Conservative and New Right Criminology Understanding Criminology Chris Fox Lecture Outline • • • • • Conservative Criminal Justice Policy 1979-1997 Control Theories Right Realism Broken Windows Thesis Administrative Criminology and Crime Science Conservative Criminal Justice Policy 1979-1997 • “Law and order” became a central concern of British voters: Conservatives benefited • Strong support for police: – wage increases – increased powers – move to a more confrontational policing • Increased punitiveness: ‘Prison Works’ • Presided over largest increase in recorded crime Criticism of ‘liberal’ criminology • Positivism concentrates too much on: – understanding the causes of crime & treating the offender • Theories such as labelling, radical and conflict concentrate too much on: – critique of an unfair and unequal (capitalist) society – policy of understanding offenders and non-intervention • Provided a basis for the acceleration of the permissive society Control Theories of Criminality • Very different notion of “human nature” from most criminological theories • Traditionally: – How do social structures work to push people to commit crime? • Control Theories: – Why don’t people commit crime? • Human nature essentially anti-social – need to understand how this is controlled Travis Hirschi “Delinquent acts result when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken” Right Realism • Politically conservative: consensus position • Not really concerned with identifying causal explanations for offending – "To people who say "crime and drug addiction can only be dealt with by attacking their root causes", I am sometimes inclined, when in a testy mood, to rejoin: "stupidity can only be dealt with by attacking its root causes". I have yet to see a "root cause" or encounter a government programme that has successfully attacked it...". James Q. Wilson • Non-problematic acceptance of official definitions of crime, measurement of offending, and identification of criminality James Q. Wilson • American criminologist and academic: advisor to numerous US presidents on crime since mid-1960s • “Thinking about Crime” – root causes of criminality cannot be identified – increasing punishment as a deterrent unlikely to work, focus on certainty of punishment – All we can do is to reduce the impact of crime on people’s lives – Victim surveys show burden of crime falls disproportionately on poor James Q. Wilson: “Solutions” • A call for re-moralization of society: emphasizing societal bonds • Adjust cost/benefit balance of criminality • Certainty of punishment – – – – Catch more offenders – increase police efficiency Improve consistency of criminal justice system Fixed term sentences Prison as incapacitation Wilson and Kelling (1982) Broken Windows • “A piece of property is abandoned, weeds grow up, and a window is smashed. Adults stop scolding rowdy children; the children, emboldened become more rowdy. Families move out, unmarried adults move in. Teenagers gather in front of the corner store. The merchant asks them to move, they refuse. Fights occur. Litter accumulates. People start drinking in front of the grocery store, in time an inebriated drunkard slumps to the sidewalk and is allowed to sleep it off.” (page 32) Wilson and Kelling • “Broken Windows” Thesis Broken Windows: the solution • The maintenance of public order and public morality allows community control mechanisms to flourish and encourages law-abiding behaviour • The police are most effectively used not to reduce crime but to maintain social order • Interventions to restore order should focus on areas at risk of becoming or just becoming high crime areas • Areas where crime already endemic should not have resources devoted to them. Broken Windows: criticisms • Strong right-wing morality eg notice reference to “unmarried adults” • Dubious on civil rights eg what offence have teenagers in front of store committed? Criticisms of Right Realism • Focus on street criminality and maintenance of order – Excludes white collar crime and corporate crime • No acknowledgement that social and economic factors in society (eg poverty) could contribute to crime • Areas with worst social problems and highest levels of crime deemed not worth saving • Strict policing of public order offences targets disadvantaged groups Administrative Criminology • • • • • “Establishment” criminology in UK and USA Crime Science – the Jill Dando Institute An empirical project A rational choice perspective A reaction to the perceived failure of criminology to intervene in causes of criminality Routine Activities Theory: Marcus Felson Crime event will occur when 3 things coincide in time and space Aim: disrupt this coincidence: remove opportunities for crime Situational crime prevention