Left realism

Left realism origins of crime

1. subculture

2. relative deprivation

3. marginalisation

Left realism - subculture

Lea and Young argue the subculture of young black people is distinctly different from their parents who largely accept their marginalised positions in society

Young black individuals have high materialistic expectations

Due to this they accept the goals of having materialistic luxuries but don’t have the means which is why they engage in crime

Left realist relative deprivation

Lea and Young argues that frustrated from the unfairness of society - this leads to feelings of relative deprivation

This resentment turns into strategies of criminal/deviant behaviour

Strengths of left realism

Strengths:

• It draws attention to the importance of poverty, inequality and relative deprivation

• It draws attention to the reality of street crime and its effects, especially on victims from deprived groups

• It recognises multiple causes of crime

Limitations of left realism

Limitations:

• It over predicts the amount of working class crime: not everyone who experiences marginalisation turns to crime

• Left realism ten to focus only on big crimes that makes it seem like a bigger problem than it is

• It fails to explain white collar or corporate crime