The Left Realism Theory was propagated by a group of academics in the United Kingdom in 1984, namely Richard Kinsey, John Lea, Roger Matthews, Geoff Pearson, and Jock Young. In the same year they wrote the book ‘What is to be Done About Law and Order?’ They said that criminology errs in assuming crime is not connected to social and economic problems in a society. Their work puts forward the suggestion that the poor are abused by capitalists and also by members of their own class leading to discontent and then crime. It also states that solutions offered when crime occurs only serves to make crime worse (Burke, 2005).
They focused on two main areas in their study. The first was rejecting theories that either concentrate too much on control agencies or concentrate too much on the criminal in trying to ‘understand’ them as being victims of labeling or political reaction to the well-to-do. The second tried to fuse earlier perspectives into a newer, more realistic approach by including other facets of crime such as its social origins (how a criminal develops) or its effect on its victims (Burke, 2005).
In their argument they mentioned three main policies of left realism; demarginalisation, pre-emptive deterrence and the minimal use of prison. In demarginalisation, they advocate for an alternative to prison sentences so that the offender is not completely severed from society. Methods to assist in doing so include giving community service sentences, victim restitution – where the victim is compensated in one way or form or simply releasing the offenders from prison. Pre-emptive Deterrence policy chooses to seek ways to avoid, anticipate or prevent crime in manners other than the usual threat of punishment or having law enforcement. It tries to stress the importance of community organisation toward achieving that goal. The Minimal Use of Prison policy states that prisons should exist to accommodate only those deemed to be the most dangerous to society. It contends that prisons fail to adequately rehabilitate criminals and eventually function either to harden the inmates or break their self esteem leaving them too hopeless or inadequate to serve their communities or themselves (Burke, 2005).
In society today left realism opens the door to looking to new ways of looking at criminology and understanding and controlling crime. An example is that it gives us what is referred to as the square of crime. The conventional triangle of crime had the offender, the victim and the state. The square has now included the civil society. It divides them into two groups with the offender and victim known as the actors at one side and the reactors the (state and civil society) at the other. Any change in one of the four affects the others. It also attempt to explain crime as a result of political or economical disparity among the working class who feel deprived and usually fail to get any redress from those who wield and monopolize political power.
It tries to perceive the criminal as not someone who is breaking the law merely because he wants to or he can but as a person who refuses to conform to society’s mistreatment of his rights. The criminal here is seen as superior to the non-criminal who does nothing to ‘fight back’ against the oppressors. Left realism also tries to show crime can also be a group or cultural response as opposed to an individual choice. An example is when riots occur because a group of people feel they have been denied a social, economic or political right and lack an outlet through which these feelings of dissatisfaction can be expressed.
References
Roger H. Burke (2005). An Introduction to Criminological Theory: Second Edition. New York, Willan Publishing