what is left realism
Left Realism is related to Marxism and the New Criminology, but tries to focus on finding practical ways of solving crime, as it claims that these two theories are too idealistic and have unrealistic ideas about how to solve crime.
key concerns
Solutions to crime should focus on social and community crime prevention and improving relations between the police and local communities. The three three major causes of (working class street) crime are relative deprivation, marginalisation and subcultures.
Islington crime survey
36% of local residents saw crime as a big issue
56% worries about being burgled
46% had been victim of street robbery.
most crime was intra-age, intra-class and intra-race
Hall- policing the crisis
discussed how mugging was not new or increasing in the early 70s. Moral panic due to hegemony
Gramsci
“the ways in which a governing power wins consent to its rule from those it subjugates”
Link between race and crime
- overrepresentation of black people in the recorded crime statistics of certain offences and in the prison population
- race/crime debate is about an interpretation of the statistics and how we explain them.
- if accepting stats we must explain why black people have higher crime rates through:
- pathological theories
- subcultural theories
- control theories
- if we reject them we need to explain how and why the overrepresentation is produced.
critique from left realism
lea and young 1993 ‘what is to be done about law and order’
- radical criminology simply ignores the problem of street crime and refuses to engage with it either as a policy problem or as a theoretical issue
- working class are victims of the crimes of both the powerful and the powerless
Sim 1982 - brixton
“By concentrating both man power and resources in areas such as Brixton, the police were likely to pick up more black people, especially black youths who spend much of their time on the streets. This group then found their way into the criminal statistics, thus leading to an even greater police and media attention on the activities of black people”
Black crime is real
- a partial acceptance for the official statistics
- a theory of the causes of crime and especially street crime
- analysis of policing
relative deprivation
creates discontent and where there is no political solution, this leads to crime
combined causes of crime
relative deprivation
anomie theory
subcultural theory
political marginalisation
anomie
“crime is endemic to capitalism because it produces egalitarian ideals and material shortages” - Lea and Young 1984
subcultural response
in response to relative deprivation and the marginalisation faced by those in similar communities, subcultures arise
political marginalisation
- Lea and Young - the subcultures of the dispossessed do not have to lead to a criminal result. in some circumstances it can result in a political response
- Black Youths are effectively alienated from traditional political movements
Analysis of crime statistics
- different rates of crime
- different rates of reported crime to police
- different rates of crime recorded by police
- different rates of crime cleared up by police
- different rates of crime recorded in the official statistics
- Lea and Young, crime statistics suggesting a higher rate of black involvement in street crime are partially true.
Improving policing
police must concentrate on improving relationships with the community
the public should have more say in shaping police policy –where the police should listen to the public about what crime affects them most in their area.
Young and Matthews (1992) community based strategies
they argue that improving leisure facilities for the young, reducing income inequalities, improving housing estates, raising the living standards of poorer families, reducing unemployment and creating jobs with prospects, will all help to cut crime.
