Realist View of Crime and Deviance

Realist Approaches to Crime

Realist approaches differ from other crime theories by:

• Addressing both the causes of crime and practical solutions.

Left Realist View of Crime

• Background:

  • Developed in the 1980s and 1990s.

  • Rooted in the Marxist view of societal inequality as a cause of crime and deviance.

  • Advocate for gradual change instead of violent overthrow of capitalism, unlike traditional Marxists.

• Causes of crime:

  • Relative Deprivation:

    • Lea and Young: Deprivation, not poverty, is the primary driver of criminality.

    • Argue that rising living standards have increased feelings of deprivation compared to others.

    • This leads to resentment and crime as a means to achieve perceived entitlements.

  • Marginalisation:

    • Marginalised groups: Feel excluded from society and lack representation for their interests.

    • This generates frustration and resentment, potentially leading to criminal behaviour to improve their situation.

  • Subcultures:

    • Draws on Cloward and Ohlin's and AK Cohen's ideas of blocked opportunities.

    • Subcultures provide a collective response to relative deprivation.

    • Criminal subcultures still adhere to societal goals and values like materialism and consumerism.

    • Example: Ghettos in America fixated on brands like Gucci, BMW, and Nike.

• View of tackling crime:

  • Address the social problems underlying crime, especially inequality and deprivation.

  • Focus on improving relationships between the public and police.

  • Employ a multi-agency approach involving various organisations.

• Evaluation:

  • Milovanovic's criticism: Accepts the government's definition of crime, focusing on street crime by the poor.

  • Interactionist critique: Fails to explain motives due to reliance on quantitative data.

  • Assumes a value consensus within society.

  • Relative deprivation doesn't explain all crime, as not everyone experiencing it turns to crime.

  • Focusing on high-crime inner-city areas provides an unrepresentative view, exaggerating the problem.

Right Realist View of Crime

• Background:

  • Aligned with neo-conservative governments of the 1970s and early 1980s.

  • See street crime as a genuine and escalating problem that damages communities and social cohesion.

  • Prioritise practical solutions over the causes of crime.

• Causes of crime:

  • Biological Differences:

    • Wilson and Herrnstein (1985): Biosocial theory combining biological and social factors.

    • Predisposition to crime linked to personality traits:

      • Aggressiveness

      • Extroversion

      • Risk-taking

      • Low impulse control.

    • Combined with poor socialisation or lack of role models leads to criminal behaviour.

  • Socialisation and the underclass:

    • Charles Murray: Increasing crime rates due to a growing underclass dependent on the welfare state.

    • This underclass fails to adequately socialise their children.

    • Murray argues that the 'glorious revolution' of the 1960s led to more single-parent families, inadequate socialisation agents that fail to teach children responsibility.

  • Rational Choice:

    • Ron Clarke (1980): Individuals have free will and reason, so criminals choose to commit a crime.

    • If the perceived cost of committing a crime is outweighed by the benefit, people are more likely to offend.

    • Argue that the current costs of crime are too low, contributing to increased crime rates.

• View of tackling crime:

  • Believe that addressing the root causes of crime is ineffective because they are too difficult to change.

  • Focus on making criminal behaviour less attractive.

    • Target hardening: Making it harder to commit crimes.

    • Zero tolerance: Immediate, strict punishment for all criminal behaviour.

• Evaluation:

  • Ignores wider structural causes of crime, focusing too much on individual choices and circumstances.

  • Overstates the rationality of criminals, failing to explain violent or impulsive crimes.

  • Presents contradictions between rationality and bio-social causes of crime.

  • Ignores corporate and white-collar crime, focusing on street crime.