Left Realism Theory - Essay Example

Running Head: LEFT REALISM THEORY Explain Left Realism Theory, including its roots, how it evolved, and the current social implications of Left Realism Theory.AbstractLeft Realism aims to be a total explanation of crime. It Synthesizes various elements from past theoretical perspectives into a "new realistic" approach to crime and deviance that seeks to understand the effect that crime has on its victims (mainly the working class) and the social origins of crime, mainly in terms of the cultural background and development of criminals.

Left Realism theory emerged with the work of Lea and Young in 1984. Elements of Left Realism include the square of crime, relative deprivation and principle of specificity. These elements are also major strengths of this theory. Left Realism's weakness is that it fails to explain why some relatively deprived people turn to crime, whereas others don't. Contribution of Left Realism in the development of criminology can help shape society in a better way.Left Realism set down a marker with the work of Lea and Young (1984).

Left realism is a reaction against both left's tendency to neglect victimisation among working class people and the conservatives' extremely harsh social strategies. It is a perspective that attempts to explain and measure street crime and propose short term policies to control it. It is an attack on left idealists who offer simplistic analyses based heavily on instrumental Marxist and feminist views of the state and law, but who ignore street crime and offer no practical proposal for change.

One of the basic elements of Left Realism theory is Left realists see working class crime as a serious problem for working class. Working class people are victimised from all directions in a capitalist society. Another element is Relative Deprivation: Poverty experienced as unfair (relative depravation when compared to someone else) creates discontent and discontent when there is no political solution leads to crime. So, relative depravation equals discontent, discontent plus lack of political solution equals crime.

One of left realisms most substantial contributions to criminology is the square of crime. The square consists of four interacting elements: victim, offender, state agencies, and the public. The social relationships between each point on the square are as follows: the relationship between the police and the public determines the efficacy of policing, the relationship between the victim and the offender determines the impact of crime, the relationship between the state and the offender is a major factor in recidivism.

Another significant element is the principle of specificity. It is imperative to understand the specific circumstances in which crimes occur. There is a need to place behavior in social context. explanations must be grounded. The local crime survey is the preferred methodological tool (both quantitative and qualitative methods), such as local surveys on victimisation, fear of crime, woman abuse, perceptions of the police, etc. Left realists argue that the national victimisation research, such as the British Crime Survey, can be used to give an average risk rate that ignores the variations in crime between areas.

Such studies can be used to view people's fear of crime as 'irrational'.The particular political space in which left realism emerged was in the mid-1980s. The juxtaposition was the emergence of conservative ('neo-liberal') governments in many Western countries which pursued an overtly punishment-oriented approach to crime control and a liberal/social democratic opposition on the defensive. The right set out, quite consistently from their perspective, to generate market incentives in the work sphere and penal deterrence in the field of illegitimate behavior.

They actively pointed to the rise in the crime rate and entered vigorously into law and order campaigns on behalf of 'the silent majority', holding the offenders responsible and punishment the solution. The New Left position, which had its origins in the libertarianism of the 1960s, tended to resemble a mirror image of the right. That is it denied or downplayed the level of crime, portrayed the offender as victim of the system, and stressed a multiculturalism of diversity and struggle where radicalism entailed the defense of the community against the incursions of the State, particularly the police and the criminal justice system.

What was necessary was a criminology which could navigate between these two currents: which took crime seriously but which was radical in its analysis and policy. Thus it was no accident that the first work in a realist vein appeared at approximately the same time, "What is to be done about Law and Order" (By Lea and Young) came out in 1984.Left Realism has developed over past 20 years as the most mainstream form of criminology. The most "complete" form of sociological thinking, as it avoids the age old divisions between structure and action.

Instead, Left Realism's set out an agenda which contains all levels of analysis. They then try to complete this agenda.Left Realism Theory has its strengths and weaknesses. Firstly, Left realism offers a refreshing alternative to existing theories of crime. However, drawn from other existing theories, not so much as a breakthrough as a "pulling together" of ideas, sometimes failing to acknowledge the origins of the work. An advantage of Left Realism theory is that it avoids the worst excesses of both left and right wing approaches by neither glorifying nor attacking the police.

Secondly, Left Realism explores the role of the victim in much more depth than any other criminological theory.Thirdly, Left Realism has revived useful concepts such as "relative deprivation" which relates to how poverty leads to crime.One of the major weakness of the Left Realism theory is that it has developed in complexity, but has not "delivered the goods" in the form of empirical research. How good is a theory if it can't be tested. Secondly, Left Realism fails to explain why some relatively deprived people turn to crime, whereas others don't.

Whatever its merits (or lack of them), left realism has undisputedly shaped social policy much more profoundly than any other criminological theory. The Labor government's slogan "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" mirrors the fundamental concepts of left realist thinking, and now, policies have been implemented so that the public can be employed to carry out routine police tasks; giving officers more time for investigation and follow-up work. However, left realism has by no means "solved" the problem of crime.

Indeed, Jock Young argues that as we move into a period of "late modernity", problems of crime will actually get worse. "Late modernity", according to Young, is characterized by a deterioration of "community spirit", reduced moral consensus and extreme instability. This in turn, makes crime more widespread, "nastier" and more ambiguous (i.e. there are more disputes over what a crime is). Labor's policies will not be effective unless these issues are dealt with, and Young firmly believes that only through dealing with social inequity will the problem of crime truly be resolved.

The contribution of left realism theory to the development of progressive criminology and the struggle for social justice is an important one which, if nurtured in a thoughtful way, has the potential for contributing to the demise of a state's monopoly on crime and policing knowledgeWork CitedMartin, D., 1999 "Race, Gender and Class in Criminology", Retrieved January 16, 2009, fromhttp://books.google.com.pk/booksid=o6p6RfWs0qoC&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=left+realism+theory&source=web&ots=mr5ZQEBE7h&sig=25lNkCfy602CIgODWvdMU9mqVrY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPA52,M1