9 - Solutions to crime/ social policies

Right wing solutions

Since Right realists focus on the erosion of community norms and the likelihood of getting caught as reasons for committing crime, they believe that making crime more difficult to commit and the making capture and punishment more likely will deter criminals. The New right tend to blame criminals or deviants for their own situation and their bad choices.

1. Right realist solution - situational crime prevention (SCP) - target hardening

   • this approach looks to make specific changes to a location making petty Farringtcrimes harder to commit or capture more likely.

   • this can be achieved through installing alarms, better locks, anti-climbing paint and CCTV.

   • Marcus Felson tested on The Port Authority Bus Terminal In NYC which he believed was poorly designed and provided opportunities for deviant conduct such as theft.

   • Re-shaping the environment to ‘design crime out’ greatly reduced such activity. Examples of this were increasing the brightness and frequency of lighting to avoid dark corners. they installed a CCTV system.

   • Farrington and Painter in their study in Stoke-on-Trent, showed that the incidence of crime decreased by 43% in the experimental area where street lighting was improved. Improved lighting can be seen as directly causing a reduction in crime.

   • they call this ‘diffusion of benefit’

Criticisms of SCP (situational crime prevention)

A major problem with this solution is crime displacement. Displacement is the reality that when the situation of crime has been changed, it has the advantage that it reduces crime committed in that place but it becomes displaced to another area. Felson commented that the same was true of the bus terminal. Crime inside the terminal dramatically decreased, however, crime around the terminal drastically increased.

2. Right Realists solution - Environmental Crime Prevention (ECP)

   • Wilson and Kelling argue that crime flourishes in areas where social control breaks down. Broken windows are signs that the community cares less about an area.

   • Wilson and Kelling argue that environmental crime prevention should be adopted; with more police on the streets and zero tolerance policies.

   • they propose that 1. repairing any sign of environmental decline such as broken windows and graffiti must be tackled immediately.

   • police should have a presence by visibly patrolling areas of social disorder in their cars.

   • the final proposal is that all public housing buildings should not exceed three floors and all residents should be encouraged to take responsibility for the communal space in order to protect it from crime and anti-social behaviour.

Criticisms of ECP (environmental crime prevention)

Left realists argue that factors such as a lack of investment are far more important than the policing strategy. they argue that while rich people live in gated communities guarded by technology and private security forces the poor may be left with further crime.

3. New right solution - retributive justice

   • Retributive justice refers to idea that the punishment should match the crime that has been committed.

   • The New right argue that criminals should be punished by being excluded from society, i.e. by being incarcerated (locked up) in prison or by being electronically tagged.

   • Clarke suggests the cost must outweigh the benefit so that criminals think twice before committing further crime. In the USA, the policy of ‘three strikes and you are out’ is a good example of retributive justice. This essentially means that after three separate convictions you will receive an automatic life sentence.

   • The New Right suggest ‘prison works’ because it deters many potential offenders away from crime while taking as many persistent and serious offenders as possible out of circulation.

Criticisms of retributive justice

70% of people who have been to prison return to prison (recidivism), Braithwaite, is critical of this ^ approach which he calls ‘disintegrative shaming’ because it involved stigmatising the individual and separating them from society. As an alternative, Braithwaite proposes more community-based punishment for lower level crimes which he calls reintegrate shaming.

4. New right solution - Social Changes

   • Charles Murray suggests that social changes are needed to resolve the problem of the underclass.

   • Marsland agrees that this group is responsible for most of the crime in our societies.

   • a reduction in benefits given to single mothers should signal the governments disapproval, this reducing the number of children born without a strong father role model and strong discipline, this reducing crime.

   • Marsland agrees that welfare payments should be reduced in order to reduce the dependency culture.

Criticisms of Murray / Marsland social policy solution

Lea and Young’s solution is the exact opposite - they want an increase in welfare benefits for poorer families as they think this will reduce the need to commit crime thanks to the reduction of feelings or relative deprivation and marginalisation.

Left wing solutions

Left wing views tend to focus on issues of power and inequality rather than blaming the criminal and deviant.

1. Left wing social policy suggestions

   • left wing solutions to crime are longer term and seek to deal with the deeper structural causes of crime in order to remove the need to commit crime.

   • Lea and Young argue that crime can only be reduced by reducing income and wealth inequalities (relative deprivation).

   • left wing social policies have included: Educational programs and More generous welfare payments.

Criticisms of left-wing social policy suggestions

Right realists criticise the left for being too soft on crime and criminals. They show that not everyone from poor backgrounds commits crime and therefore they suggest crime is an individual choice. Murray suggests that individuals need to take responsibility for their adhesion to society’s morals.

2. Community policing

   • Richard Kinsey et al put forward the idea of community policing whereby neighbourhoods have officers who regularly patrol the same area forging strong relationships with people in an area to improve confidence in the police.

   • Kinsey et al argue the key to police success lies in improving relationships with community so that the flow of information on which the police rely increases.

   • to achieve this, they propose that minimal policing should be used.

   • the police need to regain the confidence of local communities so that people feel comfortable providing them with information about crime.

Criticisms of community policing

Right realists criticise these solutions, they maintain that taking a minimal policing approach will allow crime rates to increase and for people to feel isolated and unsafe in their own communities.

3. Restorative justice (RJ)

   • restorative justice involves encouraging offenders to take responsibility for their actions and is supported by Left realists.

   • offenders are expected to repair the harm they have done by apologising to their victims and giving something back to the community.

   • Restorative justice is an example of Braithwaite’s idea of ‘reintegrative shaming’. this encourages the offender to be sorry and ashamed for their actions.

   • in 2001, the UK government funded a 7-year research programme looking into the effectiveness of RJ. it found that the frequency of reoffending had decreased and that the government saved £9 for every £1 spent on RJ.

Criticisms of restorative justice (RJ)

Right wing thinkers such as Murray accuse restorative justice of being soft on criminals.

4. Rehabilitation of criminals in prisons

   • left realists propose a very different prison system to the right.

   • instead of punishment and retribution the left suggest that criminals should be well cared for in order to re-socialise them ready for release.

   • rehabilitation means giving criminals education, qualifications, work skills, and therapy.

   • this solution uses Youngs theory that many criminals have faced exclusion from mainstream society and thus the way to ‘fix’ them is to include them.

   • people who go to prison have had the most difficult and rehabilitation rather than punishment and further exclusion.

   • left realists suggest that prison should be avoided since people who go to prison often have family who are damaged by the removal of a loved one.

   • there are estimated to be 90,000 children in the UK with a parent currently serving time.

However, right wing theorists such as Clarke suggest that the punishment in prison should be as harsh as possible in order to make it clear that the cost definitely outweighs the potential benefit when potential criminals weigh up the option of committing a crime.