Welcome to
Applied Victimology
Week 6
Left and Right Realism
h.clarke@derby.ac.uk
This week






Understanding right & left politics
Exploring right realism
Using right realism to understand victimhood
Politics and victims of crime
Left-realism
The Islington Crime Survey
What are Left and Right
Politics?





RIGHT
A belief in capitalism
& free markets
A belief in economic
freedom, property
rights & free trades
Preserving
institutions, traditions
& the social order
Preserving the family






LEFT
A belief in distributing
wealth & privilege
Support for changing
traditional social
orders
The nationalisation of
the economy &
central planning
The welfare state
Trade unions
Right Realism

Difficult to define & put together a body of
thought

Focused on individual responsibility rather
than social problems

An absolute denial of the notion of a struggle
of an oppressed class against an unjust
society
Right Realism

The rise of the welfare state in 1950s saw an
improvement in social & economic conditions

And yet the crime rates continued to rise!

Right realism came to the fore during the
1970s and 1980s

Saw a rise in right wing politics & the
beginnings of a moral crusades
James Q. Wilson

Was scornful of arguments from the 'liberal'
left that denied the existence of crime as a
real problem

Little interest in exploring concepts of power
& structures in society

Crime is not caused by the absence of jobs
but in the absence of penalties
James Q. Wilson

Instead of looking for causes, which are
difficult to discern and which in any case we
may not be able to alter, Wilson advocated
action to increase the 'costs' of offending

The benefits of leading an honest and
considerate existence seem more attractive
to those who would otherwise take the wrong
path
Who Commits Crime & Why?
“Wicked people exist. Nothing avails except
to set them apart from innocent people. And
many people, neither wicked nor innocent,
but watchful, dissembling, and calculating of
their opportunities, ponder our reaction to
wickedness as a cue to what they might
profitably do”. (Wilson, 1975: 235-6)
Right Realism

The right realist approach stresses the
importance of upholding public order and
public morality to assist with the fight against
crime

The crime hardened criminals and the crime
hardened areas are beyond help and should
be subjected to ‘vigorous’ policing
Routine Activity Approach

Cohen & Felson (1979) – crime is a product
of three factors coming together in particular
times and places



A motivated offender
A potential victim
An absence of a capable guardian
Criminals make rational decisions about routine
opportunities
However, there is little explanation of the above!
Routine Activity Approach

Hindelang (1978: 250)
 The prime actors must have occasion to interact
 A source of dispute or claim must take place
 The victim must be perceived by the offender as
an appropriate object of victimisation
 The offender must threaten or be willing to use
force
 The circumstances must make it advantageous
for the for the offender to commit the crime
Wilson & Crime and
Communities

Used the BCS

Crime is a burden on the lives of the poor &
the inhabitants of disadvantaged
communities

Crime destroys the community spirit, social
ties and results in the individualisation of
society
Wilson & Neighbourhood
Policing

People fear violent crime

They also fear ‘disorderly’ and ‘disreputable’
people (ASB)

Police do not put enough energy into policing
this sort of behaviour

Should focus on where ‘public order is
deteriorating but not unreclaimable’ (1985:
88)
Situational Crime Prevention
theorists

Much crime is committed by ordinary people
who spend most of their lives engaged in
lawful activity

Much crime, according to Clarke (1980),
takes place simply because an opportunity
presents itself: such crime will be lessened by
opportunity reduction
Situational Crime Prevention
theorists

Situational practitioners, like conservative
theorists, have largely abandoned the search
for the 'root causes' of crime

Instead, they focus on the management of
crime (and the management of immediate
environments)

Focuses on increasing risks & difficulty (and
reducing rewards)
Recapping Politics and
Victims of Crime

Right wing politics: crime is a rational choice!

