Ultra-Realism Criminology Notes

Introduction to Ultra-Realism

Ultra-realist criminology emerged as a response to mainstream criminology's departure from understanding crime causation and motivation.
It seeks to answer: Why do individuals and groups risk harm to others for their own interests?
Ultra-realism utilizes theoretical and methodological tools from various disciplines, underpinned by critical realism and transcendental materialism.
Key concepts include pseudo-pacification process and the libertine drive of special liberty.

Criminological Atrophy: The Stalled Dialectic

Criminology involves ongoing discussions about the causes of crime, patterns of crime, and societal responses.
Criminology is an 'importer discipline', borrowing ideas from philosophy, sociology, and psychology.
Key assumptions that shape the conversation about crime:
- Measurement and identification of crime (positivism/empiricism, constructionism).
- Nature of reality (idealism and realism).
- Inherent nature of people (good, bad, or both).
Ultra-realism builds on existing traditions like left realism but opposes the departure from questions of motivation.
Early criminology emphasized understanding the causes of crime (Lombroso's biological positivism, Merton's strain theory, Chicago School's social ecology, Sutherland's differential association).
As the 20th century progressed, criminology shifted towards risk management, public protection, and control, leading to 'controlology' and situational crime prevention.
A 'left idealist' paradigm emerged, addressing crime from a social constructionist perspective.
Idealism posits that 'reality' is limited to what we know and mentally construct, influenced by power relations, interactions, and social constructs.
Michel Foucault argued that society is characterized by power relations rooted in socially constructed discourses.
Laws and legal systems reflect power relations and enforce control but are socially constructed.
Labelling theory argues that society labels transgressors as 'deviant,' who then internalize that label, shifting focus from motivation to power relations.
This reflects a liberal view of human nature as fundamentally 'good' but oppressed by power imbalances.
Feminist criminology highlighted hidden crimes against women, offering a corrective to social constructionism by emphasizing the impact on victims.
Left and right realism emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, with left realism acknowledging crimes of the powerful and intra-class crime.
Left realism's 'square of crime' consisted of the victim, offender, public, and state institutions, aiming to repair relationships to reduce crime.
Ultra-realism deviates from left realism's drift into pragmatic 'what works?' focus and the neglect of underlying economic and cultural conditions.
Criminology relies on ontological, epistemological, and ethical domain assumptions, with ultra-realism prioritizing perspectives concerned with motivation and the reality of crime.

Critical Realism: The Journey Towards Ultra-Realism

Criminological theorization often rests on a positivist foundation with an empiricist view of science.
Critical realism offers a layered ontology that accounts for more than the observable.
Following Roy Bhaskar, reality comprises three layers:
- Empirical: subjective experiences and observable phenomena.
- Actual: real events or absences outside everyday experiences.
- Real: underlying generative mechanisms beyond sense perception.
Positivist positions focus on the empirical layer, missing the other two domains.
Critical realism and ultra-realism emphasize interpretive criminology but caution against stopping there, as it leads to symptomology.
Critical realism acknowledges that underlying generative mechanisms exist even if not directly observable.
As an open system, causal powers have probabilistic causal tendencies rather than universal truths.
Depth realism must be studied to determine the potential causes of crime and harm and the level of intervention required.
Ultra-realist criminology looks for evidence of things unseen and considers probabilistic causal tendencies associated with depth structures.
Critical realism implies a reality beyond our awareness that impacts our lives and decisions, avoiding 'direct expression' theories of crime.
Ultra-realism makes claims through correlation and probabilistic causal tendency.
Critical realism foregrounds the role of absences, which can have probabilistic causal tendencies.
- For example, The absence of a welfare state, the absence of school during the pandemic.

Subjectivity and the Split from Critical Realism

Ultra-realism departs from critical realism regarding the nature of subjectivity.
Bhaskar argues for a positive moral agent, while ultra-realism suggests the subject is neither inherently good nor bad.

The Components of Ultra-Realism

Ultra-realism suggests criminology has strayed from exploring causation and motivation.
Critical realism provides tools to consider generative mechanisms and probabilistic causal tendencies.
Ultra-realism incorporates ideas from disparate disciplines and develops new concepts, viewing the discipline as both an importer and generator of ideas.
Transcendental materialism suggests the subject is neither inherently good nor bad, influenced by ideology, environment, and the unconscious.
It uses Lacan's psychoanalytical framework, proposing that the subject seeks comfort and coherence in a Symbolic Order.
The Symbolic Order affects us materially and can be difficult to change.
People are more malleable than ideologies, and 'deaptation' occurs when ideologies linger past their usefulness.
Lack motivates us to act in the world.
Steve Hall's pseudo-pacification process considers how libidinal energy has been transformed to facilitate capitalist development.
The maintenance of orderly disorder directs competitive energies into economically useful avenues.
Libidinal energy exists beneath the surface, occasionally erupting in problematic ways.
Breakdown in institutions causes problems.
Special liberty reflects a libertine drive where individuals see themselves above the law.
These concepts attempt to make sense of the relationship between the individual and the social order.

Conclusion

Ultra-realist criminology aims to move the conversation about crime forward, retaining useful elements of earlier theories.
It emphasizes the reality of crime and harm, its impact on victims and communities, and unseen voices.
In advocating a return to causation, ultra-realism follows critical realism in indicating probabilistic causal relationships.
Ultra-realism's tools – transcendental materialism, pseudo-pacification, special liberty, lack, fetishistic disavowal – aim to show the complex relationship between individuals, societies, and ideologies.