Explain the reasons why left realism emerged - Essay Example

The Reasons Why Left Realism Emerged Grade (March 12th, The Reasons Why Left Realism Emerged The perceived failure by the left-realists to take a position regarding practical interest in everyday crime led to the emergence of a different form of critical criminology perspective. The reasons why left realism emerged is that during the 1980s, conservative politics ruled, focusing more on the concept of law and order, which the left-realists sought to disregard through imposing a radical approach to the concept of crime and its control (Lea & Young, 1984).

This perspective asserted that criminological behaviour is a matter of free will and choice, as opposed to the positivist position upholding the view that human behaviour is influenced by external forces (Young, 1997). Therefore, to fill in the radical vacuum that was prevalent in left-realists thoughts regarding crime, the left-realists had to take a position. This was meant to balance the extreme ideas regarding crime, which were being advanced by the right-realists on the one hand, and the left idealists, on the other hand (Young & Matthews, 1992).

Upholding the view that crime was a matter of free will and personal choice as opposed to a behavioural problem, the left-realists emerged to criticize the politics of establishing longer sentences and more prison facilities (Matthews & Young, 1986). Rather than addressing crimes through the concentration of criminals in prisons and rehabilitation centres, left realism advocated for the political class to take the causes of crime seriously. Further, the concept of left realism required that victims of crime must be taken even more seriously, considering that the fear of crime is not irrational, and everyone stands the chance of being a victim of crime (Lea, 2002).

In this respect, the left-realists sought to criticize the distorted view that was being advanced by the right-realists and the left idealists. While the right realists cited crime as a function of a sick society full of moral decay and crime that is out of control, the left idealists did not take crime seriously, and thought it was simply a form of exaggerated societal panic (Lea & Young, 1984). The major focus of left realism is the victim, who should be the main concern of criminology. The left-realist also advances the view that it is out of the prevalence of unstructured inequality and perceived social injustices, that crime finds a breeding ground to grow and thrive (Matthews & Young, 1986).

Thus, left realism regards the establishment of better and equitable policies as a means of addressing the crime problem. The view of left realism is that the police have given up on the control of crime, and as a result, there requires a more robust and democratic control of the police. In the left realists view, if a more genuine police force can be established, curbing crime within the society would be easier, since there would be a more efficient flow of information from the public to the police force (Young, 1997).

The growing working class and the unemployed are highly associated with crime, due to their collective association and control of the environment, to substitute it with the lack of political power control. However, the left-realists do not hold poverty and unemployment as sufficient condition for increased growth of crime (Young & Matthews, 1992). ReferencesLea, J. (2002). Crime and modernity: Continuities in left realist criminology. London: Sage. Lea, J., & Young, J. (1984). What is to be done about: Law and order? (p. 266).

Harmondsworth: Penguin.Matthews, R., & Young, J. (1986). Confronting crime. SAGE Publications. Young, J., & Matthews, R. (1992). Rethinking criminology: The realist debate. Sage: London.Young, J. (1997). Left realist criminology: Radical in its analysis, realist in its policy. In M. Maguire, R. Morgan, & R. Reiner (Eds.), The oxford handbook of criminology (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon.