Right Realism
James Q Wilson, Charles Murray
Wilson & Kelling 1982
Clarke 1992, Newman 1972
Right Realism and Rational Choice
• Right realism is based on the right wing view that
criminals have made a rational choice to break the law.
• People are not forced to become criminals – they have
chosen to break the law.
• The role of the government is not to eliminate “mythical
root causes of crime” such as poverty, but to punish the
criminal.
• Humans are naturally selfish and greedy – if people
receive poor socialisation then crime will be the result
• Crime can never be eliminated, merely reduced.
Zero tolerance policies
• James Q Wilson
developed zero tolerance
policies whilst working as an
advisor to President Reagan in
the 1980s but his views were
also influential to the British
government of that time.
• This policy is based on the
idea that if small crimes are
allowed to go unchallenged
then this leads to more serious
crimes being committed
• Notes on Zero Tolerance
“Broken Windows” Theory
Wilson & Kelling 1982
• High levels of crime occur
where informal social control
over anti-social behaviour has
broken down
• If low level anti-social
behaviour is prevented then
this does not escalate to
serious crimes being
committed.
• Analogy of an abandoned
building – once one window
gets broken – then all the
windows soon get smashed.
Situational Crime Prevention
• Clarke 1992 advocates
policies and practices which
make it difficult for crime to be
committed.
• People will commit offences
when the benefits of offending
outweigh the costs.
• Newman 1972 introduced the
idea of “defensible space” –
the design of streets and
houses could make them safer.
• “Target Hardening” – improving
security, CCTV
Evaluation of crime prevention theories
• Garland (2001) argues that situational crime prevention
policies merely limits the extent and impact of crime and
ignores the underlying causes of crime
• Crime Displacement – crime merely shifts to a less well
monitored area or the type of crime may change
• Alongside crime prevention other actions must be
considered such as Early Intervention programmes and
programmes that involve the communities involved
• Take notes from pages 392 & 393 in the text book
• Read handout on Perspective from the Right and answer
summary questions