Explanation of Left and Right Realist Approaches to Crime and Deviance
Left and Right realism are a way of positioning different understandings of crime, crime control, what causes crime, the way people respond to crime and the problems of criminality. Aetiological crisis is designed to outline both Left and Right realism. It is a complex way of trying to basically say that both people on either side of the political spectrum, for instance people who are quite left wing and people who are quite right wing. After the post war in Britain, there were these reforms or improvements to things like welfare state such as quality of life increased as there was rise in employment. In contrast, there was decrease in poverty levels and deprivation and other ways of thinking about crime from Left wing perspectives, as a result less crime was being committed.
James Wilsons work is seen as one of the more influential voices in right realists’ criminology, within his volume of work and collaboration with all the Right realists and placing it at the forefront of Right realists’ thinkers. He collaborated with Kelling’s Broken Windows Theory and later with Hernstien focussing on Biological reasons for criminality. Prior to these collaborations Wilson is also influential in developing Rational Choice Theory as an explanation for crime.
In rational choice theory, Wilson suggested that criminals made rational decisions to commit crime. He suggested that individuals outweigh risk and rewards of their actions to control logical conclusions about whether or not to commit crime. For example, the concept of rational choice to the UK governments approaching policing COVID-19 regulations ;in the initial guidance at the beginning of March lockdown ,people were threatened with small fines of £50 and then £100 for not adhering to these regulations. Theoretically speaking, according to rational choice theory this should ensure less breaches as the situation is at high risk and low rewards.
The second theory developed by Wilson in conjunction with Kellings in early 1980s is the Broken Window Theory. They examined the level of crime in different areas and found that there were higher levels of crime where there were signs of falling standard appearance in neighbourhood such as broken windows, overgrown gardens and discarded rubbish thus promoting criminality. According to Wilson and Kellings the key to reducing crime was to maintain a good appearance of the area. This was accomplished by police targeting undesirable behaviours in that area such as anti-social behaviour, begging and prostitution in order to maintain the law. The notable example for this is in New York in the late 1970s and 80s, with the city council on the verge of bankruptcy and crime rates rising ,the police in New York pursued policies of Zero Tolerance against undesirable behaviours .Finally, Wilson and Hernstien put forward arguments of crime being down to biological differences. They both argued that sometimes socialisation was not enough and then some people will biologically be predisposed to commit crime. In separate works, Wilson also argued that people would biologically predispose the crime yet committing crime through rational process of decision making.
Overall, historically, even after the war, criminologists and sociologists were still thinking of how even after the rise in employment, increase in quality life and decrease in poverty, inequality and deprivations, crime rates were still increasing. Answers to these questions can be find through the Broken Windows Theory and Rational Choice Theory.
