New Right Realism Case Study

Week 9: What are the impacts of the New Right perspective on crime control and what alternative responses does Left Realism suggest?
Towards the end of the 1980s, Marxist approaches to crime were beginning to lose favour among the public (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). Thus, new right realism emerged. New right realism isn’t regarded as a theory, but more closely associated with an approach or movement (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). Most the elements of the movement are political in nature, for example, individualism and economic rationalisation (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). Right realism has a tendency to emphasise the individual being responsible for their criminal behaviour, advocating that we need to adopt a ‘tough on crime

approach’ (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). The new rights perspective believes that the underclass was responsible for crimes against the middle class and hence this created fear and hatred of the working class (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012).

Since the 1970s, it has had a significant influence on crime policies and has been responsible for the criminalisation of the poor, the war on drugs, the privatisation of prisons, increased policing, harsher penalties and tougher crime policies such as ‘three strikes’ (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). Hogg and Brown (1998) named several theories as the cause of conservative crime policies including the belief that crime rates are growing rapidly, that we have a ‘soft’ on crime approach, we need more police, courts should hand down tougher penalties and victims are more satisfied with harsher penalties being employed by the judicial system (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). New right criminology has seen a move away from rehabilitation and instead

prison is used as an alternate measure (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). This has seen a significant increase in the prison population.
In response to the ever-growing popularity of right realism, as an alternate, left realism emerged.

It was founded by Jock Young, Geoff Pearson and John Lea (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). These criminologists wanted to highlight that despite what right realism suggests, that many of the working class were also victims of crime (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). They wanted to create practical solutions to the real causes of crime in city areas that was in contrary to those of right realism. In addition, they identified that most crime in ‘interrelated’, i.e. in most cases the victim and perpetrator come from the same minority communities (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). Left realism responses to crime focus on social and community strategy which has a focus on the individual offender and the social causes of crime (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). There are two approaches that include intervention and community based approaches (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). A prime example of a community based in response to crime is The Perry Pre-school project for disadvantaged African American children (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). One of the findings of the project was that for every dollar spent, $17 was saved on welfare. It also showed that those from the experimental group were more likely to graduate from high school and enter full time employment (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). Another response to crime that the left realist suggests, that instead of increasing

policing, it should be improved (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). They suggest that instead of authoritarian style of policing, a community based method should be implemented instead (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). They advocate that the public should be listened to and play a role in keeping the community safe (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). Unfortunately, the main focus of todays’ criminology is spent on responding to conservative new right policies.

White, R. D., Haines, F., Asquith, N. L., & White, R. D. (2012). Crime & criminology. South Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press.