Left Realism

1. Introduction

A central premise of left realism is that radical criminologists (whom they term "left
idealists") have ignored victimization within the working class in favor of studying the
crimes of the elite and occasionally romanticizing the working class criminal. Left realists
call for a recognition that street crime is "real," and not a moral panic created by elite
opinion makers such as the media. The lack of progressive socialist alternatives, they
argue, has allowed right wing politicians to use the "law and order" issue to obtain
ideological support for a social order detrimental to the disenfranchised and the construction
of a socialist society.

2. Development of left realism

Left realism emerged in 1975 with the publication of Jock Young’s well known essay “Working
Class Criminology”. After 4 years in 1979 Young authored and presented a paper to the
National Deviancy Conference which gives left realism a sharper perspective. With the
publication of John Lea’s and Jock Young’s book, What is To Be Done about Law and
Order?(1984)’ the perspective of left realism was framed. Finally, with the publication of the
Islington Crime Survey (1986) by Trevor Jones, Brain Maclean, and Jock Young, the central
tenets of left realism were put into practice with a rigorous methodological design.

So it is seen that left realism has been developed very swiftly in England. Again not only the
British were keen to left realism but also the others western countries also did. But the path was
not a bed of roses. Left realism faces a lot of criticism. For example, because left realism
emerged in response to the specific politics of crime and policing in England and Wales
during the Thatcher regime, many British and non-British criminologists have questioned its
utility within in the specific political context of other countries.

Since its birth left realism has been sharply attacked from both left and the right.

 Mainstream criminologist Don Gibbons (1994) called left realism as undeveloped

theoretical perspective which just only takes crime seriously

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  Critical criminologist Stuart Henry (1999) claims that left realists offer a “limited
conception of criminal etiology”.
 Left realism has “nothing to say” and it is no longer a major subdiscipline of critical
criminology. (Dekesereday & Schwartz, 2005).

3. Proponents of Left realism

 Jock Young  Anthony Platt
 John Lea  Dawn Currie
 Elliott Currie

4. Thought and philosophy of left realism

Principles of left realist thinking

 First, Working-class crime is seen as a serious problem for the working-class. Left
realists maintain that crime is more than a function of moral panics, and that
working class people are victimized from all directions in capitalist societies.
 Second, realism attempts to provide a theory of crime and its control by including
four key factors: the victim, the offender, the state and the community. Linked to this
objective is an attempt to relate macro and micro levels of analysis. Although
Marxist thought plays a key role in realist thinking, it is also influenced by other
criminological viewpoints; especially subcultural theory, victimology, strain theory
and select ecological theories.
 Third, left realists defend the value of quantitative, empirical methodology, although
they speak out against abstract empiricism. They have conducted surveys on
victimization, fear of crime and perceptions of the police) 1 and advocate research
designs that integrate quantitative and qualitative methods.
 Fourth, left realists try to answer Taylor's 1981 call 13 for the "reconstruction of a
socialist criminology." They try to provide practical, progressive crime control
strategies that challenge the right-wing law and order campaign and address
working-class communities' legitimate fear of street crime. Examples of these middle
range policy alternatives which "do not compromise any overall design for

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 fundamental social change…” are: demarginalization, preemptive deterrence,
democratic control of the police and community par-ticipation in crime prevention and
policy development

Highly concern: the damage done by the crimes of the powerful (e.g. corporate and state crime)

Focus on: street crime, “hard” police tactics, women abuse in intimate relationships

Philosophy: Before 1980 the main focus of critical criminologist was—

 White collar crime

 Corporate crime
 Influence of class and race/ethnicity relations on defining crime and
administration of crime

The left realist add something new to the critical criminology. They stress on the following issue
in terms of criminality and criminal justice.

 Crimes committed in the urban streets by “the truly disadvantaged”

 Domestic violence
 Working class victimization
 Predatory and domestic crimes in socially and economically excluded urban
communities.

The left realists dream of a society where the poor people will get justice from the draconian
criminal justice system. They want to create a society based on class, race/ethnic and gender
equality.

5. Theoretical framework: Left realist build their theoretical framework on two perspectives
for explaining the causation of crime. The first is, broader social force such as patriarchy and
capitalism; the second is, mainstream theoretical work done by strain theorists Merton (1938)
and Cohen (1955). For explaining crime Lea make an equation. The equation is like
following

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 Relative deprivation = discontent
Discontent + lack of political solution = crime
From the equation it is clear that explain crime from the strain perspectives. Somewhat similar to
what Albert Cohen (1955) argued, Lea and Young also contend that people lacking legitimate
means of solving the problem of relative deprivation may come into contact with other
frustrated, disenfranchised people and form subculture, which, in turn, encourage and legitimate
criminal behaviors (Young, 1999). The left realist also explains crime in the market society like
North America and other part of the industrialized society. Elliott Currie in his article ‘Market
society and social disorder’ shows how market society promotes crime in society. He calls
market society is the fertile land for the growth of crime.

6. The central elements of left realism

The central element of left realism lies in its basic principles.

I. First, left realists contend that street crime is a serious problem for disenfranchised
people. They argue that street crime is also as important as the crime of the powerful.
They contend that a ‘double thrust’ against both problem is necessary to effectively cope
with crime problem.
II. Second, Left realist use both quantitative and qualitative research method to elicit rich
data about crime, victims, and criminal justice processing. These data are used in right-
wing discourse about street crime, violence against women, corporate crime and the
ineffective conservative agenda aimed at curbing such problems. For example, left realist
conduct surveys on corporate violence against Punjabi farmworkers and their children
and women abuse in dating relationships on Canadian university and college campuses.
III. Third, left realists propose short term anti-crime strategies. These strategies both
challenge the right wing law and order campaign and take seriously the legitimate fear of
street crime, intimate violence and abuse, homophobic attacks on gays and lesbians and
racial harassment that are often most prevalent in working class and multi ethnic
communities. Examples of initiatives:
 Demarginalization
 Pre-emptive deterrence

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  Democratic control of policing
 Pro feminist male individual and collective strategies
 Community participation in crime prevention and policy
development.
IV. Fourth, British left realists provide a theoretical perspective on crime and its control to
which the square of crime is central component. The square of crime consists of four
element: victim, offender, state agencies and the public. The social relation of the four
components are described by Young:
It is the relationship between the police and the public which determines the efficacy of
policing, the relationship between the victim and the offender which determines the
impact of the crime, the relationship between the stae and the offender which is the major
factor in recidivism.

Police
Multi-Agencies Offender

Social control The criminal Act

The Public
Victim

Fig: The square of crime. Source: Young (1992:48)

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7. Critiques of left realism

Left realism has been criticized on several grounds. Though there is a bulk of such criticism, it
can be mainly articulate in three concerns.

1. Feminist concerns: left realist theory remain weak to explain women offending through
their theoretical framework.
2. The absence of a theory of crimes of the powerful
3. Rural crime concerns
4. Economic policy: One of the key criticisms that has been levelled against left realist
explanations of crime and criminality is that its focus on economic deprivation explains
only economic crime but does nothing to account for the other manifestations of
offending behaviour that are prevalent in society. Left realism is prepared to counter this
criticism by drawing upon strain theory (Merton, 1968) to explain how the exclusion
from legitimate economic opportunity may result in financial crime to rectify the
situation or violent crime as a vent for frustration at the denial of a seemingly equitable
access to benefits and resources.

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