Within this essay there will be a clear understanding of the contrast and comparison between left and right realism, supported by accurate evidence that will support and differentiate the two wings of realism. During the 1970’s to the early 1990’s there had emerged two new approaches to the study of crime and deviance. The discipline of criminology had expanded further introducing right and left realism, both believe in different areas and came together in order to try and get a better understanding on crime and prevention. There were many theorists that had influenced the realism approaches such as; Jock Young (Left Wing) and James Wilson (Right Wing). Realism, in philosophical terms, refers to the concept that there is a reality beyond our perception. This means that how we see things and what we believe about them has no impact on the nature of said things. For example an individual may see an object as blue and another see the same object to be red, this is merely a disagreement between both parties about how they should label the colour. This wouldn’t mean that both parties are discussing different objects, this shows that no matter what individual’s beliefs or thoughts on the real world are only ever approximations and do not accurately capture reality. (O’Brien, M and Yar, M, 2008) Right realism was originated around the 1970’s and was heavily influenced by politicians, originally it was believed to have originated in USA, by the policy makers and republicans, and were brought in to the UK by prime minister Margaret Thatcher. According to White et al (2012), those that supported the right realism had clear foundations, those being, to place responsibility for crime on the individual that had committed and reasserting the ... ... middle of paper ... ... crime and deviance differently. This is why left and right realism have formed a general consensus that influence politicians as to what laws may help deter criminal behaviour and to what support is needed for struggling families via government initiative. For example if a community has been affected by crime offering them some form of social justice and support they would be less likely to commit crime themselves as a form of revenge. The government’s policies on criminal behaviour and victim support are reflected through some of the main theories and beliefs of realism. Works Cited Carlen P (1992) Criminal Women and Criminal Justice, Sage, London. Newburn T (2013), Criminology, Routledge, Oxon. O’Brien M and Yar M (2008) Criminology: The Key Concepts, Routledge, London. White R, Haines F and Asquith N (2012) Crime and Criminology, Oxford University Press.
Assessing New Right Criminology In the piece on 'How to sweep beggars from our streets' by David Marsland, he likens them to menaces in society and an 'eye sore' littering the streets of towns and major cities. His somewhat archaic view in that a need to adopt a more Victorian approach to tackling the problem of begging mirrors the right realist view on crime. John Major in his 'law and order' debate talked about going 'back to basics' and with a rise in crime their explanation was to blame a 'decline in moral values' as the main factor. Marsland believed that beggars had no moral fibre and that the problem did not stem from capitalism or poverty but their mere existence was a 'blot on the complex but orderly copy-book of a modern civilised society' The right realist perspective was particularly connected to J Q Wilson whom in the early 1970's in the US claimed that 'crime resulted from selfish and wicked people who were undeterred by the criminal justice system which had gone 'soft' on criminals' Wilson believed that in order to combat crime there needed to be a remedy, he suggested that through increased education, encouraged community organisation, modernising poor housing and provision of counselling for young trouble delinquents there lay the answer. Marsland takes a similar view on combating begging.
Right realism can be linked to political right wing parties ideology and the sociological theory functionalism. The reason is because people have not been socialised correctly therefore children do not possess the correct norms and values to make society function correctly, which leads to social order. This created the divide between people from the upper class to the working class and underclass. We can see people within the working and underclass
The causes of crime are complex, Collectivists believe that acceptable ways to reduce crime, is to address the social conditions in which the conditions for crime are created, things such as, a more equal society, improved work opportunities and effective housing will make crime less of an attraction. If people are in a stable job, providing for their family and are content with life, they could be less motivated to break the law. Individualists focus on individual values’ or absence of as the motive why people commit crimes. In the long run, if someone chooses to commit a crime, they are accountable for their own actions. If they are caught, they should face the consequences.
Young, J. (1981). Thinking seriously about crime: Some models of criminology. In M. Fitzgerald, G. McLennan, & J. Pawson (Eds.), Crime and society: Readings in history and society (pp. 248-309). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
In this essay I will be arguing that indirect realism is the most logical and the most plausible viewpoint to hold when looking into perception over direct realism, which I will argue, has no good reason to be used as a way to perceive things. I will look into the arguments for viewpoints of perception and which one is the most convincing. These viewpoints consist of; firstly direct realism (or naïve realism) most people who have not looked into philosophy hold this view, the view that you perceive things exactly as they are with properties that they seem to have, like occupying space, being a certain size or having a certain colour. This viewpoint has a lot of problems with it and I will be outlining some of them as well as counter arguments by direct realists.
