes crime and morally those that commit crimes can see no wrong in their actions as it is a way of getting back at society for their deprivation. Crime is a serous problem especially for the working class, ethnic and vulnerable people in society and something needs to done about it, the central task of the realist is to go back to the drawing boards take up the theories of the past and execute them and take on board the causes of crime and the rehabilitation process and examine the consequences of crime until this is done crime will always be a serious problem. We need to build more effective movements for social change.
Scraton and Chadwick (2003) are critical of the Left Realist theory; they see the relationship between structure and agency. The structure relations in society encompass the production, re-production and neo-colonialism with regards to economics and politics which give rise to the agency of how the state and other agencies use the criminal justice system to legitimate state rule and cause economic marginalisation for the vulnerable individuals in society whether criminal or not.
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Sharon Ebanks T274910X TMA03
