Explanations of crime deviance Essay

The properly realist perspective on crime is mainly associated with the American sociologist W.J Wilson. This perspective became really influential on home office policy-making during the conservatives period in office.The pay realist approach assumes that human beings are naturally selfish, individualistic and greedy. indeed ther are naturally inclined to further their interest, even if this means comitting crime. They in addition believe the origins of crime are mis down the stairsstood, that is policies aimed at tackling crime by removing loving and economic inequalities. Wilson noned that the Great Depression in the USA did non result in a rise in crime. Another dependable realist explanation is that the welfare state has undermined our sense of obligation to support to each one other, andthat community controls, i.e. informal controls imposed by neighbours, family and peer groups are fault down.Right realists stress that essays to explain the ca utilises of crime sh ould be abandoned and that sociologists should preferably commission on finding practical solutions to slow the growth of crime. This create the control theory.Hirschi argues that crime is opportunistic and anyone would commit crime if the situation was right and there was little chance of being caught. He says that sociologists should not focus on why spate commit crime but why more wad do not. He maintains that most people are rational in their choices and that there are controls that operate to make most people take hold their actions within the bounds of the law. They are, Attachment- commitment to family relationships which could be threatened by condemnable acts, Commitment- years of education, building a career, buying a home and aquiring a good reputation, all this could be lost by commiting crime, Involvement- some people are activley involved in community life as volunteers, parentgovernors for schools and so forth all this would be jepordized by felon behaviour.Rig ht realists believe the trend to control crime is to take practical measures to make sure the embody of crime outweighs the benefits.left field realists such as pasture and Young attempt to explain highway crime in urban areas. Theirvictim survey of inner-city Islington showed that work class, black peopleand especially elderly women, had a realistic fear of street crime. Lea and Young argue that despite evidence of natural law racism, criminal statistics are largely correct as working classes and Afro-Caribbeans do commit the most crime.They agreed thatwhite-collar and crimes go largely undetected and under punished, they do not point out however that they do not have the same negative impact on society as crimes such as mugging or burglary.Lea and Young maintain the discernment why working class and Afro-Caribbean people commit crime is to do with palpateings of relative deprivation, such as comparing themselves to middle class or white youth with regard to life chances, living standards and income. Such groups feel frustrated with their lack of power. Negative treatment by the police and governing leave groups feeling hostile and resentful, consequnently they are marginalized. Some mayform subcultures to help copewith the statusfrustration and marginalization.Hughes notes that left wing realists should be valued for the challenge they posed to radical criminologys mentation on the issues of intra-class and intra-ethnic crimes.Left realism has drawn attention to the brutalising effects of street crimes in the inner-city and the fact that some theories of crime have romanticised offenders, it has highlighted the effects of crime for victims, a group neglected by most theories of crime. It realistically acknowledges that the police amplify the presence of some groups in the criminal statistics through the use of stop and search, but points out that policing is quite rightly focusing on those groups most likley to commit crime. There is no emperical evidence to support the envision that young working class or black criminals interpret their realities in the way described by Lea and Young.Research on the motives of offenders is required. Lea and Young do not really explain why the legal age of working class and Afro-Caribbean youth do not turn to crime. Left realism only focuses on collective or subcultural criminal responses and does not explain crimes such as burglary, which arecommited by individuals rather than gangs. It focuses exclusivley on street crime and ignores other serious crimes such as burlesque and it fails to account for oppurtunistic crime commited by adults.