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left realism vs right realism views on crime - Coggle Diagram
left realism vs right realism views on crime
3 factors influencing levels of crime
LEA AND YOUNG
subcultures
subcultures are a response to the pressures of society x economic success, therefore belonging to these subcultures provided some form of relief from relative deprivation by awarding people status within the group and even providing material gain through disorganised crime. For young people in anti-skl subcultures they act as a coping mechanism to cope w lack of opportunities afforded to them
marginalisation
Individuals w minimal representation in society, being isolated and even rejected by the mainstream , this leads to frustration and coupled w lack of opportunity can lead to violence and aggressive expressions of their frustrations at the system , this can explain petty crimes and non-utilitarian crimes
relative deprivation
Lea and Young : relative deprivation is when people feel they dont have the same economic resources as other in society, as its a comparison between 2 groups it is found in every social class, however they found crime was higher in lower classes. They argue that the pressures to be economically successful was a large driving force behind criminal behaviour.
however they hyper focus on the crimes of the working class and ignore white collar crime and the impact that cracking down on white collar crime could have on society
improving policing
in order to reduce crime left realists would argue that improving policing and police relationships with the public is necessary to reduce crime. They argue that 90% of crimes are cleared up by information given from the public, so if the public-police relationship is improved more crimes will be solved and the public are more likely to come with concerns which can help police shut down crime before it happens. They argue that the public should also have more role in police policy, to help the police target areas of concern
they argue that if the police public relationship breaks down the public are less likely to report crimes and alert police of concerns, forcing police to take on military, no-nonsense policing e.g. stop and searching and surveillance , alienating people and making everyone feel like criminals reducing trust in the police even more
however the police can't work if there's no sense of community , private housing means there's less sense of communities coming together to address communal issues + increased individualisation
upfront investment for long-term gain is necessary to reduce crime
right realists would argue this approach is too soft, stick over carrot approach
if one type of people are always reporting crimes, police are likely to create biases about the groups than tend to be reported
2 approaches to combat crime
community based approaches
Young and Matthews (1992) : argue that improving leisure facilities, living standards, housing estates, reducing unemployment will all help to cut crime. Long and short term measures can be taken
case studies :
Perry pre-skl project for disadvantaged black kids : had groups of 3-4 year old students in a two year intellectual enrichment programme and weekly home visits, for every dollar spent on this programme 17 dollars was saved in welfare, prison etc.
Troubled families programme UK : council's had to report success rate of the programme which was 99%, arguably this has definitely been fabricated as councils would need money so were likely to inflate numbers to keep money coming in for other objectives.
EVALUATION
of community based approaches :
there is a very high cost to run these programmes and according to functionalists its not the state's job to tackle issues
marxists would argue that targetting the working class crime a more effective tax system , taxing the rich , cutting down corporate crime can get money to tackle inequality on a whole by investing more into employment, improving leisure facilities etc
some families are more in the state limelight to be identified as a troubled families, councils are more likely to pick families with issues that are easy to tackle (as its a short term programme) in order to secure more funding rather than picking families who really need help and support as their issues 'cant be helped' by the state
early intervention
early intervention in order to prevent crime rather than focus on punishments of crime, involves identifying groups at high risk of offending crime and trying to limit that risk e.g. Perry pre-skl project and Troubled Families programme