Right realism
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Right realism, in
Overview
The primary focus is on the control and prevention of criminal behavior, i.e., the criminals have to be prevented from breaking the
The New Right therefore adopts the language of "realism" to describe the lawmaking process instead of addressing the causes of the "crimes" being created.
Social control theory
Right Realism has its origins in
- Direct, by which punishment is threatened or applied for wrongful behavior, and compliance is rewarded by parents, family, and authority figures.
- Indirect, by which a youth refrains from delinquency because his or her delinquent act might cause pain and disappointment to parents and others with whom he or she has close relationships.
- Internal, by which a person's conscience or sense of guilt prevents him or her from engaging in delinquent acts.
Self-control theory
Travis Hirschi has since moved away from his bonding theory and, in co-operation with Michael R. Gottfredson, developed a "General Theory of Crime" or self-control theory in 1990 and onwards. Based on the empirical observation of the strong, consistent connection between criminal behavior and age, Hirschi and Gottfredson theorizes that the single most important factor behind crime is individual lack of self-control. Individual self-control improves with age as a result of many factors: changing biology through hormonal development, socialization and increasing opportunity costs of losing control. In addition, criminal acts are often markedly non-controlled, both opportunistic and short-sighted. Akers (1991) argued that a major weakness of this new theory was that Gottfredson and Hirschi did not define self-control and the tendency toward criminal behavior separately. By not deliberately operationalizing self-control traits and criminal behavior or criminal acts individually, it suggests that the concepts of low self-control and propensity for criminal behavior are one and the same. Hirschi and Gottfredson (1993) rebutted Akers' argument by suggesting it was actually an indication of the consistency of General Theory. That is, the theory is internally consistent by conceptualizing crime and deriving from that a concept of the offender's traits. The research community remains divided on whether the General Theory of Crime is sustainable but there is emerging confirmation of some of its predictions (e.g. LaGrange & Silverman: 1999). A number of empirical studies – including meta-analyses[citation needed] – have confirmed that individual self-control is in fact one of the strongest predictors of crime when compared to a range of factors at various levels of analysis.
Containment theory
Walter Reckless began developing containment theory by focusing on a youth's self-conception or self-image of being a good person as an insulator against peer pressure to engage in delinquency. This inner containment through self-images is developed within the family and is essentially formed by about the age of twelve. Outer containment was a reflection of strong social relationships with teachers and other sources of conventional socialization within the neighborhood. The basic proposition is there are "pushes" and "pulls" that will produce delinquent behavior unless they are counteracted by containment. If the motivations to deviant acts are strong and containment is weak, then crime is highly likely to follow.
Neo-Positivism
This is particularly associated with Wilson (1975) and Wilson and Herrnstein (1985) who agree that social transformation will be required if crime rates are to be reduced, but believe that this can be achieved without any significant loss of freedom (which they consider worth preserving even if that means having to tolerate some crime). They attribute the cause of the growth in crime to a general permissiveness in society and a dependency culture among those who survive on welfare benefits. They claim realism in that the state should aim to make modest reductions in street crime, starting with the socialization of children within the family and the education system to develop consciences sufficiently strong to reject the temptation to engage in crime. But this social conditioning on its own will be ineffective. It must be combined with deterrence through improvement in detection and arrest rates, and reform in the attitudes of judges who have been too lenient in sentencing. This is specific deterrence and they argue that punishment works if a connection can be established in the mind of a punished offender between a planned criminal action and memories of the consequence for a previous criminal action. But they reject rehabilitation in the face of the statistics of recidivism. If all else seems to fail, hardened criminals must be locked away for the protection of society. There is also some movement back to biological and psychological explanations for criminality (see Gottfredson and Hirschi: 1987, Wasserman and Wachbroit: 2001, Rowe: 2002). Control Theory addressed social as opposed to legal deterrence, but Neo-Positivism accepts that whichever view may be correct, autonomy is paramount, i.e. the potential offender has a free choice on whether to ignore the feelings of others or the penalties of the state.
Situational theory
Situational crime prevention has been defined as "the use of measures directed at highly specific forms of crime, which involve the management, design or manipulation of the immediate environment in as systematic and permanent a way as possible" (Clarke & Hough: 1980). It is sometimes referred to as "primary prevention" or "opportunity reduction" and it seems most relevant to offences which cluster in time or space, and are high rate, creating crime "hot spots". This theory seek to develop ways of making crime "more difficult", and of making people more aware of opportunistic crime, say through advertising campaigns, and of how physical environment encourages or deters crime. Situational crime prevention (Clarke: 1995, 1997) has four components:
- a theoretical foundation drawing upon routine activity and rational decisions.
- a standard methodology based on the action research paradigm,
- a set of opportunity-reducing techniques or target hardening, and
- a body of evaluated practice including studies of displacement. (Clarke, 1997: 6)
It focuses on reducing crime opportunities rather than on the characteristics of criminals or potential criminals. The strategy is to increase the associated risks and difficulties, and reduce the rewards. It asserts that crime is often committed through the accident of a practical or attractive opportunity, e.g. that a car is found unlocked or a window left open and that patterns in criminal activity are not simply based on where criminals live. For crimes aimed at households, initiatives include encouraging people to make their homes more secure – sometimes called 'target hardening' – and marking their property for easier identification. Responsibility rests with the individual householder; the police role is usually restricted to giving free specialist security advice. The most interesting criticism of this theory is that it may breed a fortress society where everyone is locked in his or her homes to prevent crime. At the community level, Neighborhood Watch schemes encourage people to monitor their neighbourhoods and to report suspicious incidents to the police. Environmental design focuses on improving street lighting, controlling access to buildings, restricting pedestrian and traffic flow, and dividing residential spaces into identifiable areas. The most ambitious environmental design schemes have been carried out in the United States where the property of the rich is protected by expensive hardware, alarm systems, and even private guards. The overall challenge is to motivate those most in need of protection against crime to help themselves. This raises the need for a corporate or inter-agency response to crime prevention, rather than devolving all responsibility onto the individual.
