Realist

Realists see crime is a real and growing problem for society and highlight the damage crime causes to communities. Left realists argue that the causes of crime is structural and that an unequal society produces feelings of relative deprivation and marginalisation. They argue that one way to tackle crime is to reduce inequalities. 

However, right realists take the view that crime is caused by rationally self interested individuals who choose to commit crime. Crime can be reduced by increasing the risks of committing crime. 

Evaluate the contributions of realist explanations of crime. 

‘unequal society produces feelings of relative deprivation and marginalisation’

• Left realists are liberal and focus on inequality being the root cause of crime

• Lea and Young argue in relative deprivation, marginalisation, and subculture

  • Relative deprivation - feeling worse off in comparison to others

  • Marginalisation - being pushed to the edge of society

  • Subculture - response to relative deprivation but having a group of people similar

• These can lead to crime for many reasons e.g. relative deprivation can encourage a by any means mentality where crime seems rational in order to achieve goals

• Social and community crime prevention based off this - sees most results e.g. Perry pre-school project

• C - idealistic view as even if inequality was solved we would still have crime

• Jones - relative dep can’t be a key cause crime as not all commit crime

‘rationally self interested individuals who choose to commit crime’

• Right Realists are more Conservative and focus on the individual

• They mainly believe in the voluntarist approach, meaning crime is committed out of free will

• Clarke - Rational Choice - if the reward outweighs the risk then crime will be committed

• Also seen in Felson’s Routine Activity Theory

  • Motivated offender, lack of guard, and a suitable target cause crime

• Helps understand the nature of crime (rational) and how to prevent it e.g. Port Authority New York Bus Terminal

• Situational crime prevention based off this - seems to be successful at getting rid of crime in a certain area

• C - situational crime prevention methods displace crime, and crimes of passion exist

‘crime can be reduced’

• Right Realists argue that crime is often caused by certain characteristics of a person or a place

• Wilson and Hernstein - biosocial factors show that some are more likely to offend

• Wilson and Kelling show that if a place seems disorderly it attracts crime

• Helps understand what attracts crime

• Environmental crime prevention based off this

• C - can often lead to stereotyping and criminalises even petty criminals

Non- Realist theory

• Marxists argue that the cause of all crime is capitalism

• Gordon - alienation and powerlessness, proletarian revenge, values of capitalism (materialism, individualism, competition, envy)

• It is argued that we should commit more crime as capitalism is criminogenic. Crime seems rational in a dog eat dog society

• The only way to stop crime is in a communist society

• C - crime still exists in communist societies, puts too much blame on capitalism