LRs accuse others of not taking crime seriously
- Marxists concentrate on crime of the powerful but neglect working class crime and its
- Neo-Marxists romanticise working class crime where in reality they mostly victimise other working class people.
For LRs taking crime seriously involves recognising that:
- Its main victims are disadvantaged groups – the working class, ethnic minorities and women, they are more likely to be victimised and the police take crimes against them less seriously e.g. domestic violence.
- There has been an increase in crime – This has led to an aetiological crisis (crisis of explanation) e.g. labelling theory sees the rise as just a social construction, not a reality LRs argue the increase is too great to be explained in this way and is real.
Causes of crime
Lea and Young identify three related causes of crime
Relative Deprivation
- For LR crime has its roots in relative deprivation – how deprived someone fells in relation to others. When they feel others unfairly have more, they may resort to crime to obtain what they feel entitled to.
- There is a growing contrast between cultural inclusion and economic exclusion and this increases relative deprivation.
- There is cultural inclusion: even the poor have access to the media materialistic messages.
- But there is economic exclusion of the poor from opportunities to gain the ‘glittering prizes’
Subculture
- For LR a subculture is a groups solution to the problem of relative deprivation
- Some subcultural solutions do not lead to crime e.g. some turn to religion to find comfort and this may encourage conformity.
- Criminal subcultures subscribe to society’s materialistic goals, but legitimate opportunities are blocked, so they resort to crime.
Marginalisation
- Unlike groups such as workers, unemployed youths are marginalised. They have no organisation to represent them and no clear goals – just a sense of powerlessness, resentment and frustration, which they express through criminal meansg. violence and rioting.