Left wing policies on crime reduction

Raising living standards and quality of life, prevention

Increasing benefits, Raising minimum wage, re distributive taxation policy.

Left wing views on prevention

Left wing views see social structures as the main cause for crime, focusing on issues such as inequality, deprivation and social exclusion.
Their approach is long term, focusing on structural changes:
Reducing income inequalities
Raising living standards and quality of life
Reducing unemployment
Improving education and training opportunities

Punishment

Focus on rehabilitation, which aims to reintegrate the offenders back into society, having adressed the causes for offending.

Braithwaite 1989, shame and reintegration

Focus' on offenders behaviour rather than the offender themselves, 'you did a bad thing'.
The aim is to reaffirm the offenders membership with the law-obiding society, encouraging remorse and the offender to face up to the consequences of their actions.
This approach avoids labelling, seeking to explore how the offender can make amends and avoid the same mistakes in future.

Reintegrative shaming

Left realists beleive helping the offender to address the issues which caused the offending and recognise the damage their offending has done to the victim and wider community.

Punishment examples

Community sentencing, such as unpaid work and treatment programmes to addiction or mental health problems.
These sentences have much lower re offending rates than custodial sentences, arguably as it addresses the causes of the original offending.

Restorative justice

Involves bringing the offender together with the victim and the affected community members in a facilitated dialogue, promoting understanding, accountability and healing
Aims to empower all parties, promote reconciliation and prevent future harm.

Restorative justice examples

Victim offender mediation
Involves face to face meeting with victim and offender, the goal is for the offender to understand the impact of their actions on the community, ideally by offender expressing remorse and reach a point where they agree on ways to repair theur harm.

Restorative justice; Red hook community justice court

Brooklyn, NYC, made 75% reductions in homicides, robbery and burglary in the 2 decades to 2011.
The court runs unconventional initiatives such as community meditation sessions, leadership training for local teenagers.
Direct compensations for victim, eg cleaning up graffiti or returning stolen property.
Or indirect, eg volunteer work in community.

Restorative justice; Surrey 2011

Youth crimes referred to a panel who decide whether they should go to court, given a warning or a youth restorative intervention.
In which a support worker will speak to offender and victim and discuss if they are happy to do this rather than court.
Since introduced 70/80% of youth crimes have been death with this way. Which has reduced offending by 18% and 1,160 fewer young people have received a criminal record.

Lea and Young 1993, control (policing)

Argue that the public lack confidence in the police and believe them to be prejudice.
This stems from a drift seen towards 'military policing' (conflict policing) rather than consensual policing, leading to a vicious cycle of less corporation with the police, which in turn leads to more military style tactics.
They argue the relationship between police and the community needs to be improved by minimal policing characterised by trust and cooperation.

Evaluation of restorative justice, Marshall 1998

Points out the majority of individuals offered the chance to participate indicated they would like to do so, and later failures to carry out agreements are much lower than failures to pay court ordered fines.

Evaluation of restorative justice, 2002 UK scheme, Shapland

The UK government funded a seven year research programme looking into the effectiveness of R.J.
In 2008 Shapland found that the majority of victims chose to participate in the face to face meetings with the offenders and 85% were satisfied with the process.

Evaluation of restorative justice

Some view it as a 'soft option', and there is public support for more and longer custodial sentencing and a more retributive approach to punishment (right wing)

Control, multi-agency working

Agencies such as the police,council, social services,media,religion,schools, community groups and family have roles to play in improving the moral contexts in which crime is committed.
Lea and Young argue for a more coordinated approach between these agencies, including more communication regarding individuals and families at risk of offending or victimisation.
Recent examples, such as the exploitation and abuse of vulnerable young people within gangs suggest that failures in communication between agencies can have serious consequences.

Evaluation of left wing policies

The long term nature of the schemes means the likelihood that they will be fully funded and followed through by successive governments is slim.

Evaluation of left wing policies, Gilroy

Argues left wing views of community policing is simplistic and underestimating the deliberate racist strategies which he argues underpins the policing of some communities.

Evaluation of left wing policies, Murray 1994

Points out that the USA attempted such policies in the 1960s/70s, including pre-school socialisation programmes and programmes which provide guaranteed jobs for young people without skills and on the job training.
He argues such policies were 'notorious failures' and did not produce long term group results.