eQuizShow

Who Wants To Be A Left Realist?

History

Question: Why did they think Marxist Crim had failed?
Answer: Missed the point as it made it out to be nothing more than a class conspiracy

Question: Why was left realism developed?
Answer: As a response to New Right Crim and Radical Maxist Crim

Question: Who is most vulnerable to crime and who is the usual perpetrator? (Class)
Answer: The powerless commit crime against one another but also vulnerable to the powerful committing crime against them

Question: Why was crime committed?
Answer: Rarely done to secure the necessities - they craved the luxuries they did not have

Question: Why were criminologists criticised? Give 2 reasons
Answer: Excused criminal behaviour - absolved offenders of responsibility.
Crimes of the working class were romanticised (Robin Hood mentality)

Left Realism

Question: Who was it developed by and why?
Answer: Lea and Young as a response to Right Realism & neo-Marxist radical criminology (left idealism)

Question: How do they view crime?
Answer: See's it as a real problem for ordinary people - those most likely to behave criminally are also most likely to be victimised

Question: Where do they say crime is most concentrated?
Answer: Working class areas, inner city, subsidised housing

Question: What do they believe crime stems from?
Answer: Racial discrimination, material deprivation, low wages, unemployment

Question: How do they get their main source of data?
Answer: Surveys of local victims & residents

Origins of Crime

Question: What are the three theories Left Realists relate crime to?
Answer: Subculture, relative deprivation, marginalisation

Question: What are the goals of a young black subculture?
Answer: Material goods - money and status symbols such as expensive cars, homes and clothing

Question: Why do people commit crime (in terms of relative deprivation)?
Answer: Frustrations between expectations and reality of lifestyle leads them to feel deprivation in relation to others

Question: Why do the working class feel alienated? (In terms of marginalisation)?
Answer: Schools, unemployment, low-wages, police, parents etc

Question: Why do marginalised groups commit crime? Give 2 reasons
Answer: Economic and social marginalisation leads to rebellion and crime.
They have nothing left to lose by committing crime as they are already on the outside.

Left Realist Solutions

Question: How do Left Realists believe the community should be involved in solving crime?
Answer: - after apprehension offenders should be dealt with via community corrections
- local residents decide which problems to tackle and cooperate with police to solve them

Question: How does demarginalisation work?
Answer: Reintegrates community members such as jobless young men so they do not feel like outsiders, reduces alienation

Question: What are the four elements Left Realists believe need to be studied (in terms of their relationships) in order to understand crime?
Answer: - offender
- victim
- state
- community

Question: What are the outcomes of military policing?
Answer: - relationship between police and public breaks down
- may lead to rioting
- reluctance to report crime

Question: Why is military policing bad and what procedures does it use?
Answer: It is used too often in 'bad' areas. Leads to police stopping any suspicious looking person and harassing them, leading to communities feeling alienated from the police/government - even non criminals. Blurs the distinction between criminal and non-criminal - any police action viewed as attack on community.
Uses procedures of 'swamp' and 'stop and search'

General

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Question: Why does relative deprivation and marginalisation not explain many offender's motives?
Answer: Doesn't explain why those who are marginalised but don't commit crime. Why doesn't everyone do it?

Question: What are some criticisms of Left Realism?
Answer: - explains race and class issues but not why women are less prone to crime
- assumes that crime is a result of a breakdown in societies values
- relies heavily on victimisation survets
- community control might not work as racist/sexist divisions in neighbourhood

Question: Jock Young proposed a generic theory to explain criminality. He said contemporary culture is making crime worse in a number of ways. What are these ways?
Answer: 1. greater uncertainty and instability in many aspects of life
2. less consensus about moral values
3. greater individual desire for immediate gratification
4. breakdown of informal social controls