Realism is a style of writing which shows how things are in life. It showed how mostly every person thought life was just perfect. They were not seeing the
Jock Young’s book “The Criminological Imagination” very clearly spells out the author’s feeling that orthodox criminology has lost its way and has been swallowed up into obscurification through bogus, post-modern positivism. Young postulates, the cost of this phenomena is the loss of critical thinking and objectivity in the field of criminology. Young contends criminology can be rescued from obscurity if returning to its orthodox beginnings by reducing the impact of neo-liberalism with critical imagination, and not simply succumbing to empirical data to try to explain everything. Young contends, doing so seems to simply cloud the view, thus giving rise to a host of incomplete and overly politicized theories.
Crime is an irrelevant concept as it is tied to the formal social control mechanism of the State; deviance is a concept that is owned by sociology thus our study should be the sociology of deviance, rather than criminology
Right realism is a branch of the functionalist approach, using the identification of the realistic views of the causes of crime and deviance and what constitutes as the best solution for the social control of it. In general, right realism believes that the major contributors of crime are: the breakdown in moral fabric of society, a growing underclass, a breakdown in social order, more opportunity for crime, crime is committed as a deliberate and rational choice, and finally; society is depreciated the more crime is committed, creating a
Realism has been formed from the root word “real”; depending on how the word is used realism can be sued in many ways. We often use the word realism when analyzing characters or objects in novels, stories, or even in movies. Realism is the mindset a person has in a particular situation at the giving time (for example if it’s snow outside, than, we know to dress for the cold weather because it’s snow outside; we don’t have to come outside to see if it’s cold).Realism can also be referred to realistic or realist meaning that things can be describes from a social, emotional, or a visual view; anything can be realism, realistic, or realist.
The realist school is based on the thought that human nature is not perfectible. Human nature is viewed as evil and something that cannot be trusted or counted on. In order to have a successful society the citizens need to be controlled by a strong sovereign government. This strong government would be the only thing able enough to control human nature and the evils it produces. If a strong central government did not exist a state of chaos would be created by the people of the land. One of the leading philosophers of the realist school was Thomas Hobbes. He elaborated on many of the concepts of realism.
To fully appreciate these differences and arguments, realism and constructivism must be defined briefly. Realism can be broken down to its core understanding that the international system is anarchic and it consists of political actors known as states. There are three tenants that each state will inherently follow and are known as statism, survival, and self-help. Every decision by a state will have to follow these tenants to be considered rational. Because of this, each state will be naturally distrustful of one another and will act or make decisions based on getting the upper hand or protecting its security from another state. This generates conflict between states and creates a vicious circle of sizing up every state, making a decision based on what would likely be the most beneficial...
All branches of realism share some central tenets. Realists believe that the world exists in a state of anarchy. Since there is not a world government to keep states from attacking each other, or to punish them when they do, it becomes very important for each government to be able to protect itself and ensure its survival. It is also why states are considered the most important actors in realism. Due to the anarchy, the world operates in power is extremely important. If a state has military power, and to a lesser extent economic power, they are able to defend themselves and even influence other states. Realism stresses the importance of one state being more powerful than its competitors.
The Classical School of Criminology generally refers to the work of social contract and utilitarian philosophers Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham during the enlightenment in the 18th century. The contributions of these philosophers regarding punishment still influence modern corrections today. The Classical School of Criminology advocated for better methods of punishment and the reform of criminal behaviour. The belief was that for a criminal justice system to be effective, punishment must be certain, swift and in proportion to the crime committed. The focus was on the crime itself and not the individual criminal (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010). This essay will look at the key principles of the Classical School of Criminology, in particular
Realism is a theory essentially about power and security, states seek power and security because they exist in a self-help system, people seek power, people seek prestige most of all they seek autonomy. Realists don’t believe in the utopian levelled ‘scheme that would provide a perpetual peace in the world, all states are alike functionally, they all need to perform similar tasks to function. With this in mind Power is historically unsurpassable, which is why the realists believe that if states do not have the capability to protect themselves with special regards to their military capabilities, their nation will not be secure nor will they be able to perpetuate themselves in an anarchic international system.