All right realism

Key theorist

Wilson

Influence

• Both 🇬🇧 and 🇺🇸

• Policies focus less on causes and more on practical control measures, like control and punishment > rehabilitation

Main thought about crime and subsequent policies

• Crime (esp. street crime) is an increasing problem

  • Destroys communities

  • Undermines social cohesion

  • Threatens societal work ethic

• Therefore: zero tolerance policies

Criticisms of other theories

• Many theories yet no practical solutions

Criticism of labelling theory and critical criminology

• Too sympathetic to criminals

Criticism of Marxism

• Old people are poor, yet have a low crime rate

3 causes of crime

1. Biological differences (biosocial theory)

2. Socialisation and the underclass

3. Rational choice theory

Biosocial theory (🧬) - Wilson & Hernstein (1985)

• Biological differences mean some individuals are more predisposed to commit crime

• Traits that are biologically determined

  • Aggressiveness

  • Extroversion

  • Risk-taking

  • Lack of self discipline or impulse control

🧬 - Hernstein & Murray (1994)

• Low intelligence is also biologically determined

🧬- similar to

• Lombroso’s phrenology

  • Idea that skull shape impacts on areas of your brain and therefore makes you more/less intelligent

CRITICISM of 🧬

• Outdated

• Disproven

Socialisation and the underclass

• Inneffective socialisation → lack of self-control or internalisation of moral values of right and wrong

Socialisation and the underclass - Murray (1990) - cause of an increasing underclass

• Fewer marriages → less responsibility for children taken by men → more single-parent families → more welfare dependency (as women able to live off benefits) → increasing underclass

Socialisation and the underclass - Murray (1990) - consequence of an increasing underclass

• → poor socialisation (esp by women) → boys turning to delinquent role models → more crime

Socialisation and the underclass - Bennett et al (1996)

• Growing up surrounded by delinquent adults in a criminogenic environment → crime

Rational Choice Theory (🐀)

• Assumption that individuals have free will and power of reason to make decisions (e.g. whether or not to commit crime)

🐀 - Clarke (1980)

• Crime = choice based on rational calculation of likely consequences

🐀 - Clarke (1980) - costs and rewards

• Perceived rewards of crime > perceived costs of crime (therefore crime is committed)

• Low perceived costs due to

  • Low risk of being caught

  • Punishments lenient

🐀 - Wilson (1975)

Low supply and value of legit opportunites (jobs) + low cost of illegti opportunities (fines, jail terms) → teenager concluding it “makes more sense to steal cars than wash them”

🐀 - Felson (2002) - 3 things crime needs to occur

1. Motivated offender

2. Suitable target

3. Absence of capable guardian

• If there were one, offender would be deterred due to their rationality

3 focuses + aim

1. Control

2. Containment

3. Punishment

• Aim: decrease rewards of crime and increase its cost

What RR do not care for

• Rehabilitation

• Elimination of causes of crime

5 methods to achieve their aim

1. Target hardening

2. Increasing prison sentences

3. Zero tolerance

4. More CCTV

5. More police

Extra method: Winson and Kelling (1982) - 💔🪟

• Essential to maintain neighbourhoods by tackling signs of deterioration immediately

• E.g

  • Prostitution

  • Graffiti

  • Begging

  • Broken windows

• As they found that once the window of an abandoned car was broken, the car was fully ransacked

  • Signs of deprivation encourage crime

3 CRITICISMS of RR

• Ignores structural causes like poverty

• 🐀 overstates rationality and doesn’t explain impulsive crime

• Dichotomy between biological predispositions and rationality (🧬 vs 🐀) - cannot coexist

CRITICISM of RR — Lilly et al (2002) - 🧬

• Overstates biological differences

• IQ difference accounts for <3% differences in offending