This is a practical application of the control theory and answers the question, "Why don't people commit crime?" by "Because of social control and deterrents". This implies that crime and delinquency are a result of choice, and Clarke and Cornish (1985) posit that, "...crime is purposive behavior designed to meet the offender's commonplace needs for such things as money, status, sex, excitement, and that meeting these needs involves the making of (sometimes quite rudimentary) decisions and choices, constrained as they are by limits of time and ability and the availability of relevant information." Thus, offenders make decisions that appear rational (to the offenders at least) to engage in specific criminal acts.
Rational choice theory
The immediate roots of
Critique
Critics detect a number of problems with this school of thought. Because the school under-emphasises the
It has been argued that within Right Realism, there is inadequate interest in corporate crime, white-collar crime, political crime or state crime. Van Den Haag (1975) asserts that capitalism is about the creation of "winners" and "losers". Livesey identifies the implication that winners must be allowed to enjoy the fruits of their enterprise and their risk-taking without these rewards being taken away by the losers. Indeed, if capitalism continues as a form of economic production, those responsible for the creation and accumulation of wealth must be protected from the activities of criminals. This apparently justifies shifting the remit of law enforcement to concentrate surveillance and monitoring on the activities of the poor and powerless. However, it has also been asserted that any given set of economic institutions establishes "winners" and "losers", who also existed before the rise of capitalism and will also continue to exist under a system protective of the criminal, therefore turning its victims into the real "losers".
References
- Akers, Ronald L. (1990). "Rational Choice, Deterrence, and Social Learning Theory: The Path Not Taken". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. 81(3), 653-676.
- Akers, Ronald L. (1991). "Self-control as a General Theory of Crime". Journal of Quantitive Criminology, 7, 201-211.
- Bryson, Lois & Mowbray, Michael. (1981). "Community: The Spray-On Solution". Australian Journal of Social Issues 16:255-68.
- Clarke, Ronald V. & Cornish, D. B. (1985). "Modelling Offenders' Decisions: A Framework for Policy and Research" in Crime and Justice. Vol. 6. Tonry, M. & Morris, N. (eds.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Clarke, Ronald V. & Cornish, D. B. (1987). "Thinking About Displacement." in Situational Crime Prevention. Laycock, G. & Heal, K. (eds.) London: HMSO.
- Clarke, Ronald V. & Felson, Marcus. (1993). Routine Activity and Rational Choice. Vol. 5, Advances in Criminology Theory. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, Inc.
- Clarke, Ronald R. (ed.) (1997). Situational Crime Prevention: Successful Case Studies. Second Edition. New York: Harrow and Heston. ISBN 0-911577-39-4
- Clarke, Ronald V.; Brantingham, Patricia; Brantingham, Paul; Eck, John & Felson, Marcus. (1998). Designing Out Crime. [1]
- Clarke, Ronald V. (1995). "Situational Crime Prevention" in Building a Safer Society: Strategic Approaches to Crime Prevention, Tonry, Michael & Farrington, David (eds.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-80824-6
- Clarke Ronald V & Hough, J.M. (1980). The Effectiveness of Policing. Farnborough, Hants: Gower.
- Evans, David. T.; Cullen, Francis. S.; Burton, Velmer. S. Jr.; Dunaway, Gregory. R. & Benson, Michael. L. (1997). "The Social Consequences of Self-Control: Testing the General Theory of Crime". Criminology, 35. 475-504
- ISBN 0-8039-2911-0
- Gottfredson, Michael & Hirschi, Travis. (1990). A General Theory of Crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1774-5
- Hirschi, Travis. (1969). Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-7658-0900-1
- Hirschi, Travis. & Gottfredson, M. (1993). Commentary: Testing the General Theory of Crime". Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 30. 47-54.
- James, Stephen (1996) "Crime Prevention and Public Housing: The Dynamics of Control" in Crime Prevention in Australia. Sutton, A. & O'Malley, P (eds.). Sydney: Federation Press. ISBN 1-86287-230-9
- LaGrange, T. C. & Silverman, R. A. (1999). "Low Self-control and Opportunity: Testing the General Theory of Crime as an Explanation for Gender Differences in Delinquency". Criminology, 37, 41-72.
- Keel, R. O. (1997). Rational Choice and Deterrence Theory. [2]
- Livesey, Chris. Deviance and Social Control: New Right Realism [3]
- Reckless, Walter. (1943). The Etiology of Delinquent and Criminal Behavior
- Reckless, Walter. (1950). The Crime Problem
- Rowe, David (2002). Biology and Crime. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury
- Taylor, Ian R. (1982) Law and Order: Arguments for Socialism, London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-21444-7
- Thatcher, M. (1993) The Downing Street Years London: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-017056-5
- Van Den Haag, Ernest. (1975) Punishing Criminals: Concerning a Very Old and Painful Question, Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-06774-3
- Wasserman, D. & Wachbroit, R. (2001). Genetics and Criminal Behavior. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
- Wilson, James Q. (1975). Thinking About Crime. New York: Vintage (revised ed.). ISBN 0-394-72917-X
- Wilson, James Q. & Herrnstein, Richard J. (1985). Crime and Human Nature. New York: Simon and Schuster.
- Wilson, Lindsay (1986) "Neighbourhood Watch", Legal Service Bulletin, April: 86-90.