A British criminological school holding that crime disproportionately affects working-class people and that responding to it with increased repression alone only makes the problem worse. It emerged in the early 1980s as a group of academics, including Jock Young, John Lea, Roger Matthews, Richard Kinsey and Geoff Pearson, broke with what they called the left idealism of earlier radical criminology, arguing that the political left had failed to take the everyday experience of crime and victimization seriously enough.
Facts
Core ClaimLeft realism argues that crime disproportionately affects working-class people, but that solutions that only increase repression serve to make the crime problem worse. 1 Standing CritiqueSourced to the subject's own accountLeft realism has been criticized for focusing on conventional street crime committed within poor, working class communities while giving little attention to crimes committed by the powerful, and for offering a limited response to crimes against women. 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
Critiqued Here
Left realism formed as an internal break from what its founders called the left idealism of earlier radical and critical criminology.
Developed By
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Left Realism
Lead sectionQuote, Lead section
Left realism argues that crime disproportionately affects working-class people, but that solutions that only increase repression serve to make the crime problem worse.
1. Wikipedia: Left Realism
Establishment of left realism sectionQuote, Establishment of left realism section
Left Realism set down a marker in the United Kingdom with the work of Lea and Young (1984)
2. ReviseSociology: Left Realism
Evaluations of Left Realism sectionQuote, Evaluations of Left Realism section
Such approaches target working class, inner city communities and do not tackle elite crime.
Wikipedia: John Lea
Developed By: John Lea, Work sectionQuote, Developed By: John Lea, Work section
Lea was one of the key founders of the left realist approach alongside Jock Young, Roger Matthews, Richard Kinsey and Ian Taylor.
Wikipedia: Jock Young
Developed By: Jock Young, Biography sectionQuote, Developed By: Jock Young, Biography section
With his colleagues, most notably John Lea and Roger Matthews, he developed left realist criminology in a series of books including What Is to Be Done About Law and Order? (1984).
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