The Strengths and Limitations of Left Realism and Right Realism Theories in Explaining Crime and Deviance.

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The Strengths and Limitations of Left Realism and Right Realism Theories in Explaining Crime and Deviance.

Left Realism is a different perspective on crime and deviance developed in the early 1980s by sociologists, advancing from Marxism and Neo-Marxism. Two prominent supporters of this perspective are Jock Young and John Lea.

Young and Lea began to develop an approach to explaining crime and deviance. They argue that crime is rooted in social conditions and argue that crime is closely related to deprivation but reject the view that poverty and unemployment can be directly responsible for crime. In the 1930s unemployment was very high, yet the crime rate remained minimal compared to the 1980s. More recently, Young (1997) has stressed that since World War Two the dramatically improved living standards and the introduction of welfare provisions have gone hand-in-hand with the growth of the crime rate. Young and Lea base their attempts to explain crime around three key concepts:

Relative Deprivation- It is not the fact of being deprived which causes crime but the feeling of deprivation. A group or individual will experience relative deprivation when they feel deprived in comparison to similar groups or the people around you. So in today’s modern society, where everyday the media report the importance of success and the consumption of consumer goods, this leaves individuals feeling they should be aspiring to a middle-class lifestyle and patterns of consumption.

Subculture- Groups sharing a sense of relative deprivation see subcultures as the collective solution to the group’s problems and develop lifestyles which allow them to cope with this problem. Second generation West Indian immigrants for example, advocated subcultural strategies such as street crime in the form of ‘hustling’ for money, as well as joining Rastafarian and Pentecostal religious movements.

Marginalisation- Groups find themselves ‘pushed to the edge’ of society as they lack organisations to represent their political interests and also lack clearly defines goals. Marginal groups often resort to riots and acts of violence as forms of political action.

Left Realist criminologists pay certain attention to practical ways of tackling crime. Richard Kinsey, Young and Lea put forward a variety of suggestions about was of changing policing. Kinsey, Young and Lea believe that there are a number of flaws in policing and that the public have lost their confidence in the police, and are reluctant to notify the police of crimes (90% of solved crimes rely on public notification). The Policy Studies Institute has shown that 75% of black 16-25 year olds living in London believe that the police fabricate evidence and use violence towards suspects. Without public support, police have to resort to ‘military policing’ (stop and searchers, surveillance etc.), which leads to ‘mobilization of bystanders’. That is, the public begin to see police as an alienating force, intent on criminalizing local residents. This starts a vicious circle, as people are then more reluctant to report crimes, and more military policing is needed. Kinsey, Young and Lea state that the key to police success lies in improving relationships with the community. They propose that the public should have more say in shaping police policy, and officers should spend more time investigating crime rather than simply being ‘on the beat’, which antagonises the public. Young argues that certain areas of crime (e.g. juvenile status crimes such as underage drinking) are over-policed, whereas others (e.g. racial assault) are under-policed. The police need to ‘get their priorities right’ and address these under-policed areas.

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Jock Young sees the problem of crime rooted in social inequalities and does not believe that crime can be dealt with by simple improving the efficiency of the police.  Only when these inequalities are addressed will crime be reduced. Young suggests, among other things, that by providing improved leisure facilities for young people, improving living standards for poorer households, and reducing unemployment, social inequalities can be dealt with and in turn, crime can successfully be reduced.  Young (1992) advocates a ‘multi-agency’ approach as he feels different agencies should be working together. Such as the local council improving housing estates, ...

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