Does left realist criminology develop a new theoretical perspective - Essay Example

sort which views crime as a blemish which, with suitable treatment, can be removed from the body of society, which is, in itself, otherwise healthy and in little need of reconstruction. Rather it suggests that it is within the core institutions of society (its relationships of class and of gender) and its central values (such as competitive individualism and aggressive masculinity) that crime arises. Crime is not a product of abnormality but of the normal workings of the social order. Secondly, it is realistic in that it attempts to be faithful to the reality of crime.

This involves several tasks: realistically appraising the problem of crime, deconstructing crime into its fundamental components (the square of crime), critically examining the nature of causality, being realistic about the possibilities of intervention and, above all, fully understanding the changing social terrain in which we now live. The particular political space in which left realism emerged was in the mid-1980s. The juxtaposition was with the emergence of conservative (`neo-liberal) governments in many Western countries which pursued an overtly punishment-oriented approach to crime control.

At that time a liberal/ social democratic opposition was on the defensive. The neoliberals actively pointed to the rise in the crime rate and entered vigorously into law and order campaigns on behalf of `the silent majority, holding offenders responsible for their actions and advocating punishment as the solution. The New Left position, which had its origins in the libertarianism of the 1960s, tended to resemble a mirror image of the right. That is, it denied or downplayed the level of crime, portrayed the offender as victim of the system, and stressed a multiculturalism of diversity and struggle where radicalism entailed the defence of the community against the incursions of the state, particularly the police and the criminal justice system.

What was necessary was a criminology which could navigate