The need to uphold public order & public morality

Most crime takes place because of the
opportunity – reducing these opportunities will
reduce crime

We all need to take responsibility for reducing
these opportunities
Break
After the break: Left realism
Politics and Victims of Crime

Left wing politics: Crime occurs because of
social inequalities






Poverty
Policing
Government policies
Racism
Poor schooling
Shrinking communities
AND THEIR INTERACTION…
Left Realism




Crime occurs amongst the working class as a
result of poverty
The criminal seeks to redress the balance of
wealth and power
No need to further explain working class
crime
The real crime is the response of the police,
corporations & state agencies!
Islington Crime Survey

Neighbourhood study

Fear of crime among local residents shapes
much of their lives

Crime is both socially & geographically
focused

ICS: 1/3 of households had experienced
serious crime & only ½ of all crimes were
reported
Islington Crime Survey

Sexual assault 14 times the national average

Non sexual assault: women were 40% more
likely to be attacked than men

20% of women knew someone who had been
sexually assaulted in the last 12 months

50% of women had experienced sexual
harassment
Islington Crime Survey

Women took considerably greater
precautions against crime than men:

Five times more likely never to go out after dark

Three times more likely to avoid certain streets or
certain people

Six times more likely to go out with someone else
rather than on their own
The Focus of Crime: Putting it
All Together

Crime is focused in certain geographical
areas and social groups

The victim = age, class, ethnicity & gender
(AND importantly their combination)

The (realistic?) fear of crime

The moral panic paradox
The Myth of the Equal Victim

1.
2.
By discussing the impact of crime in terms of
risk rates, we develop a false assessment of
impact:
Compounding: people who are victims of
crime tend to be victims of others
Differential vulnerability: people may differ
greatly in their ability to withstand crime
Violence as a Relationship

Violence is a social relationship – it is rarely
random

Violence has particular social meanings

It occurs within hierarchies of power

Therefore: the impact of the offence depends
on the relationship between victim & offender
Women & the Fear of Crime

The impact of crime relies on risk,
compounding, vulnerability, & relationship:
1.
Concealment: the invisible victim
Compounding: additional circumstances
Vulnerability: economic, social & physical
Relationships
2.
3.
4.
ICS Summary

Because the BCS is a national survey, it
under represents the levels of victimisation
for some people in some areas

There is a high degree of repeat victimisation
for some women in certain areas

High levels of fear can be related to high risks
of experiencing crime
Break
After the break: Applying left and
right realism in your assessment
Understanding Victimhood and
Left & Right Realism

Due to childcare responsibilities, Daniel is
late for an important job interview. He parks
in the town centre but, in his haste, forgets to
lock the car door. When he returns, he finds
that his car has been stolen.

How would left and right realism approach
Daniel’s case?
Understanding Victimhood and
Left & Right Realism

Samantha is an asylum seeker from Sudan.
She chooses to wear the full niqab. Walking
home from the shops early one evening, she
is attacked by a gang of young people and is
subject to racist abuse.

How would left and right realism approach
Samantha’s case?
Next Week

We’ve now explored victimology theories

Next week: the geography of crime
References 1




Wilson, J. Q. The Atlantic Monthly;
September 1983; Thinking About Crime;
Volume 252, Number 3; pages 72-88.
Wolhuter, L; Olley, N. & Denham, D. (2009).
Victimology: Victimisation and Victims’
Rights. London: Routledge
Williams, B. (2005). Victims of crime and
community justice. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Maguire, M. & Pointing, J. (Eds.), Victims of
Crime: A New Deal? Open University Press,
1988
References: 2


Treadwell, J. (2006). Criminology. London:
Sage. Left and Right Realism pp 121 – 125.
(available as an e-book).
Walklate, S. (2007). Understanding
Criminology: Current Theoretical Debates 3rd
Edition. Chapter 3: Understanding Right
Realism pp 38 – 52.
References: 3
Goodey, J. (2005). Victims and victimology: Research, policy and practice.
Harlow: Pearson
Williams, B. (2005). Victims of crime and community justice. London: Jessica
Kingsley
Young, J. (1980) Thinking Seriously About Crime. In: Fitzgerald, M.,
McLennan, G. & Pawson, J. (Eds.) Crime and Society: Readings in History
And Theory. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Young, J. (1988) Radical Criminology in Britain: The Emergence of a
Competing Paradigm, The British Journal of Criminology, 28: 159-183