Sociology – Realism
Left realism is a new way of approaching crime, which disputes the ideas of the left idealists such as Marxists. They attack the idea that crime can only be solved through a radical revolution and offer practical realistic solution s to crime. Similarly right realists also look at crime from a different angle.
When looking at the causes of crime left realists do not agree with the idea of the ‘modern day robin hood’ that steals from the rich and redistributes income to the poor. Lea and Young see that the reality is that many of the victims of crime are themselves poor. In the USA Lea and Young found that unskilled workers were significantly more likely to get burgled and black people were more likely to get murdered than die in a road traffic accident. The left are also realistic about the differences in ethnicity and crime. The right offer no explanation for ethnicity differences in crime rates. Lea and young attach left idealists such as Gilroy who claims that criminal statistics are fabricated and police racism accounts for the differences. They point out that the public reports 90% of crimes to the police; therefore the police themselves uncover only 10%. Also the recorded rate for Asian crime is always constantly lower than that of white crimes so it therefore casts doubt on the idea that police racism accounts for the statistics. Lea and Young also challenge the left idealists view that crime amongst ethnic groups was due to the anti-colonial-struggle especially as today’s ethnics are 2nd and 3rd generation, and first generation immigrants were highly law-abiding, so it seems unreasonable to think that they passed this down to their children. It is plausible to say that racial discrimination and oppression plays more of a role in crime rates that a political attack on a white racist state. Like we have seen in the topic of religion, religion can in fact reduce crime levels for example Asians commit less crime as they have traditional strong religious beliefs.
