Right Realism

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Which side offers the most comprehensive solution to crime, the right or left realists? Right and left realists both offer completely different solutions to crime, primarily because the way in which they focus on looking into crime is completely different. Left realists favour victim surveys (Lea, Left Realism: a framework for the analysis of crime, 1992), saying crime is caused by relative depression, social injustice and marginalisation whilst right realists favour looking at official statistics when studying crime, they say crime is caused by a simple lack of control. However when looking at both sides of realism and their solutions to crime both show to have positive and negative solutions, meaning it can be argued either way regarding …show more content…

In a nutshell right realists believe that if you commit a crime, it’s your fault and that harsher punishments are the only solution to crime. Right realists believe prisons should focus on punishing people, not re-habilitating them. Furthermore they also believe in prioritising order over justice. They believe people should be judged on the weight of their entire criminal record, this brings in the case of Larry Fisher (Wright, 1998) and the ‘three strikes and you’re out’ idea, Larry Fisher was convicted for three separate cases of robbery, these totalling at £611, Larry is currently serving a life imprisonment sentence because of the ‘three strikes legislation’ this basically means once convicted guilty of a criminal offence for the third time, you will be sentenced to life imprisonment as it suggests that rehabilitation can’t help you. This is a solution to crime used throughout America, although it doesn’t seem to act as the strong deterrent you think it would, as many people commit three petty crimes and then get sentenced to life imprisonment. Therefore this idea of using the three strikes rule as a deterrent doesn’t actually work; as we can see from America, therefore this wouldn’t be a very comprehensive solution to …show more content…

Left realists believe that enhancing police powers is a solution to crime because it means that police can take greater control over crimes that they see take place, for example not wearing a seat belt whilst in a moving car. This can be considered as a comprehensive solution to crime as it creates a fear of something happening to someone who breaks the law and is seen, so if police powers are enhanced and if more police were out on the streets then it would ultimately deter people from committing crimes due to fear. Although this can be considered a comprehensive solution towards crime, it wouldn’t actually offer any solution to white collar crimes. This highlights the idea that left realists show an over-concentration on crime, as well as victimisation, in poor communities and therefore fails to focus on the crimes of the powerful. This can also show that left realists over rely on local crime surveys (Walklate,

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